Reading books on the daily commute… a way for many of us to kill time going to and from work, the perfect opportunity to indulge in a little literary escapism, and a legitimate excuse to avoid interaction with other human beings on the Tube.
Personally, I don’t like to spend my time hypnotised by games on my phone, and I don’t own a tablet for movies or ebooks or anything like that. I mean, I sit at a desk staring at a computer screen for eight hours a day, so I like to fill my journeys with something less electronically glary. More paper-and-ink-y.
I’ve recently discovered that some of the best reading material for the commute is graphic novels (a novel in comic-strip format) and manga (a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at adults as well as children).
My husband bought me the first collection of a classic manga title called ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ for Christmas (it’s about giant robots piloted by teenagers battling aliens) and I’ve been devouring the series ever since.
I quickly noticed that the style is ideally suited to my daily commute. They’re (obviously) much more visual – a little more engaging and stimulating than traditional word-heavy books – and they also tend to have quite brief story arcs, making them easier to dip in and out of than reams of prose. So when I suddenly look up after being particularly engrossed and realise I’m at my stop, I can snap it shut and leap off the train without losing too much of the flow or emersion.
After finishing the first three collections of NGE pretty quickly, I decided to re-read something already on my shelves. The six part, critically-acclaimed ‘Scott Pilgrim’ series is written by Brian Lee O’Malley and follows a 20-something Canadian slacker as he plays in his band, struggles with his romantic entanglements, and partakes in kung-fu battles with evil villains.
Now, I realise this all sounds kind of juvenile, and indeed a recent Guardian article recommends its top 10 manga titles in its Children’s Books section. But just because the stories are told predominantly with pictures, it doesn’t mean they aren’t actually pretty profound. In fact, the second book of NGE had such a brutal and emotionally affecting ending that I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.
Both these titles teach important lessons that are just as relevant for a 31 year old married woman with a serious full time job as they are for kids; taking responsibility for one’s choices, learning from one’s mistakes, building trustworthy relationships, love, loss, and yeah ok, the best ways to defeat giant fighting robots.
So if you read on your commute, or even if you don’t currently do so but fancy a break from Holby City catch-ups, Temple Run frustration, or ‘entertaining’ your fellow passengers with secondhand drum ‘n’ bass, why not steer away from ‘War and Peace’ for your next book choice and give a graphic novel a go instead? You might find you’ll learn something, or at least just have the most effective escapism on the Tube you’ve had in a while.