Random
New York City subway top 10 books
The New York Times surveys what people are reading on New York subways, here are the top 10 books. (Click on the link for Newspapers and Magazines too.)
The first is about a girl with a dragon tattoo, the last is about a girl who played with fire. The second is from the guy who wrote about a girl with curious hair. The third is written by a guy with curiously no hair. The fourth was released by a publisher who was maybe thinking of the cover of the second book. The title of the fifth book is mysteriously not a year, and a handful of years pass in the sixth. The seventh was written by a woman who liked to cook food, and the second to last by a man who likes to think about food. In the eight book, the eponymous heroine’s suicide [is this where I say “spoil alert”?] involves public transportation, but don’t worry, by a train not a subway. The last time I visited New York, I pensively read the map and people’s faces. Good Job New York City, and onwards literature!
Tags: new york subways, top 10 books
There are less than 300 people in New York who use the subway system. Interesting!
There are less than 300 people in New York who use the subway system. Interesting!
This is actually a pretty encouraging list of books. It’s not all Dan Brown and Stephanie Brown, to be sure.
This is actually a pretty encouraging list of books. It’s not all Dan Brown and Stephanie Brown, to be sure.
cool to see these results.
cool to see these results.
Just to clarify what is already obvious to those of us who pick up the N/R trains in Sunset Park: this is a list of what NYT readers read on the NY subway. Or in my world, the readers between Atlantic/Pacific and 59th Street (Manhattan). I would bet that more pages get read in Spanish, Chinese, and Russian, on average, than in English, based on my subway routes.
Just to clarify what is already obvious to those of us who pick up the N/R trains in Sunset Park: this is a list of what NYT readers read on the NY subway. Or in my world, the readers between Atlantic/Pacific and 59th Street (Manhattan). I would bet that more pages get read in Spanish, Chinese, and Russian, on average, than in English, based on my subway routes.
well, people who don’t read don’t exist, clearly
well, people who don’t read don’t exist, clearly
in past last two weeks I’ve seen 3 people reading infinite jest on the L.
in past last two weeks I’ve seen 3 people reading infinite jest on the L.
Make that Stephanie Meyer, I mean, author of the Twilight books. I misremembered her name and ought to have Googled before posting.
I agree with those who have said that the subway probably isn’t being democratically represented here. But I have always been surprised by what I’ve seen people reading on public transportation and in public in general. In a Mexican restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco last spring, I met a Guatemalan man who was reading Isaac Bashevis Singer in a Spanish edition he had borrowed from the library, which I’ll guess was translated from the English version which was originally translated from the Yiddish. On the El in Chicago last spring, I saw somebody reading The Recognitions near the Loop, and somebody else with Stephen Dixon near Boy’s Town. In a restaurant in Morehead, Kentucky, a couple of summers ago, I had an argument about the New Yorker with a guy who was reading Phillip Graham’s Interior Design, which is a book of stories by a former student of Donald Barthelme’s who I hadn’t even heard of prior to this restaurant encounter. And I’ve seen all kinds of things on the subway in New York, including the kinds of things I most often see on commercial flights — The Da Vinci Code, Stephen King, John Grisham, J.K. Rowling, books by prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen, etc. — and the kinds of books the Times listed, and books in other languages, and Joyce Carol Oates’s Them and its ilk, and, one happy afternoon, Peter Markus’s Bob, or Man on Boat.
Make that Stephanie Meyer, I mean, author of the Twilight books. I misremembered her name and ought to have Googled before posting.
