travel reading - Amtrak

[OT from cottage renovations]

Thomas Pynchon: Against the Day (ISBN 1-59420-120-X)

treated myself to this a couple of weeks ago but haven't had enough quiet time to sit with it.  the train back from NJ could have / should have / would have provided an excellent opportunity for discretionary reading so I sought out the quiet car for the purpose, but the ride was rough: track condition has deteriorated and the equipment didn't seem to be going along with the desgnation as there was much noise and vibration from the wheelsets below as well as from a malfuncting door mechanism at the end of the coach.  a loud passenger sitting right next to the "quiet car" sign while carrying on to a hapless victim about the details of his fascinating business life was bad enough but I gave up when somebody else brought a screaming infant aboard and tried to soothe same by carrying it up and down the aisle, ensuring that all could share in the audible manifestation of its tiny distress. 

(image gacked from the subway knitter)

having been-there-done-that as parent I probably have more sympathy and tolerance than most in such a situation but there wasn't any point in trying to read so I set down the book and headed off to the café car where ambient noise is just as irritating but within reasonable expectation.