I’ve been in this business for quite a while and I still get a quiet thrill when I see someone reading a Random House book. Yesterday’s commute in the first major snowstorm of the year was actually relatively painless compared to other days on the Toronto Transit Commission.

It was made even better when, en route to work on the subway, I saw a fellow passenger reading the Vintage edition of Anita Rau Badami’s stunning first novel Tamarind Mem. Coincidental, because one of my tasks for the day was to try and finalize the paperback cover for Anita’s most recent novel Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? On the way home, I spotted someone reading the Vintage Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. I know these books sell very well. I look at sales figures all the time. For some reason it still comes as a bit of a shock to see people actually reading them.