BART Census of Books

Today, I found myself riding alongside an older gentleman in a dapper suit on my train ride home. Very well-dressed, distinguished gentleman, reading a newspaper. I myself looked like myself, and as I sat beside him, I was reading through this month's issue of Harper's... and uneven publication but often worth the price.

At one point, I looked over and caught him reading my magazine over my shoulder! Which isn't surprising, since the page I happened to be on was that part where they take a "primary document" and pick it apart. In this case, it was "diagramming" the components of a Republican chain email letter. When he saw that I noticed him, he quickly jerked his head back to his own paper. As I brazenly read over his shoulder, I realized he was reading the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal.

Alas, there is no story of the meeting of minds here. I scanned the headlines of the page (an editorial on GOP reform or some such), finished my page, then put my magazine away, as I was nearing my stop.

Looking around the train, I decided to conduct a rough estimate of the number of people who were reading and try to get a sense of what was being read:

I would estimate that the train had about 150 occupants.

I would estimate that slightly over 50% of these persons were reading.

Of those reading, probably 75% were reading newspapers. The most popular was the San Francisco Chronicle. Second-most popular was The Contra Costa Times. There were a couple of folks reading The San Jose Mercury News and several reading The Wall Street Journal. One person looked to be reading The Financial Times (unless there's another pink broadsheet). Several were, of course, unrecognizable due to distance or vantage.

The remaining 25% were reading books. I only saw one man reading a book. I only saw one woman reading a hardcover book (jacket removed). Most appeared to be reading trade paperbacks, though there was one copy of Geek Love that could be picked out.

I often look at what other people are reading on the train, but never with a mind towards thinking anything about it. However, it strikes me that, for all the laments of non-literacy, a surprisingly large number of people (in cities, at any rate) read on the train, and a surprisingly diverse range of publications. Another observation I noticed was that I never see anyone reading San Francisco's tabloid daily The Examiner. This is only striking to me, because I remember seeing tons of people reading The New York Post on the subways of New York...

Wonder if that means anything?

Hmmm... maybe something to keep an eye on. Maybe not...