Today on my way back to the office after the delightful noontime chat I came across a girl reading. She was poised on the street corner near the Half & Half, book in hand, with a look on her face as if she was just...about...to...perform. "Hey," I thought, "it's that on the streets performance Reading Out Loud!"

So I stalled for a minute, looking at her and waiting. She looked side to side, at the book, made a few moves like she was about to speak, looked side to side again...and didn't read. She was just really, really nervous and apparently waiting for someone. I wandered off, disappointed that TBA hadn't randomly materialized on the street.

FYI, below are the books the performers will be reading. Memorize them so you don't stop and stare at every person with a book on the street. Or, hey, stop and stare.

Anyone sighted a Reading Out Loud performance yet?

The list:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Libra by Don DeLillo
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

--Carissa Wodehouse
Blogger, member, enthusiast