I agree with those who have said that the subway probably isn’t being democratically represented here. But I have always been surprised by what I’ve seen people reading on public transportation and in public in general. In a Mexican restaurant in the Mission District of San Francisco last spring, I met a Guatemalan man who was reading Isaac Bashevis Singer in a Spanish edition he had borrowed from the library, which I’ll guess was translated from the English version which was originally translated from the Yiddish. On the El in Chicago last spring, I saw somebody reading The Recognitions near the Loop, and somebody else with Stephen Dixon near Boy’s Town. In a restaurant in Morehead, Kentucky, a couple of summers ago, I had an argument about the New Yorker with a guy who was reading Phillip Graham’s Interior Design, which is a book of stories by a former student of Donald Barthelme’s who I hadn’t even heard of prior to this restaurant encounter. And I’ve seen all kinds of things on the subway in New York, including the kinds of things I most often see on commercial flights — The Da Vinci Code, Stephen King, John Grisham, J.K. Rowling, books by prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen, etc. — and the kinds of books the Times listed, and books in other languages, and Joyce Carol Oates’s Them and its ilk, and, one happy afternoon, Peter Markus’s Bob, or Man on Boat.
I am working on that as a theory. Please don’t stop reading! You may die.
I am working on that as a theory. Please don’t stop reading! You may die.
how much of this is actual “reading” vs. having a book out that they hope someone will try to talk to them about?
how much of this is actual “reading” vs. having a book out that they hope someone will try to talk to them about?
That seems okay, too.
That seems okay, too.
Bryan- nobody talks to each other on the subway. Books are great because you can even ignore the mariachi band playing for quarters with impunity.
Jimmy– your paragraph made me laugh out loud. Thanks for this post.
Bryan- nobody talks to each other on the subway. Books are great because you can even ignore the mariachi band playing for quarters with impunity.
Jimmy– your paragraph made me laugh out loud. Thanks for this post.
Of the books noted, I’ve seen only that Brief Wondrous Life book being read on the subway. Infinite Jest might be being read (even by NYT readers) because of the Infinite Summer thing – a few weeks left to go.
I think Buster makes a good point.
I see books high and low being read. But one constant no matter where I am in the NYC subway system: reading these books: overwhelmingly women.
Which should come as a surprise to no one.
Of the books noted, I’ve seen only that Brief Wondrous Life book being read on the subway. Infinite Jest might be being read (even by NYT readers) because of the Infinite Summer thing – a few weeks left to go.
I think Buster makes a good point.
I see books high and low being read. But one constant no matter where I am in the NYC subway system: reading these books: overwhelmingly women.
Which should come as a surprise to no one.
I envy people who can read on the subway. I get incredibly carsick if I attempt to read even a few sentences, so I can’t read on a moving train. I don’t own an iPod. So I watch my fellow passengers instead. And that led me to publish a book that is designed specifically for subway reading for those whom it doesn’t make nauseous:
http://www.amazon.com/HATE-ALL-YOU-THIS-TRAIN/dp/0557080770
I envy people who can read on the subway. I get incredibly carsick if I attempt to read even a few sentences, so I can’t read on a moving train. I don’t own an iPod. So I watch my fellow passengers instead. And that led me to publish a book that is designed specifically for subway reading for those whom it doesn’t make nauseous:
http://www.amazon.com/HATE-ALL-YOU-THIS-TRAIN/dp/0557080770
i’ve talked to everyone i’ve seen reading infinite jest and aside from being the sort of person who tells you what page number they’re on, they were all able to explain what was happening and the last thing they read that made them excited, so i’m going to say yes, they were reading the book.
i’ve talked to everyone i’ve seen reading infinite jest and aside from being the sort of person who tells you what page number they’re on, they were all able to explain what was happening and the last thing they read that made them excited, so i’m going to say yes, they were reading the book.
i guess that came off as snarky. i don’t think it’s necessarily bad to use a book as a badge.
i guess that came off as snarky. i don’t think it’s necessarily bad to use a book as a badge.
really? i wonder if this is just an east coast thing…
do people using mass transit on the west coast talk to each other? anyone?
really? i wonder if this is just an east coast thing…
do people using mass transit on the west coast talk to each other? anyone?
no
no
The Giant needs more Chen. More. Chen.
The Giant needs more Chen. More. Chen.