We Read Books So You Don't Have to: Misappreciation of Professional Tastes Dept.

I sat for a while on a bench and waited to see if anything would happen. Gulls swooped and cried. On a nearby yacht the wind rattled the cables against a metal mast. There was hammering in the distance as property was renovated for the summer. An old guy walked a dog. Apart from that, nothing occured in almost an hour which could possibly have distracted an author from his work. It was a non-writer's idea of a writer's paradise.

That's from Robert Harris's Ghost (p. 59) - I missed the movie, so I thought I'd read the book. I'm about one fifth in and so far it's really good. Soon, I trust, creepy stuff is going to happen.

P.S.: A good reason not to major in sociology is that people think that "as a sociologist, you must find this stuff terribly interesting," where "this stuff" can stand for pretty much anything that can happen in a society.