This may mostly be a comment on my neighborhood.

I was riding home on the subwa last night when I saw a man reading a book which I was sure had a fake jacket cover on it. He was a nattily dressed man, maybe in his 40s, whitish-blond hair and either a suit or a nice jacket and pants, and he was reading a volume whose cover announced it as... BEAUTIFUL WASPS HAVING SEX. Well, go figure, it's a real book. Whether the gentleman in question was disappointed that it was fiction, not (heaven forfend) self-help, is beyond the purview of this writer.

Happy Independence Day! Go celebrate your freedom to read whatever you want, or if you like my freedom to gawk at it.