by me
I work about 25 miles from where I live, and for almost 30 years, I commuted by car. Now, there is a free university shuttle bus which takes me from a point about 15 minutes from home and lets me off less than 5 minutes’ walk from my office. This means that I have more time to read now than I have had for many years, and I often immerse myself in a library book, a Nook book, or a newspaper as the bus driver navigates the traffic I no longer have to contend with. It’s great!
The other day, as I was enjoying Eat, Pray, Love on the bus, my seatmate was reading a textbook (something on the courts and the media). This was not surprising, as most of my fellow passengers are students. But what tickled me was that two other people (also students, from the look of them) on the bus were also engaged in pleasure reading: one was poring over Trainspotting, while the other was deep into The Hunger Games. For some reason this pleased me. When I was in college, I don’t remember reading anything I didn’t have to (as a literature major, I had to read a lot, so maybe that explains it), and the sight of these (to me) kids reading for fun despite the approach of final exams was heartening. All is not lost.
