About once a week I find myself on the subway. I’m not usually lost…okay sometimes I’m lost. The point being that the trips are infrequent enough to find the experience both bemusing and enjoyable. Typically on these excursions I’m journeying to the other side of the city. Therefore the trip is long enough to experience many different things; I have time to read, people watch, contemplate the inner workings of the universe and have a quick nap, all of which suit me just fine.  Often somewhere between people watching and contemplating the inner working of the universe, while I’m still clutching my latest read ready to dive back into it at a moments’ notice, I find myself playing a game. The game goes like this; look around the subway car and count how many other people are reading. I take note of people who are reading newspapers, magazines, and e-readers and then I promptly ignore them because I only count people with actual books (snobbish I know but sometimes these things can’t be helped).

I have no idea how you win this game. Usually I count all the people, feel kind of disappointed and then have a nap to make the world right again. Or I go into phase two of game play which involves trying to see what books are being read, then figuring out if the reader is actually enjoying it or simply reading it as something to do on the subway. Anyways the other day I finished reading and was ready to skip straight to the part where I nap when I realized it was kind of busy on the subway. I could only see the immediate ten to fifteen people around me and guess what? Six of us were reading! (Or holding books about to nap). Even though I in no way influenced the situation it felt like I had won. It was great, I wanted to jump up and high five all the readers around me instead I settled for grinning like an idiot and hugging  my book to my chest.