Edward Hopper, Hotel Lobby, 1943

Like most of Hopper's painting, the sense of isolation and loneliness are well depicted. The foyer is dominated by cool colors. The decoration is unusual in terms of a hotel lobby, which  should be warmer and more customer-friendly. The green line on the floor segments the couple from the girl and leads our eye towards the darkness and uncertainty in the back. The couple seems anxious. The husband cannot sit still, and the wife's red dress only makes the frame bleaker and more alienated. Harsh light, rigid lines. All above, Hopper creates a carefully constructed uncomfortable environment.

However, if you look closely at the blond girl in the right corner, sitting with her legs crossed, reading a book and with a flush on her face, she seems quite comfortable. Contrasting to the couple waiting desperately for something unknown, the blond girl looks relaxed and occupies her time with reading. She is by herself, oblivious to her surroundings, but we might also tell that her minds travels through another world and temporarily escapes from this desperate environment through reading

In the book The Lost Art of Reading, David L.Ulin describes his feeling about reading: " I recall the joy of contemplating that portrait, the way it made me feel as if a world had opened up in the palm of my hands. It is this, I think, that draws us to books in the first place, their nearly magical power to transport us to other landscapes, other lives." We will never know if Hopper suggests reading as the ultimate way to save us from this modern, lonely world. Nevertheless, being in such a world today, we might think about reading as an option besides playing with your phone and looking for friends on Facebook when you are waiting in a hotel lobby. Calm down, pick up a book, and treat it like your temporary company - not necessarily to learn anything, but to help keep the loneliness at bay.