Day's Events

Yesterday, on my way to Spadina station, three girls around 6 or 7 and their two fathers passed me, on their way downtown. On my way back from my grandma, as I left Spadina station, they passed me again, this time on their way home. "Do you remember all the reptiles we saw?" one father asked his daughter.

Later that night, at University College, I saw a Russian man scavenging for books in the recycling dumpsters. The dumpsters were full of old castaways. I took about seven, among them a Hebrew translation of a book by James Fenimore Cooper, "Sex and the Family in the Jewish Tradition", a beautifully illustrated Haggadah, and a book on Portuguese communities in Canada.

Today, as I waited my turn at the ATM on Kensington Avenue, I watched a man standing to my left, a little ways away. He said hello to every girl that passed by, and asked them how they were doing. Some responded, without slowing down. Others stopped to chat for a minute and then moved on. I withdrew my money from the ATM, and went to the organic store to buy some recycled toilet paper. When I came back he was gone. Whether he met the girl of his dreams, or simply gave up, I'll never know.

The Day's Events

The day began with a four building fire at Queen and Bathurst, and ended with a fiery sunset, which I saw bearing down on Bloor Street, asserting its presence between the buildings. It capped itself off with a total lunar eclipse, at 10 pm.

The Last Twenty One Books I Have Read

1. Last Evenings on Earth, Roberto Bolano
2. De Niro's Game, Rawi Hage
3. Abyssinian Chronicles, Moses Isegawa
4. A Life Elsewhere, Segun Afolabi
5. The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Peter Orner
6. For Bread Alone, Mohamed Choukri
7. Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Salih
8. Dirty Havana Trilogy, Pedro Juan Gutierrez
9. Little Infamies, Panos Karnezis
10. Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon
12. The Day the Beast got Thirsty, Samir El-Youssef
13. Natasha and Other Stories, David Bezmozgis
14. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth
15. Pipelines, Etgar Keret
16. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Bruno Schulz
17. The Street of the Crocodiles, Bruno Schulz
18. Dancing Arabs, Sayed Kashua
19. Too Loud a Solitude, Bohumil Hrabal
20. Arabesques, Anton Shammas
21. Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer