In July, we checked in on the book readers of Dolores Park. Here’s part two of literary dive.
Olivia reading ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë
I just finished Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in The Time of Cholera.” This one is Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights.”
I have never read her.
I want to finish it before the new movie comes out. Were you here at the demonstration against Trump in the park on Friday?
Oh, yes.
Yes, we have to bring this guy down. He is a horrible president and a racist.
Enjoy your new Brontë!
Carolyn reading ‘Imagination: A Manifesto‘ by Ruha Benjamin
It’s a book about systems and the ways one can research and imagine new ones. I am a criminologist. I work for the San Francisco Police Department. I study systems.
Yes, you can take my picture. I like your project. I’m from Chicago.
Do you know Mark Bradford, the painter? He lives and works in Chicago.
Check out today’s New York Times. Talk about systems and imagination! He is painting a huge mural of Chicago for the outside walls of the Obama Library. Let me write down his name.
Your dreads look very complex and expensive.
Oh, yes. Next time around it will not be so much.
They are beautiful.
Unknown reader, ‘The Fort Bragg Cartel‘ by Seth Harp
It’s about a very corrupt division in the military. Drugs, murder, they do it all. It’s a good story but bad news.
A music student, ‘Crime And Punishment‘ by Fyodor Dostoevsky
It’s “Crime and Punishment.” I read it once in High School and did not like it much. Now I love it. It’s a real page-turner
Me? I am Filipino. I go to the Conservatory of Music.
Do you like it?
Not really.
What kind of music do you make?
Heavy metal.
David and Calvin, reading ‘Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco‘ by Randy Shaw and ‘The Alchemist‘ by Paulo Coelho
David, left, has just started a book on the history of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
“It started after the 1906 Earthquake. Building new residences. It’s fascinating. Me? I work in the admissions office at the University of San Francisco.”
Calvin, on the right, is reading “The Alchemist.”
“It has nothing to do with that. A shepherd boy in Spain has a dream of finding treasures inside the pyramids in Egypt. He is going off to find them. I’m a software engineer.”
Do you know each other? They turn to look at each other. No.
The exploration of the Tenderloin and a journey to the pyramids happening at the same time on the same bench between two people who don’t know each other. Fascinating to imagine the way people sit so close and be so raptly immersed in such different histories.
Kiyan, reading ‘Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine’ by Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold
At last, under a bright, white, full moon, a night reader.
I am Stephen. Can I take your picture?
Yes.
Can I ask your name?
Kiyan.
Is it Irish?
No. It is Arabic.
What do you do? What’s your calling?
I study acupuncture.
“What is the title of your book?”
“Between Heaven And Earth.”
Thank you. Enjoy the book and moon.
Felix reading a paper
My name is Felix. It’s about mutual aid.
What’s that?
It’s, like, what we can do to help each other out. Food, housing, all those things.
Caven reading ‘A Real Emergency: Stories from the Ambulance‘ by Joanna Sokol
My name is Caven. It’s Scottish. I am about to finish my training to be a driver and work on ambulances. The book is by my teacher, and it’s a good one.
Why do I want to do it? When you get a 911 call from someone who is alone, to take the call is an awesome responsibility.
Also a good adrenaline rush?
Oh yes, that, too.
I frickin love this
I love that you wrote about what people are reading in the Park. I’m always o credibly curious and sometimes will follow people down the street just to see what they’re reading, or try to see what people are reading on the subway. Thanks for doing that. It’s a great idea!
IMHO, Crime and Punishment is the greatest book ever written.