You read books?
An excerpt from a conversation between myself and an advertising sales person for a certain well-known free newspaper available in London:
Them: So you read X newspaper?
Me: Actually, I don’t. Not frequently anyway.
Them: You don’t? Do you live in London?
Me: Yes.
Them: And you travel on the tube?
Me: Yes.
Them: And you don’t read X?
Me: No.
Them: Really?
Me: Yes.
Them: You must read Y [well-known rival London freesheet] then?
Me: No, I don’t really read that either.
Them: What do you do on the tube then?
Me: I read my book…
Them: Really… You read books? Well, I guess you could do that… But let me just confirm - you don’t read X?
Me: No.
Them: Or Y?
Me: No.
Them: You read books?
Me: Look, would you just send me your rate card?
Them: Certainly, but you really should read X when you’re next on the tube.
After my experience with the Chancer last week, I’m beginning to feel like I live in an alternative travel universe. Or is reading a book on public transport actually really weird and I just haven’t realised it yet?
Tags: mindless minutiae
August 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
While I am guilty of reading all those freebie newspapers, i obect to the way they litter the Tube once they’ve been read. It’s like a hurricane has blown through a carriage when everyone gets off and leaves them. There must be a better way of clearing them up.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
F-C, Signs on my daily mainline train and at our tube station are always reassuring me that they are working in partnership with Metronet to keep things tidy. But yes, clearly it is not working. Mind you, why can’t the readers take more responsibility for their own papers? You take them on, so take them back off again when you leave. Or perhaps we should all just read books!