24 September 2009

Reading on the rails?


The blogger behind the Subway Book Club is using reader spottings in transit in New York to guide her reading. That is so brave! So far, titles have included Pete Hamill's DOWNTOWN and Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. Granted, there are some ground rules, but if I did this on my regular trains I'd be praying for a pretentious subway reader to come along.

Mostly it's a good thing Ms. Subway Book Club has not run into Sarah Wendell, blogger and romance fan who told the Daily Beast people are always judging her subway reading material:
"You’d think that people in New York City would have better senses of self-preservation than to mock the reading material of an uncaffeinated morning commuter, but it’s happened to me more than once."
Judgment oils the city, allowing us to slide past each other without getting stuck. As long as we're all equally covered in it, no one is hurt! So the best defense, as she clearly has done, is to judge the judgers.

Related: Authors tell their favorite underground stories in THE SUBWAY CHRONICLES; does that cover really say KEEP CLUBBING?

Photo taken on the downtown platform of the 96th St. 1/2/3: Ed Yourdon

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