Is this true in American subways? Here’s an article about what people are reading in the Tube in London and other UK trains. I’ve seen readers on trains in Boston and DC, but I don’t recall seeing too many books in NYC. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Books, like clothes, music (should a bit of sound leak from our hi-tech earphones) and general demeanour, say something about who we are, who we would like people to think we are and who we ourselves aspire to be. It’s why the stereotype of the saturnine young man with the slim volume of poetry in his pocket exists, why publishers agonise so feverishly about book jackets and why I once nudged a friend on the tube in a chic part of west London to look at a pale, solemn young woman engrossed in a volume of Wittgenstein at 8.30 in the morning. Oh yes, he replied airily, we get a better class of reader round here.
Wittgenstein? That’s no joke.
It depends on when/where you are on the subways.
In the toursity areas no one reads. On the commute trains that aren’t packed then people read.
During the morning rush people almost exclusively read: newspapers (especially the free ones), and some self-help/prayer books.
Evening rush hour is mostly text type books, and novels.
As for me I read history books mostly.
*** This is based on what I witness daily on the 7th Avenue IRT during my daily commute.
Of course I was referring to _the_ subway. i.e. NYC subway.