What books do you read on the bus / train / etc? I'm not interested in pretentious Lit here. I mean light reads you would recommend or otherwise - and why.

If you name a novel, say why please or your post might be deleted!

I like the Inspector Montalbano novels right now, books knocked out by Italian writer Andrea Camilleri. Set in Sicily, not too heavy, lots of food and sex and violence.

Actually, does anyone know any good bus books that dwell on food incidentally?

My bus journey isn't too long, so I tend to opt for James Patterson books.

They have short chapters so it's easy enough to stop before you miss your stop.

I'm a big fan of 19th century fiction; these are usually very long books but they have short chapters so are ideal for the bus.
So my bus book is usually something by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins or Elizabeth Gaskell. It used to be George Eliot, but I've read all her books at this point.

This is the ideal bus reading; a lot of the time I'm speed reading the material for a seminar or meeting that I didn't read the night before.

At the moment, its 'David Copperfield' by Charles Dickens.


Edit:

Contrary to popular belief, Dickens is actually very easy to read. He was the Victorian equivalent of pulp fiction. Well, sort of, he was a popular writer, not a 'high brow' writer ... Muggins... Anfor... take note!

Well .. it's a book that I read on the train (same commuting thing no?) a while back ... but regretted reading it in public because it caused me to laugh out loud too much, making me look like a spluttering idiot to the unfortunate sitting beside me.

'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy O'Toole ... one of the funniest books ever, his main character is a hoot.

(A bit of a sad story to this one in that John had so much faith in this book, and because he couldn't get a publisher, he killed himself. The book was published poshumously by his mother and has since became a cult classic. RIP John)

I would read whatever's handy, and if there is nothing, I would simply look out the window.

In the spirit of this thread... The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens comes to mind.


edit... oops, saw the admonition in the opening post about providing REASONS.

Ok, the Pickwick papers ... plenty of short stories, collected together in the one volume. They were originally meant to be read in parts. Each part is short enough for one bus journey.

Mostly books with short chapters, and non taxing, crime, thrillers, science fiction, horror, romance. They have to be non taxing, and short chapters, cause I have a habit of nodding off on public transport, OH and paperback, (cos hardbacks wake you up when they hit the floor)

John Grisham, Dan Brown, Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Meave Binchy, Jackie Collins.... would be a few of those authors

I read teh same whether at home or bus and train. I just avoid big hardbacks on the bus and train if I can.


Otherwise I just take whatever I happen to be reading at the moment. Right now reading Chaos by Edmund White.


Nice book about middle aged gay man.

I don't commute but I'm stuck into the red riding quartet by David Peace. They are bloody grim though

@ Wheelie the Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell was very foody in amongst all the grizzly murders.

Yeah but then she came out and turned all her female characters into lesbians or closet lesbians, and male characters into misogynistic rapists. She did make her own pasta from scratch though.

Lately when it comes to journeys (I've being travelling a lot) I don't really like to get stuck into novels. Mostly because by the time I get really into it, the journeys over and I've to put it away (which is torture if it's a great book) while if I'm reading at home I can always make a good dent on it and finish it in a couple of days.

Because of this I've being picking light and breezy books for the journey, so if you haven't read the below be sure to give them a look in

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? - New Scientist
Does anything eat wasps? - New Scientist
The Book of Lists - David Wallechinsky

(Couple of others... which I cant recall right now, meaning they obviously didnt have much of an impact anyways)

This is my current bus book.

I would strongly recommend the two recent novels from the Quirke series by John Banville in which he is writing as Benjamin Black:
Christine Falls and The Silver Swan.

You get the same exquisite style of writing that you get in Banville's other novels but they have a broader appeal given the subject matter - murder, society scandal, cover-ups etc.

Read more here:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/benjamin-black/christine-fall etc ...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/benjamin-black/silver-swan.ht etc ...

the two books that stand out for me were

bridget jones diary - short VERY short chapters, like a page long sometimes and just made me giggle all the time

brokeback mountain - not a very huge book lol but i read it on the way up to dublin on the train once - was in FLOODS of tears - loved it...

I'm quite envious of people who can read on buses. The only thing I can read on a moving vehicle is "The Story Of Last Night's Dinner", as told by the vomit I've just spewed over the poor person sitting in the seat in front of me.