The Savvy Reader

"The Sound of the Book of Negroes"

That's what the Quill and Quire called their post on this awesome new subway advertising campaign we launched this month. But in addition to Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes  the campaign also includes the books: I Met the Walrus, Next and The Raw Shark Texts.

We're excited to do something so different. Don't they look striking? What's even cooler is that commuters can plug directly into these ads through an earphone jack embedded in the poster to hear short excerpts from the book. Better than listening to the latest Lady Ga Ga track on your way to work in the morning I say.

Let us know if you see them on your subway ride this month!

--Cory

 


 

In Transit: A Two Stop Edition

From Rachel: "Yesterday, I was leaving the gym and walking to through the subway station with a large tea when a woman in tweed coat and black toque, nose stuck in a book, not paying attention she was so carefully reading, bumps into me and splats tea all over my shirt.

I should have been upset but I wasn’t: because she was reading and thoroughly engrossed in Wolf Hall.  And how can I be mad at that? So I smiled instead and wiped the tea off me (*ouch*)."

Then this morning, as I was heading into the office via the Bathurst streetcar, there was a woman reading The Best American Science Writing 2009 (great cover BTW). There were seats but she preferred to stand and read, swaying with the motion of the car as it trundled its way to the station.

In Transit: It's Tuesday

Back on the TTC this morning I was a little tickled to see a woman, wearing a very bright yellow t-shirt and green pants, carrying (and voraciously reading) Stephen Booth's Black Dog. I'm consistently surprised at people who can go to work with no added baggage: no purse, no shopping bag, no keys, no wallet, nothing except a book. She was my kind of lady. Reading was the most important part of her commute.

In Transit: Fall Reading

After months away from riding the TTC, I stepped off the subway at Yonge and Bloor this morning to head to the office and almost ran smack dab into a woman reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

She had the book tucked up under her arm along with a mess of papers, folders and other sundry-type stuff that just made this feel like the first day back after the long weekend celebrating the end of summer.

What book did you end up finishing off your summer reading with? Me, I sat at the cottage this weekend and read all of Dennis Lehane's totally captivating Shutter Island.

In Transit: The Rush Hour Edition

Sometimes I think people must look at me as if I'm absolutely bonkers. I will go to every length humanly possible to find out what book someone on the subway is reading beside or around me. In the last week, it's been good for bookish peeps like myself to see the sheer diversity in reading habits. Here are some In Transit spottings for the last few days:

1. A little Coelho for the ride home. Yesterday when Tamil protesters held up the downtown core, meaning that my regular streetcar simply didn't arrive, a young lady, well dressed and carrying a lovely bag, sat down on the hard aluminum bench beside me and cracked open the Perennial edition of The Alchemist. 

2. Last week, I think on Friday, I caught a fellow so engrossed in Sam Bourne's The Last Testament that he surfed the top of the massive amounts of rush hour traffic balancing his book in one hand and his briefcase between his feet. I don't know if he was concentrating harder on trying to stand still or on the riveting plot developments...

3. Recession? What recession? A young man on the afternoon ride home was reading The Intelligent Investor.

4. Two spottings of Cecelia Ahern's P.S. I Love You. And one of Philippa Gregory.

HCC In Transit: The Girl's Got Legs

Spotted: one absolutely fabulous lady dressed to kill with Sex and the City-style pumps and a suit that meant business reading Getting Rid of Matthew (a copy from from the Toronto Public Library).

Then, as I sat down with my copy of Michel Faber's utterly creepy and totally engrossing Under the Skin, I noticed the girl beside me (who was listening to "Roam" by the B-52s, at least that's what it sounded like) was reading a Dennis Lehane novel. So, I twisted my head, played with my hair, anything to discover that the title was this -- and hoping she didn't end up thinking I was TOO crazy.

HCC In Transit: The Book of Negroes

I have a feeling that the blonde woman voraciously reading The Book of Negroes in front of me on the Bloor-Danforth subway this morning might be preparing for the upcoming Canada Reads debates next week. Unlike most years, I've actually read quite a few of the books being discussed and, further to that, am enjoying the thoughts of a few book bloggers who are participating in a Canada Reads challenge. All of their reviews are so different -- it makes it really hard to place a solid bet on one book over another. Keep in mind, though, that the musicians tend to be very good debaters; they've won in years passed, so as much as I'm rooting for Avi Lewis and Lawrence Hill, I've also got my eye on Sarah Slean and feel she might just be a dark horse...

There truly is nothing like a good book to start a heated conversation, is there? So, which book do you think will win?

HCC In Transit: Go Slumdog!

The subway was jam-packed this morning along the Bloor-Danforth line. We were crammed in like sardines and it was one of those "surfing" vs actually "riding" the transit moments. My nose was firmly planted in my eReader (caught up in Norman Ollestad's Crazy for the Storm) and so I didn't notice that the woman seated directly beneath me was reading Slumdog Millionaire until we both got off at Yonge and Bloor. The book, which hit the bestseller list this weekend, has such a great opening line that it's no doubt she had trouble putting the book away when the bells dinged and we all crowed off onto the platform.

In terms of movie news, Danny Boyle just won the big prize at Director's Guild of America awards. If we're talking pre-Oscar "betting" buzz, apparently this means he's almost a sure thing for the golden trophy come February 22nd. But let's not count our accolades before they're announced and simply enjoy the fact that a great book was adapted into a wonderful film, which, in turn, encouraged that woman to pick up the source material and be transplanted to Dharavi for her morning commute.

More Vikas Swarup?
Read our interview with the author.
Enter our Slumdog Millionaire Contest.

HCC In Transit - Veronika Decides to Die

On the first day of real snow here in Toronto, it was surprising how smooth the commute was for those of us who don't have too far to go. This morning, a young girl with a pretty turquoise scarf was reading Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die on the #47 bus up Landsdowne. Maybe it's a bit too Hollywood for first-thing in the morning, but she did quietly resemble the book's heroine...let's hope that's where the story ends.

What was everyone else reading on their commutes this morning?

Friday Morning In Transit

The TTC was up and running like normal yesterday morning. But yesterday evening? What a nightmare! I've never seen so many people at Yonge and Bloor. As the ride in that morning was certainly uneventful, I had the chance to spot a young lady wearing a Blair Waldorf-inspired headband and fiercely reading Lamb by Christopher Moore.