CTA Tattler

Max tells us what riders are reading

Earlier this year I was doing some weekly roundups of what people were reading on the CTA. People do lotsa El reading, so frankly, I was spending my entire commute writing down book names and rubber-necking to see what the whole title was, the author, and writing down descriptions of readers. It kept me from my newspaper reading and my other Tattler reporting. So I stopped. Call me lazy.

But yesterday I got an e-mail from Max, a Medill journalism student, who mentioned his own blog about books, The Millions.

He's done a few posts himself about what books he sees people reading on the CTA. "I find myself endlessly fascinated by what people are reading on the El," Max says.  "I think it's because I worked in a book store for a few years and since then, I'm always interested in seeing what books are out there "in the wild."  And oddly enough, I always get a little thrill when I spot someone reading a book that I like.... In that sense, maybe it is a bit like birdwatching."

So, since I'm too lazy to do the work anymore on this kind of thing, I urge you to read what Max has seen others reading: Here, here, here and here.