patrickinglis.com

I am sitting at one of the front tables at Sit & Wonder, a coffee shop in Prospect Heights. Just now a man in his mid- to late-twenties popped his head inside the front door, grabbed a copy of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint from a row of books against the window, looked to the barista, and said, I’m going to borrow this. The barista responded: Sure. At that, the book-borrowing man left the scene, book in hand.