San Francisco, CA -- Greyhound Terminal --July 14, 2007

The day before my departure

At the Greyhound terminal, downtown San Francisco

Purchased my sixty-day Discovery Pass and visited the gift store where you can buy postcards, medication, shot glasses and, of course, books. What else would people need when embarking upon a bus trip?

As it's San Francisco, it is fitting to find a title regarding gender and sexuality--Unspeakable, the Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America, by Roger Streitmatter.

At the counter I met Mike, who told me about how Howard Hughes made his money--prompted by my $645 Discovery Pass expenditure--and named his favorite book, the Bible, specifically Romans and the Psalms.

With him was his coworker, reading Kindred, by Octavia Butler.

Her daughter was reading it for an English course at City College and gave it to her when she was finished. Their family moved to San Francisco from Burma six years ago.

When she reads, she reads in tandem with her Burmese dictionary so she can make notes on the parts of speech and meanings of the words.

Her favorite book--she doesn't have one, she just likes to read to study English.