Adam Baran

Sometimes I find it strange that in New York everyone seems to be reading the same books on the subway every morning.  There’s a whole cultural Barnes and Noble “Personal Favorites” thing going on on the L Train in the AM.  For a while the admittedly excellent The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Nifenegger was on top, along with Life of Pi.  But these five are the champs right now, as I see it.

5. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - Usually this one is being read by the type of girls my friend Bill calls aggresively ugly, or by Wall Street Types who live in Williamsburg.  Either way the amount of people reading this exponentially increases as you head into Brooklyn or the Financial District.

4. The Road  by Cormac McCarthy- I know, I know it’s an Oprah’s Book Club pick, but who in New York watches Oprah?  This is all about No Country for Old Men shining the light on McCarthy’s overwrought (for me at least) writing. 

3. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - I had to hide my head in shame on the subway when I read through this bloated jerk off of a story that was probably better when it was in magazine article form.  Luckily, I had found it in the trash outside my building and so that’s where I returned it to when I finished it.

2. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I have no idea what this is, but it looks dreadful. And every thirtysomething woman I see seems to be reading it. 

1. Love in The Time of Cholera - I have no idea why I see someone reading this book on the subway at least 3 times a week.  It happened again this morning - and as I check it looks like the book’s number 8 on the NY Times bestseller list.  I have resisted reading it for so long because of this.  I hate to do things that everyone else is doing.  Is Love in the Time of Cholera’s resurgence an example of perenial subway reader fave Malcolm Gladwell’s (The Tipping Point, Blink) idea of stickiness?