Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Brandy wrote: "I read in public all the time but on my kindle. I feel like I should make a little card to tape on my kindle cover with what I'm currently reading so people will know."

A man next to me was reading on some sort of e-reader yesterday. I was so close to being able to see the title at the top of the page. I even put my glasses on to get a better look, but could not get the full title. For all that effort, should have just asked him.

Bus sighting:

My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

Yesterday I saw somebody reading Saint's Blood I'm pretty sure he was the same guy who was reading The Name of the Wind last week. He has good taste, maybe I should strike up a conversation!

Jess wrote: "Yesterday I saw somebody reading Saint's Blood I'm pretty sure he was the same guy who was reading The Name of the Wind last week. He has good taste, maybe I should st..."

LOL yeah why not?! Maybe he's even on Goodreads

Every time I go thru the drive thru at Starbucks I look in courtyard to see if anyone's reading. I plan on getting out and going up and asking what they are reading if I see them with a book or kindle. So far only laptops and they were typing, so no luck. Gonna walk thru the park and see what I find.

For me this is literally THE hardest challenge on the entire list!
It's easy enough for me to find someone in public reading at the used book store or library or beach...the hard part is them being a stranger since I live in a small rural community where I not only know everyone I'm literally related to half of them!

So I really appreciate the suggestion of looking for a photo of a stranger online reading something...I'm going to totally use that to find something!

Edit: found multiple photos online where people are reading A Game of Thrones! What a great excuse to tackle this from my TBR list!

Weekend DC metro sighting: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (which I also highly recommend)

On a rare trip to town I saw someone reading Why Mummy Drinks in a coffee shop and it was actually there on the library shelf. I thought it would be far too new and far too popular. It's by Gill Sims of the notoriously funny, sweary Peter and Jane blog http://peterandjaneblog.blogspot.co.uk about the travails of a self-avowed middle class mum.

I'm about to re-read The Old Man and the Sea which was our set book for O Level many years ago. I guess it was chosen to interest the boys, though we lived as far from the sea as you can get in the British Isles, and I hated it at the time. I hope I'll be more appreciative now but may be ready to follow it up with some light relief!

I was worried about this because I'm rarely in a public place where people read a lot, but a day after I saw this challenge, I saw someone reading Origin at the YMCA! I was planning on reading that anyway this year. Yay!

Recent sightings:

The Princess Bride
How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook
Belonging: The Story of the Jews 1492–1900
Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty

Oooh I want to read The Princes Bride!

Megan wrote: "Reyna wrote: "@booksonthesubway has a great Instagram account showcasing what people are reading on the subway.

https://www.instagram.com/subwaybookr..."

oh god
I should never have click..."

This is awesome!

A few weeks ago I was getting Thai takeout for lunch, and while I was waiting a young woman at the nearest table was reading The Handmaid's Tale. That's my selection, and I'll read it in March along with the Feminism group read. I'll read another Book About Feminism to stay in the spirit of the Group Read, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (which is what I had voted for in the first place, so win win!)

Yesterday on the train I saw a young woman reading The Color Purple. Too bad I read it already.

I've started a list of books I've seen people reading in public since the start of the year. (I've missed a few, because I couldn't get the title without being super obvious...)

Here's what I've got so far:
The Glass Castle
Americanah
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
The A.B.C. Murders
Matilda (It was a mom reading **out loud** to her son on the bus. I enjoyed that commute.)
East of Eden
The Color of Magic
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London
A Little Life
What Happened

More books read by strangers in public places in San Francisco:

- The Eyes of the Dragon
- Lie to Me
- American Gods

I actually saw two different people in two different neighborhoods reading American Gods. It's the only one from the list that I have read personally, and I would recommend it.

Anna wrote: "I've started a list of books I've seen people reading in public since the start of the year. (I've missed a few, because I couldn't get the title without being super obvious...)

