The Coffee Shop Conversational: Introduction (http://www.

coffeeshopconversationa
l.blogspot.com)
I've ordered my foam-topped cappuccino. I've secured a prime table. I've brought
along a good book. In short, I'm perfectly situated to spend hours losing mysel
f in a novel that's been on my reading list for months.
But then, just moments after removing my bookmark and dipping my spoon into my c
appuccino . . . The Coffee Shop Conversational begins.
Well-intentioned though I am about reading in my favorite coffee shops, I can't
help myself. As my coffee turns from hot to warm, voices from the table next com
e into range, and personalities of the strangers around me spring to life. They
are the anonymous faces that make up a city's census report, transforming into r
eal people for a brief, passing moment. "You just won't believe how it turned ou
t!" "Isn't this place great? I mean, this place is really great." "I'm telling y
ou, the stuff I've got on this iphone is amazing." "I'm so sorry I'm late. I'm a
lways so late. So, so, late!"
My eyes remaining fixed on my book -- which has become more of a prop than the o
bject of my attention by this point -- I tune in to the conversations around me.
It's fascinating, the thoughts that pass through one's mind from spending a few
idle weekend hours observing one's fellow coffee shop patrons. Rotations of cha
racters breeze in and out: some newcomers just happening upon these little gathe
ring-points, and some locals, pausing as we do for a chat in a well-loved establ
ishment.
I admit that I turn the pages of my book-prop occasionally, even while engrossed
in, well, conversation. After all, not all conversations are particularly inter
esting. Some people really do have the unfortunate habit of telling terribly lon
g and tedious stories. Others recount detailed reviews of a movie I haven't seen
and am not particularly keen on spoiling. Yet as a coffee shop chronicler, I al
so must display some element of discretion. The dialogue to which I bear witness
, after all, is all the better when the people around me do not suspect that I'm
listening in.
-E. Linder