Reading on the road

For my commute
I cannot root.
The bumpy roads
in disrepute.
And everyone
on the same route.
The carpool lane:
forbidden fruit.

See how literary I've become, now that I listen to books on CD in the car? This is the best way I've found to pass time on the clogged freeways. I'm currently going through every disc offered by the Palo Alto and Menlo Park libraries -- they can be a little scratchy, but you can't beat the price. Is anyone else as addicted as I am?

Sometimes I choose a book just because I like the person reading it. Is that like seeing a play because of its innovative use of spike tape? Well, I may be an off-the-market broad, but I think George Guidall has a dreamy voice.

A few recent reads and humble opinions:

• "The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters. An intricate tale of young people in 1940s London. Sometimes improbable how all their lives intersected, but the characters were so real that I could forgive that. Plus, ever since I was in "Merrily We Roll Along" I've loved stories told in reverse chronological order.
• "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler. I was a total sucker for this. Light and sometimes silly, but a sweet camaraderie among the book-club members. Kudos for adding a male member of the club, too.
• "Seizure" by Robin Cook. This was so ridiculously bad: overwrought, dialogue as cliched as a bad penny, laughable ending. Oh, George, even you couldn't save it.

Photo by Kenn Kiser (from morgueFile.com)