Bookshelf

Staying in an Airbnb is a more personal experience than staying in a hotel, even if you never meet your host. This unit has a keypad entry at the street and a small safe at the top of the stairs which holds the keys. We’ve had a few messages back and forth, but otherwise no interaction.
Two weeks is enough time to start to wonder about the host. Clues are taken from the decorating choices. And then there are the reading materials. Since this unit has reviews from a couple of years, the magazines, like the British tabloids in the bathroom, can be ignored. The paperback fiction are also likely left by guests as they jettison excess weight. That also includes travel guides, such as the Ukraine Lonely Planet guide found.
But here, at the front of the top shelf, I suspect is the core collection from a recent college graduate, maybe even a liberal arts major. What is there to discern? The computer language guide, with its large type was the first to draw my attention. Not likely to be left by a tourist, but it might have been picked up at a second hand bookstore. The first title is Intermediate Polish, so I suspect a native English speaker. The non-fiction business related titles include The Digital Journalist‘s Handbook, Commerce Made Simple, How to Start and Run a Successful Consulting Business and maybe even All in One Camera Book. Two other non-fiction titles suggest some interest in another part of the world, Islam in Global, Vol. 2 and The Ancient Egyptians. And then there is the literature that touched his soul. After avoiding it, I think I can use the masculine pronoun now. He has read Miller, Hughes, Bolt and James.
Is the Chomsky Reader his? Was it pulled by a guest for a nighttime reading and set across the top in the morning? Or would a tourist leave it behind? I just can’t make up my mind.