This year I read a book titled Night Train by A.L. Snijders. I checked my Goodreads account and I started the book on August 22, 2022, and I finished it on January 12, 2025. So I also read the book last year and the year before and the year before. Night Train is only a hundred fifty pages. The book can be read in one sitting. This is a me problem. I had other things going on. I would recommend the book. There’s one story where Snijders loses a book after he forgets it in a hotel room on vacation. The story made me remember when I forgot my copy of Jessica Hopper’s book Night Moves on a plane on vacation. Isn’t that a great title? That’s why there are so many things titled “Night Moves.” It’s a great title. Night Moves is also only a hundred fifty pages, but I didn’t finish it during the flight. Again, a me problem. I bought a second copy to finish at home after vacation. I would recommend Hopper’s book too. Night Moves is about what Wicker Park was like in the early 2000s. It was better then. Now there’s a Barnes & Noble there. The bookstore is located in the former Noel State Bank building at 1601 N. Milwaukee Ave., the one that used to be a Walgreens. I wanted to reread Hopper’s book after finishing Snijders’s book, so I looked through my bookshelves today, but I couldn’t find Night Moves. I don’t alphabetize my books, another me problem, but I looked and looked and still couldn’t find it. I know where Night Train is because I finished it yesterday. So now I want to buy a new copy of Night Moves. There’s a neighborhood map in the book’s front matter and I want to look at it again. Call it research. This year I received a Christmas card that included a Barnes & Noble gift card. You see the problem here. I don’t want to support Barnes & Noble, but I could buy my third copy of Night Moves from the new Wicker Park location and the book would be free. And I generally give my money to independent bookstores. I bought my first lost copy of Night Moves from Quimby’s, an independent bookstore in Wicker Park. Hopper included Quimby’s on the map in the book’s front matter. I remember that. Most of the other points of interest aren’t there today. I don’t remember where I bought my second lost copy of Night Moves. Most likely online. I was annoyed that I lost my first copy and wanted a new one as soon as possible. Remember to check the seat pocket in front of you at the end of your flight so you don’t forget any belongings or copies of Night Moves on the plane. I want to read more books this year than last year, but I won’t be too upset if that doesn’t happen. And it’s not the end of the world if I don’t buy a third copy of Hopper’s book. Really, my only resolution this year is to write something with the title “Night Moves.”
Zachary Kocanda's writing has appeared in Joyland, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Another Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. More at zacharykocanda.com.