Call it a guilty pleasure, call it weird, call it nerdy, but so help me, I love seeing what books people are reading on their commutes to and from work. Despite the periodic breathless articles and studies bemoaning the death of books and even the demise of reading itself, there are still people out there reading and enjoying books. Scattered among the Red Eyes, text messages, Tetris games, and crosswords you’ll find more then a few riders of public transit with their faces jammed eagerly in a book. And as a daily two-train riding book lover myself, it makes perfect sense to me: commuting can be frustrating and deadly dull, but it is also inescapable, dedicated free time everyday in which there is little else to do but kick back, open a book, and enjoy. Where else in your busy daily life do you get that kind of hassle-free time to just sit down and read? And what better way to stave off the anxieties of the coming workday or unwind after a long, bad shift than by escaping into a world of unknown places and ideas for awhile? So it is with all that in mind that I present this new periodic column featuring books I’ve seen being read on various Evanston and Chicago train and bus lines over the past week. And I encourage all you reader riders out there to drop us a comment below and let us know what you’re currently reading or any great or unusual books you’ve witnessed your fellow commuter comrades delving into recently. Happy reading!
This week in commuting:
1984 by George Orwell
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Oceans Apart by Karen Kingsbury
31 Days Before Your CCNA Exam by Allan Johnson
Little, Big by John Crowley
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Vox Spanish and English Student Dictionary by Vox
The Living by Annie Dillard
The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland by Bill Holm
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability by Daniel Sperling & Deborah Gordon
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
National Geographic Traveler: Egypt by Andrew Humphreys
Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories by C.S. Lewis
evanstonpubliclibrary.wordpress.com 
Think LIke a Chef by Tom Colicchio
and I’m always hungry by the time I get to work!
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. (And I see lots of other people reading it, too!)
I rode the El daily for 23 years and I doubt there were a dozen of those trips that I wasn’t buried in a book. I could hardly wait to get on board in order to read. For some reason I find it impossible to read on a bus, but the train – no problem. And when not reading, taking a peek at a seatmate’s text is a great conversation starter. It works the other way too. Once I was reading Herodotus when another rider spoke up and said, “Ah! I see you are reading the first historian.” The only challenge I ever faced was the boombox craze but that’s ancient history now that iPods and such are here.
I can’t say I miss the El, though, ’cause being retired means unlimited reading time! 🙂