Reading a book while walking is different from walking while wearing earphones. A little moment from yesterday illustrates:
I was walking the dog home from the Orange Grove markets reading the Patrick White novel that we’ll be discussing at our next Book Group meeting.
A voice from behind me called out, ‘Is that The Tree of Man?’ It was Dancer1, one of the men from the Group, behind the wheel of his car emerging from the side street I’d just crossed. ‘Where are you up to? The flood or the fire?’
‘Finished the flood,’ I called back. ‘Still waiting for the fire.’
‘I’m loving it.’
‘Me too. I was completely bowled over by the first four chapters.’
‘Yes, I kept saying to my wife, “Listen to this bit!”‘
Go on, have a conversation like that with someone listening to their iPod.
—–
1This inaugurates a policy of giving the chaps from the Book Group noms de blog.
Me fail? I fly! 