#30TubeReads
This book club has too many members to count!
I was on an Elizabeth Line tube from Whitechapel towards Central London a couple of weeks ago. Everyone around me was dressed and pre-gamed for fun nights out. At some point, a woman teetering on 6-inch heels and chugging red wine straight from the bottle brushed past me. In the middle of all the chaos associated with the tube on a weekend night, one woman was in her own peaceful bubble.
She was midway through the chunky classic: The Count of Monte Cristo. Now, that is a dedication that I’m forced to admire. It is not an easy-breezy read that you can make your way through while being distracted by the craziness of the tube. It demands that you pay attention to every word. And there she was, nonchalantly flipping the pages while a group of women headed to a hen party got onto the train.
One of the loveliest things about moving to London was being around people who love reading as much as I do. You cannot get onto a tube at any hour of any day without seeing at least one person flip through a book’s pages. Sometimes, they are thin copies of poetry; sometimes, they are well-thumbed, yellow Penguin paperbacks, newly released hardbacks that some take out from iconic Daunt Books tote bags, and then some casually read chunky door-stoppers. It is a city of book lovers. I subconsciously took book recommendations from the people I crossed paths with for a few minutes on crowded tubes.
Now, let me preface this by saying I am a snob, at least when it comes to people’s taste in books. I might see these people for only a few seconds, but that won’t stop me from creating a story and an image of them based on the books they choose to keep them company on their commute. So, with not much else to do, unless you count applying to 10 jobs a day as work, I decided to set myself a new challenge.
#30TubeReads will be my attempt at reading 30 books I spot on the tube and reviewing them here. I could have made it more difficult for myself by vowing to read the books on the tube, but I decided that I would be taking it too far.
Initial Thoughts:
The pool of readers I am attempting to study is varied. For example, the first three books I am reading for the challenge are a speculative fictional satire about race, a true story about a homeless couple attempting to complete the South West Coast Path and a newly released poetry book about going beyond boundaries. I might have a severe case of whiplash by the end of this experience.
… which might not be such a bad thing. Ever so often, I realise that I reach out for books in my comfort zone. Books written by authors I know, recommended by Bookstagrammers I trust, and literary fiction I know I’ll love or have already loved. I can’t do that anymore. Every read is forcing me out of that comfort zone. I mean, I absolutely would not be reading poetry otherwise!
Therefore, take my review of the poetry book with a massive pinch of salt. But there will be a review! Since that’s the additional advantage of this challenge. I am determined to overcome my procrastination and write reviews for every book I read.
It is time I get an answer to how fast I can actually read. Maybe deciding to read 30 books in 30 days in a bit too ambitious. But we will find out!
Lastly, you can see my progress with my challenge and how many books I have read for it on my About page.