My friend RBelle sent me this article on commuting while reading, and while I don’t commute by train, I can relate to the author and to the comments. Well, some of them. I ignored the comments about romance novels. I can promise you, unless the cover is truly egregious, I’m reading a romance during my commute.
My commute in and out of Manhattan is about an hour to an hour and ten minutes. That’s not bad for the area, though I’m sure some of you are gasping in horror. I drive to a public parking lot, catch an express bus into New York City, then take the subway three stops to my place o’ business. I don’t often read on the subway because it has happened that I get so absorbed in a book that I end up in Queens. I introduced myself to Gayle Wilson this way: “One of your books was so suspenseful I didn’t look up until I was on Long Island. I was a half hour late to work!”
I carry an iPod for drowning out the loud cell phone talkers (and every time there is one, I wish I had a scrambler to interrupt their oh-so- not-important-but-so-loud conversation) and I keep my cellphone charged in case I finish my book and need to read the internet. But for the bus ride I HAVE to have something to read, unless I’m nauseated from the motion, and that 40 minutes or so is incredibly important to my mental state. The 40 minutes in the morning and evening that I read transition me out of work life to home life, and are my prime reading time and my prime recharging time.
Those of you who read and commute, what are you reading? What’s your favorite type of reading material – if not romance? A good number of the comments on that NY Times blog cite the New Yorker, and some of them name drop like they’re getting paid to mention famous dead authors. I’d love to hear what you read while you commute – you guys are a lot more interesting.
Hideous Sydney traffic means my commute is anywhere from 1 – 2 hours one way and I have actually managed to read a paperback from start to finish on a couple of occasions!
I normally have at least one and sometimes two paperbacks – mainly romance and no hardcovers (too bulky) or erotica (don’t need to be getting hot and bothered on the bus!). Also carry an i-pod, blackberry, the occasional magazine… Throw all that in with my wallet, make-up bag, gym gear and other random bits & pieces and I’m prepared for anything!
I managed to convince my management in Ohio (I live in upstate New York) that I am a more productive employee working from home (which I am). I used to have a 40 minute commute so it was whatever audiobook I could get out of the library. Then it became audiobooks burned to CD from audible or legally from the NYPL digital content stacks.
However, I did find myself in New York earlier this summer facing a one way 3 train commute. At which point I was doing the ebook thing on my Palm. I suppose I could’ve listened to an Audible book, but for some reason, it has to be an ebook on the train. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t know the Manhattan’s public transit well enough to just wing it without the garbled announcement of which stop I’m at and which one is next.
One of the things that came home from New York with me was a new Nokia phone capable of running MobiPocket. I’m reading EVERYWHERE now… except for the grocery store. That’s the only time I get to catch up on the dirt in the tabs. 😉
My GOD, Sarah, what a horror! My last editing job required a 30-minute drive, max, down tree-shrouded county roads, where I saw few other vehicles, always exchanged waves with the old man who was out for his morning constitutional, and was able to make a quick detour on my way home to my favorite watering hole. Couldn’t have read a line if I’d wanted to. I was always too involved with my own thoughts, or looking out for deer (or wild turkeys or sandhill cranes), or being aware of slippery patches on the road…in winter, of course.
I live in rural NC so I do the driving fo my 30 minute commute to school. I love audiobooks. I also listen to them when I am doing housework to make the time go by faster. It doesn’t matter how busy my hands are, if I don’t have something to occupy my mind as well, my ADD will kick in and I will not get the job done. I will listen to almost anything. I find I am not as picky about what I will listen to as what I will read. That is probably because I consider reading an investment in my very limited time. Listening to an audiobook is bonus entertainment while I am doing something I had to do anyway. Also, since I usually check them out from the library, I don’t have as many options. I just started “Nature Girl” by Carl Hiaasen. I am only about a chapter in, but it is hilarous so far.
What gets me about the highbrow commenters is that they DON’T say what they read once they finish the New Yorker, or Orhan Pamuk (just what I want – a book about teen suicide to brighten my morning!), or Proust. Maybe they then read the fun stuff and wrap the dust jacket from Moby Dick around it?
I do the NYC commute from NJ, 50-70mins on NJT, then a very short subway hop. I read for pleasure and also do homework—my seminar college assigns LOTS of reading! I’m more sheepish reading chick lit at school than on the train; the train is much more ‘every man’ than a private liberal arts school.
Size matters. I don’t read magazines because I finish them too quickly. I also save up really large books for summer, as they don’t fit in bags as well and it can be uncomfortable to hold something weighty in an already uncomfortable position. (I HAD to reread Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince books again though and now my wrists hurt…)
This actually became something of an issue for me because I have an hour commute to and from school every day and knew I was going to need something to read while on the bus. I’m also totally blind, and vastly prefer ebooks when I can get them, because I live in a teensy apartment where there’s no real space to put anything. So I bought a text-to-speech converter called Text Aloud, and have been converting ebooks to MP3 CD’s. I can get six books on a CD, more or less, which gives me ample reading, and I’m finding that my day goes a lot smoother if I get my bus reading in. Right now I’m reading the second Dresden Files book, and next up are
Brothers in Arms
by Lois McMaster Bujold and
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer.
I can’t say for certain yet what genres I prefer, but I very nearly did miss my stop thanks to Jim Butcher today.
I can’t read on my carpool thanks to a stomach that gets twitchier as I get older. 🙁
But I keep a paperback book in my purse at all times for reading in various medical offices, at the pharmacy, while waiting to meet someone, waiting on hubby while he’s in the Evil Empire (aka Best Buy), etc. The book is usually a romance novel, or occasionally sci-fi/fantasy. I carried Jim Butcher’s Storm Front for a week, then Linnea Sinclair’s Accidental Goddess. Right now it’s a Harlequin Historical “The Black Sheep’s Bride”, set near the end of Elizabeth I’s reign.
I have a 40- to 60-minute commute each way on the NYC subway. I read whatever the heck I happen to be reading at the time. The only thing I’ve opted to keep at home was Juliette, by the Marquis de Sade. (I read Venus in Furs on the subway, though. My God, was that boring.)
I have shoulder tendonitis and try to keep my bags as lightweight as possible, so if I’m reading a hardcover during my commute, that author better be flattered.
I’m reading one of the Twelve Houses books by Sharon Shinn right now. Before that it was L’Affaire by Diane Johnson, and before that it was Passionate Minds by David Bodanis. I don’t have a lot of interest in reading War and Peace regardless of locale, but I’ve read Austen, Dickens, Rushdie, etc., on my way to and from work. I’ve also read Emma Holly and Nora Roberts. *shrug*