Books and Big Ears
Friday, April 15, 2005 - 03:24 PM
Ha Jin, Antonio Munoz Molina and Salman Rushdie are taking part in a reading at Town Hall on Monday night. The title of the event is "The Power of the Pen: Does Writing Change Anything?" We asked them if reading had changed them, Ha Jin singled out V.S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River and Antonio Munoz Molina pointed to Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past for what it taught him about love. What books changed your life? Let us know.
Later in the show, we opened the phone for great eavesdropping exploits. Read some of the emails here.
when I was newly married my husband was teasing me on the bus by saying insistingly, "C'mon. We could go to my place--you're husband will never find out. . . ." I kept telling him to stop it but he kept it up until a woman behind us said, "Excuse me for eavesdropping, but I have to tell you--one of you is going to get in a LOT of TROUBLE!"
I don't know if she believed me when I promised her he WAS my husband, and just teasing me.
-L.
One I had to share.. One of my daughters started working at a law firm
here in NJ and her office was next to a young lawyer with a loud voice.
She overheard a rather contentious phone call full of vituperation,
profanity, and obscenities suggesting impossible physical acts. She
almost violated the rule about laughing when, at the call's conclusion,
the guy said"Yeah, yeah, Ma, I know, I love you too. See you Saturday"
-E.
I saw a homeless woman approach a young woman smoking outside of an office building in midtown.
Do you have a cigarette? Asked the homeless woman
Sure. Said the young woman
Can I have one for later?
Sure.
Do you have 5 dollars for lunch?
You’re really pushing it, said the young woman.
The homeless woman shrugged, “What do expect? I’m homeless.”
…
The young woman paused. “Fair enough,” she said, and gave her 5 dollars.
-J.
On the subway I watched jealously as a distinguished gentlemen flipped his Times to the crossword and filled it out, in ink, in seconds. (I had worked the puzzle earlier and found it very difficult.) When he disembarked he left his paper, and I picked it up to see how accurate he had been. It was filled with gibberish.
-J
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