Battle of the Readers

When I started listening to the Harry Potter series on audiobooks, I began with Stephen Fry as reader. And I LOVED him. But some people kept telling me that Jim Dale was much better. I couldn't really imagine how he could be, and I was so satisfied with Fry that I saw no reason to switch. Well, there were some technical problems half-way through Chamber of Secrets, so a friend who works at the library reserved their audiobook for me so I could finish the novel, and guess who's the reader? Right. Jim Dale. So now I can speak officialy on the matter.

Stephen Fry is the best. Hands down.

I Spy

I love to see what books other people are reading. I don't like to be rude, but it's not beyond me to crane my neck or squint a little to decipher the title of a stranger's book. A great time to spy on the reading habits of the general population is when you're flying somewhere. But, if my latest trip was any indicator, the NEA's right. Reading in America is in dramatic decline. Especially literary reading.

From Little Rock to Philadelphia and back, four different flights in all, plus the airport waiting time, these are the only books I saw being read:

Two people were reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol (both women), one older woman was reading Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook, a twenty-something woman was reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, one man was reading Mitch Albom's latest book, Have a Little Faith, an older man was reading a Louis L'Amour novel, and one twenty-something guy was reading Dostoyevsky (I couldn't see the title). I think he gets the prize.

To be fair, plenty of people could have had a book in their carry-on that they didn't pull out until we were mid-flight, but I thought the numbers were disappointing.