Oh, I flat-out ask strangers what they're reading if I can't tell! I live in the DC-metro area (a place you'd think would be less-than-friendly to strangers approaching them, but I've never once had anyone look askance at me about it. In fact, some of the very best conversations I've ever had have been about what a stranger was reading. (I am, of course, judicious about who I ask. Strangers, yes, but you still have to judge your audience!)

Eujean2 wrote: "More books read by strangers in public places in San Francisco:

- The Eyes of the Dragon
- Lie to Me
- American Gods

I actually saw two different peop..."

Great, I loved The Eyes of the Dragon and might reread it.

After a month of staring at commuters' books and never being able to make out a single title, I finally saw a cover! I was so excited! Unfortunately it was the second book in a fantasy series, but if anyone was planning on reading Words of Radiance, Part 2 by Brandon Sanderson I can vouch for seeing it.

There's a woman who reads on Kindle who gets on at the same stop as me every day, maybe one day I will just ask what she's reading.

Recent sightings, W edition:

Wizard's First Rule
Where the Red Fern Grows

This morning I saw three people reading three books that I loved:

Un loup est un loup
Station Eleven
Pride and Prejudice

Hmmmm... I was thinking this prompt was a book I saw being read by a stranger in public. I missedthe point that it could be seen by ayone int the group. Also, I work in a library and should be more observant, but, I do work in the children's section so that limits me a little... and most of the people I see reading are people I know, at least somewhat, and they are not really strangers. Being able to choose from what others have seen will make this easier. Thanks.

Devon wrote: "Since I'm a stranger to all of you, here's what I've read in public in the past few days!

Yes Please
Young Jane Young
The Last Mrs. Parrish
Th..."</i>

I love this idea! I live abroad where if I see someone reading, it's probably not in English. On the rare occasion that I'm actually on public transport the only thing I see people reading are either Psalms (think Holy Bible) or prayer books.

So what have I been reading in public?

[book:America's First Daughter
the yakoubian building
212

and I listened to the audio version of Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom while I was driving on the public highway; does that count?

All very different books, something for everyone.

I was in one of the waiting rooms at the Acura dealership this weekend. The man sitting next to me was reading The Deceivers.

It looks interesting. This is from Amazon.com.

The Russians don't just want to influence American elections--they want it all. Former CIA agent John Wells confronts a plot of astonishing audacity as New York Times-bestselling author Alex Berenson goes beyond today's headlines to tomorrow's all-too-real threats.

It was supposed to be a terrorist sting. The guns were supposed to be disabled. Then why was there so much blood?

The target was the American Airlines Center, the home of the Dallas Mavericks. The FBI had told Ahmed Shakir that his drug bust would go away if he helped them, and they'd supply all the weaponry, carefully removing the firing pins before the main event. It never occurred to Ahmed to doubt them, until it was too late.

When John Wells is called to Washington, he's sure it's to investigate the carnage in Dallas, but it isn't. The former CIA director, now president, Vinnie Duto has plenty of people working in Texas. He wants Wells to go to Colombia. An old asset there has information to share--and it will lead Wells to the deadliest mission of his life, an extraordinary confluence of sleeper cells, sniper teams, false flag operations, double agents high in the U.S. government--and a Russian plot to take over the government itself. If it succeeds, what happened in Texas will be only a prelude.

I FINALLY saw someone reading in public!! he wasn't actively reading, he just had the book on the table next to him, he was prepared to start reading, and it was a book I read already so it doesn't work for me, but ... it's something. Maybe somebody else wanted to read this? Firestarter

Erin wrote: "Oh, I flat-out ask strangers what they're reading if I can't tell!"

It's Britain. We don't talk to strangers. :)

Not everywhere in Britain 😂😂

Saw a young lady reading Moving Pictures on the subway yesterday. I could use something funny. Has anyone read it?

Book being read by a stranger in a public place--I am planning on trying to see someone reading a book, but if i do not, i am stretching this a bit and using a book i see on this site, since all of you are strangers to me, and this is (here is the stretch) a "public place".

