October 12, 2006

Bus Chick
Which Bus Goes to the Library?

By CARLA SAULTER

In honor of the impending reopening of Douglass Truth Library (grand opening celebration: Sat., Oct. 14, noon), I’ve decided to devote this week’s column to books.

One of the many perks of my bus-based life is having built-in time to read. Reading and riding complement each other beautifully: Buses provide uninterrupted time and (usually) a comfortable seat, and books provide a diversion during my rides. You see, I’m not allowed to read at work, or while emptying the dishwasher, paying bills, or, for that matter, writing this column. But on the bus, I can read without guilt or fear of reprimand. And I do.

I have my standard favorites (Toni Morrison, David Durham, Danzy Senna, T.C. Boyle), my list of “shoulds” (been meaning to get to Middlemarch since college), and my recommendations from friends (currently reading A Fine Balance, loaned to me by my friend Donna). Every once in a while, I’ll discover someone new on my own. My latest “discovery” is Etgar Keret, a popular Israeli writer whose collection of short stories, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories (Toby Press, 2004), caught my eye for obvious reasons.

For long commutes, I prefer to settle in with a good, long novel, but Keret’s stories are ideal for in-city bus rides. They’re fun and easy to read, so you can concentrate even if multiple bus fouls are being committed around you. They’re also really short, which means you can get through at least one per ride, no matter how slowly your read or how minimal the distance.

All of the stories in the collection are great — simultaneously hilarious and sad and absurd — but the best of the bunch is easily the collection’s namesake. And no, I’m not just saying that because it’s about a bus driver. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning:

“This is the story about a bus driver who would never open the door of the bus for people who were late. Not for anyone. Not for repressed high-school kids who’d run alongside the bus and stare at it longingly, and certainly not for high-strung people in windbreakers who’d bang on the door as if they were actually on time and it was the bus driver who was out of line, and not even for little old ladies with brown paper bags full of groceries who struggled to flag him down with trembling hands. And it wasn’t because he was mean that he didn’t open the door, because this driver didn’t have a mean bone in his body; it was a matter of ideology.”

If you want to find out more about the driver’s ideology (or his God complex), you should check out this book. See? Now you have an excuse to attend the Douglass-Truth opening.

Got something to say about public transportation in Seattle? E-mail Bus Chick at buschick@gmail.com or visit blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/buschick.