Reading and Riding

Well spotted and taken.

I remember once before 10 years,i was on a train and get into the coupe,there were 6 sits,people started filling in and one after another start pulling books and magazines out of bags..it was pretty surreal to see 6 people including me reading something.

There's this whole world around the readers and they're not looking at it. Rather live in someone else's world.

You were paying attention, though, and got this well-composed shot of people in their cage (I especially like the perspective).

I've given up reading, by the way. I broke down temporarily last week, though, and read Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. After close to three hundred pages of documenting every crooked thing Elizabeth Holmes did or may have done, buddy concludes that she lacked a moral compass. You could have knocked me down with a feather.. Nothing about how we prevent the next Elizabeth Holmes from getting people to invest $700 million in imaginary tech.

So I'm not reading again, except for the important things: traffic signs, instruction manuals, crosswords, and the like. And comments under photos.

Waiting for this to come out.
www.imdb.com/title/tt8488126/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Watched recently "Fyre festival",really bizzare story about another liar from silicon valley.

And there will be many more, I fear, Marko.

Sorry, Sarah -- I forgot you're a writer and that I did like the one story of yours I read. Why, I'd read it again.

And of course writing is important. I spent a couple of years on Goodreads, though, and that showed me how passive many readers are. They take a bath in a book rather than read it. They are deaf to howlers and blind to the specious; they read for the experience.

Perhaps, though, this is the conclusion of bitter old age. I spent most of my life reading everything I could get my hands on, failed to do much with what I read, and perhaps I responded by blaming the books.

One never knows which photo will provoke an unusual response or hit someone's sore spot. I hope you don't give up on books yet, John. And what's wrong with reading for experience, not expecting to "do" something with it? I'd rather read a book (or have it read to me by some skilled reader/actor via audible.com) than watch the latest drama on the stoopid-tube, as one writer called it.
And thanks BTW for the kind word about that old story of mine. I've written more interesting stuff since. Maybe I'll send you my latest oevre as a birthday present just so you can call it a specious howler, which it may very well be.

Here's my review of a book I really liked recently:
www.goodreads.com/review/show/1643080650?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I'm not on Goodreads but really appreciate it when good reviewers help other readers with information such as you posted.
I'm more of a fiction reader, but have been enjoying the quirky San Francisco history outlined in www.goodreads.com/book/show/16059425-cool-gray-city-of-love

That does sound interesting. Did you know many Torontonians consider Toronto to be San Francisco upside down? Lots of ravines, some of which rise to the status of valleys.

You may have mentioned this before. Maybe this spring/summer you'll do a photographic tour of Toronto ravines? Science has shown that exposure to nature is good for the brain :-)

a bus reserved for retired people :-)) ?

That's true in many places in North America, Sylvain. I don't know about San Francisco (the photo may not be representative), but in many places the bus service doesn't provide much of an alternative to the car, so the passengers tend to be young people and old people. I'm lucky to live in Toronto, where the transit, although far from exemplary, does provide a good alternative -- 25% of Torontonians never use a car.

As John said: our city buses are mostly populated by the old, the very young, and the poor. Depends a bit on the line, though, and the time of day. This was taken in the middle of the day, hence a preponderance of the retired (or freelancers like me.)

I should add that many in San Francisco don't own cars, because of the cost, traffic, and lack of parking, or they only use cars on weekend. Our public transit isn't bad, and there are many other options available to techies with money, including Uber/Lyft and similar app-based ride share services.

Plus, those who are athletically inclined use bikes ... once you've been up and down a few of the San Francisco hills, you don't need to go to the gym anymore ... :-)

and the driver is reading the road map?

:-)