The Millions: Spotted on the El

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September 27, 2005

Spotted on the El

I have an odd schedule this fall - I'm a part time grad student and a part time professional. I'm spending time north of the city in Evanston as well as downtown and at my apartment on the North Side. This means a lot of off-peak time spent on the El, where I've been able to continue my quasi-sociological study of Chicago based on what I observe people reading on the El. One thing I learned today: there's not as much reading going on during those off-peak hours. Apparently, if you're riding around on the train at ten in the morning or three in the afternoon, you're not likely to have your nose in a book. On the four trains and one bus (purple line, red line, and the 92) that I rode today I only spotted four books, three of which I was able to identify.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach - It seems a bit morbid for an afternoon train ride, but I'm told that this book is a quite entertaining example of the "biography of a thing" genre.
Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power by Timothy B. Tyson - This one sounds pretty interesting. It's about a militant civil rights radical who was forced to flee the country. He ended up in pre-revolutionary Cuba where he started a radio show called Radio Free Dixie.
Bloodlines by Dinah McCall - mass-market paperbacks are to bookspotting as pigeons are to bird watching.