Underground Reading

I rarely, if ever, ride subways anymore. I used to commute from the East Bay into the city of San Francisco quite regularly when Steve and I were first married (29 years ago yesterday, by the way!) I always liked to have a book or newspaper (remember those?) with me - for the obvious reasons of wanting to relieve the boredom and a desire to redeem the time. What I really enjoyed, though, was sneaking peeks at what others around me were reading. Part of the fun was trying to actually read the title and author of other people's books - not so easily done with a moving target. Another game was trying to guess, from the person's appearance, what kind of book he/she would be reading. Did this look like a sci-fi fan, a biography reader, or perhaps a lover of the classics?

I read an article recently in the New York Times entitled: "Reading Underground." This researcher "... spent 12 hours crisscrossing four boroughs (of New York City) underground, asking people what they were reading and why." The results were as expected - very diverse, very eclectic:

"Reading on the subway is a New York ritual, for the masters of the intricately folded newspaper... as well as for teenage girls thumbing through magazines, aspiring actors memorizing lines, office workers devouring self-help inspiration, immigrants newly minted — or not — taking comfort in paragraphs in a familiar tongue. These days, among the tattered covers may be the occasional Kindle, but since most trains are still devoid of Internet access and cellphone reception, the subway ride remains a rare low-tech interlude in a city of inveterate multitasking workaholics. And so, we read."

The author actually talked with a group of children enrolled in The Tremont United Methodist Church day camp. These are kids aged 5 to 8 who travel with counselors going from one field trip to another. "According to a church rule, Tremont campers must read whenever they win a seat on the subway. Each day, campers select a book from the church library or bring one from home. They practice reading in short increments — 20 minutes here and there — and keep reading journals to document their progress." What a great idea!

One last point from the article: It turns out I am not alone in my "sneaking-a-peek-at-the-book-next-to-me" behavior: "And then there are those reading the readers, imagining their story lines." The author of this article tried this out - guessing beforehand the occupation or reason behind the choice of reading material - and she was never even close to guessing correctly.

So maybe I was wrong 29 years ago in many of my guesses about people and their books, but I know I'm right about the many benefits of reading. It's funny how we need to be forced into an internet-free underground subway to rediscover a joy that is available to all of us above ground if we would only open a book and read. Do it!