vip in the city

Summer reading

The 7 train was not running into Manhattan this weekend, which added another transfer to my commute into Queens on Saturday… bleh. But the detour gave me the opportunity to check out the new(ish) “observation deck” at the Jackson Heights station — really just a Juliet balcony off of the subway platform, looking out onto the colored glass windows and street entrance below.

Later that day, I came across a display of “The Da Vinci Code” paperbacks. Now I consider myself a reasonably well-read person. The twin mountains of books in my living room will attest that my reading ambitions  at least are high. But I have not read “The Da Vinci Code.” No reason, really… I have nothing against Dan Brown as an author, nor do a begrudge the book’s phenomenal success, or the fact that it was made into a big budget Hollywood movie, starring Forrest Gump and Amelie. I was moderately intrigued by some of the write-ups in 2003, but then the book developed such a fanatical following, sparking the frenzied churnings of the media machine, and I just never got around to it. And suddenly, it seemed that the city — and the world — was overrun with people remarking with a mixture of smugness and incredulity, “I can’t believe you still haven’t read “The Da Vinci Code.”

So enough. I picked up my very own paperback edition on Saturday. This had better be good. (Heh.)