I was hanging out at my brother's cafe last weekend when a nice lady (a regular) dropped by and happily ordered cheesy fries. She had been dreaming about it since the night before, she said, and she had that adorable, happy look of someone finally eating what she had been craving. She ordered coffee to go with the fries and settled two tables in front of where I was sitting. She brought out a book and started to read.
I casually asked if she was enjoying her book, and she said that it was tolerable enough. I saw that it was a book by Ann Rule and commented that she wrote a book about her friend, the prolific serial killer, Ted Bundy. The two had met while they were working the phones of a crisis center's suicide hotline. Of course the lady already knew this but that set off a conversation about books which branched off to a lot of other things. I politely said that I'll go back to my table and let her enjoy her book and cheesy fries, but she continued the conversation and we ended up talking while we were seated at opposite ends of the cafe.
I love striking up conversations about the books that people bring with them and read in cafes because readers are almost always very excited to talk about what they're reading. More often than not, it's something that I haven't read myself, and so I've received a lot of really great book recommendations this way. When people stop to ask about what I'm reading, I happily talk to them about it too. That happens a lot, and I don't mind the intrusion, as long as I'm able to go back to my book at some point 😂.
The lady I talked to at the cafe has been retired for over a decade and she taught English in schools both here and abroad. She definitely lived an interesting life. I can say that a lot of readers are also lifelong learners, and they're very intresting people to talk to.
No comments:
Post a Comment