This morning the man sitting next to me on the train was reading The Fireman. I started this book at the end of 2017, and put in down when I decided to do this challenge and it didn't fit any of the prompts. Now I can finish it, I was enjoying it. It's also huge in hardcover, no wonder it was taking me so long to get through on Kindle.

Milena wrote: "Saw a young lady reading Moving Pictures on the subway yesterday. I could use something funny. Has anyone read it?"

I read it years ago. I remember enjoying it as a spoof of Hollywood. It also stands very well on its own within the Discworld series so you don't have to have read any of the others.

Mike wrote: "Milena wrote: "Saw a young lady reading Moving Pictures on the subway yesterday. I could use something funny. Has anyone read it?"

I read it years ago. I remember enjoying it as a spo..."

Thanks, Mike. I was given a bunch of the Discworld books years ago in electronic format, but I never knew where to start.

Exasperated - spotted two readers in the wild today and couldn't see what they were reading either time!
Even spent nearly a whole bus journey squinting at someone's Kindle to see if I could make out any of the text and guess the book from that...

I saw two readers on the tram today. They were sat next to each other so luckily I only had one direction to stealthily peek at. One was reading This Side of Paradise and the other Never Saw it Coming. Neither catch my fancy but I hope they work for someone.

If anyone will have jury duty this year, it is a treasure trove of people reading. Today I saw:

The Metabolism Miracle
The Whistler
The Escape
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Flags of Our Fathers

And so many more I missed. Oh well, I have to go back tomorrow.

Aha! Finally got the title of a book, courtesy of a very perplexed lady at a bus station - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King. I am... not enthused about King, but perhaps if I can get it out of a library.

Spotted a Mom at the school bus stop in my neighborhood reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I live in a pretty rural area and don’t take public transportation. To say I was excited might be a bit of an understatement. This book was already on my TBR and I quite enjoyed her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You. Yay for recognizable book covers & 20 MPH speed limits in neighborhoods! 😜

This one is hard for me. I live in a small city in China, so if I see someone reading in public it’s probably either a) Chinese, which I can’t read, or b) not a stranger, since there aren’t that many other foreigners here, haha. I’ll probably have to pick a stranger I see reading online (Instagram or Litsy).

Like many of you I don't live in a place where I see a lot of people reading in public. Not to mention I am a homebody so pretty much go between work and home. This may feel like cheating a bit but I found an awesome site like the Instagram account Subway Book Review:
http://undergroundnewyorkpubliclibrar...

Oh that's a great site thank you!!! I like how easy it is to scroll and see the titles, and it's fun to compare w the reader's fashion sense :-)

I saw a guy on the N-Judah last week reading Player Piano. I haven’t read that since high school, so it might be my pick.

Did you know, the N-Judah is the most traveled light rail route west of the Mississippi? That always blows my mind.

I saw a woman reading The Widow on the subway this week, but unfortunately that didn't help me much since I've already read that.

I was at the airport this week so thought I'd definitely see some readers. Sadly I didn't see anybody who had a paper book.

I asked the lady who sat down next to me what she was reading on her Kindle and it was Deadly Dreams which doesn't fill me with excitement.

The lady opposite me on the plane was reading A Man Called Ove which I read for the cat on the cover prompt last year. Sigh.

I sat in the Starbucks across the street from Powell's. These are the titles I could make out:

Pachinko
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
Fantastic Mr. Fox
I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse: Insider Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Holy Bible: King James Version

I saw two on the bust today.

The Magic Finger (lovely to see a child reading in public)
and
Un nuevo mundo, ahora which is the Spanish translation of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

So, after seeing quite a few people reading books where I couldn´t see the cover, I saw someone reading Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer on the train. A book I actually also want to read!

Only one sighting at the courthouse today:

Big Little Lies

I saw someone reading Black Panther #1 in the park today. I have wanted to read this anyway, so it'll probably be my pick for the challenge.

Good sightings the last few days. Finally saw some I would actually read:

Interpreter of Maladies
The Women in the Castle
The Thirst

Spotted two fellow readers on the train today.

Rogue Lawyer
Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire