Subway Reading

I love to read on the subway. I never have a book with me, but I'm never short on reading material. That's right: I'm that guy who's peering over shoulders to read the man to my left's Wall Street Journal or the woman to my right's romance novel, and yes, the person in front of me's New York Post. (I'll never buy it for myself, or even take it when it's given out for free, but I do need my weekly fix of Page Six! And subway reading provides that for me!)

I know it's not polite to peer over someone's shoulder and read off of whatever it is they're reading themselves, but there's something strangely satisfying about it. I've discussed before about my love of being a story-teller, making up the stories of the people around me (as all story-tellers do...), and figuring out the woman sitting directly below me and her Sudoku puzzle, or the middle-aged man and his book of short stories helps to create a better picture.

I am very careful about what I read on the subway, knowing that there's a good chance that there's another person like me on my subway car, trying to fill in his own story. I'm sure the truth is more exciting than the blasé persona I pretend to have while reading a book about baseball statistics, versus the short-story book with the effeminate cover that I still have two stories to read that I would rather be reading. (I guess that's also why I wear sunglasses in clouds when I'm teary; I know how easy it is to really read people and I don't want to be read.)

I don't understand why people will pull back their newspapers or books when they realize someone is reading the headlines on the other side. These are probably the same people who talk loudly in public on cell phones and get offended when someone chimes in with a response to them because they really thought they were in a private space. (My favorite of these is when I'm in an elevator with one other person and that person decides to use his/her cell phone as if I'm not there...wow do I wish I hadn't heard some of those conversations...)

And in honor of reading over someone's shoulder on the subway -- that is to say, the page is inevitably turned with you still only halfway down, I'm going to cut this entry off before you get to read the genius ending annec......