On Reading a Nondescript Erotica Near a Woman Reading Overt Erotica

I’ve just written my contribution to Shome Dasgupta’s ever-growing On Reading Series:

“Every library with a Banned Books shelf knows that reading is best when it feels like a subversive act. A few weeks ago, I bought and read Nicholson Baker’s The Fermata (the Vintage paperback with its innocuous, literal cover) while on a vacation with my wife and parents. It was privately funny to me to be reading such a raunchy book so secretly and yet so out in the open.” [Read on.]