Sorry for two posts in one day today, especially as you have been so helpful with The Prose Practice already, but I thought you might not mind so much as this post is in a random roundabout way all about how some of you could get some lovely free books this Thursday should you happen to be in the right place at the right time, and all in the name of promoting people to read on public transport.
I get quite a lot of marketing twaddle in the Savidge Reads inbox, and I don’t mean from publishers which is normally lovely catalogues to feast my eyes on, yet every now and again you get something that is a little bit different and unusual. One such email was from Chris of Global Cool who have started a new venture encouraging people to read on tubes and buses and asking people to ‘Do It In Public’ and with the help of publishers Hodder and Stoughton will be handing out copies of ‘One Day’ by David Nicholls. (Which I am reading now and can tell you is really rather good.) Simply sign up HERE by 8pm Wednesday 14th of July GMT and you will be told in advance the secret locations these books are being released. Simple as that!
If that wasn’t enough they also have an Online Book Group planned and some interesting posts from celebrities and bloggers (possibly even me) coming up over the next few weeks with suggestions for the perfect train/bus read! Will be interesting to see some of the recommendations I think. Who do you think has already suggested Jane Eyre (which I still shamefully haven’t read)?
I did wonder if any of you can think of any books that feature public transport in them. Do you? I could only think of ‘The Maintenance of Headway’ by Magnus Mills which I only read recently. In fact here’s a give away… if you suggest some books with tubes/underground trains/subways, buses or over ground trains you can go into a drawer for a copy of the Magnus Mills book – how’s that sound? No planes or boats of any kind!!!! You have until midnight GMT tomorrow Wednesday the 14th! Good luck!
ah yet another mad London thing, shame Ive read the book in question (I loved it although not everyone has)
Ok although this form of transport is featured only for a brief period in the story the first thing that popped into my head was Yurys death in Doctor Zhivago on the tram. Alot of people know the film so Im sure thats not a spoiler.
Paul Theroux has written some good public transport book. I enjoyed Riding the Iron Rooster about traveling through China by train. It is non fiction, but reads a lot like a novel, with interesting characters.
The first book that comes into my mind when you say “public transport” is 253 by Geoff Ryman. 252 passengers and a driver on one train on the London Underground …
Think that Maeve Binchy wrote a book of short stories, about passengers on the Tube.
Great idea for a comp! I really like The Restraint of Beasts, so I’d love to win a copy of the Maintenance of Headway
My pick is Tunnel Vision, by Keith Lowe – on the eve of his wedding Andy, on a bet, has to travel to each of the stations on the London Underground to find his passport, credit cards & honeymoon tickets, and, of course, nothing goes to plan…
Petite Anglais by Catherine Sanderson has a lot of the TGV from Paris to Rennes in it!!!Does that count?
Great marketing concept – I love anything that’s a bit different. I read One Day a few weeks ago and loved it, although (like Jennifer said), I’ve seen a lot of reviewers that disagree.
As for books that feature public transport: I’m currently reading Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy, in which main characters in three novellas go all over NYC and Auster describes their routes (subway, bus, or walking) in detail. Also, Kingdom of Ohio featured a subway worker in NYC building the original subway tracks under Broadway – does that count? And Ragtime discusses the street cars that take people throughout the city. Wow, all NYC picks.
Here’s my little list:
Moscow 1941 – A City and Its People at War – Rodric Braithwaite
The people used the subway stations to avoid being bombed on. They were given good water and shown movies or heard live music. Entire factories were moved out of Moscow (machinery and people) to the hinterlands, so that the manufacturing could continue.
Leaving Home – Anita Brokner – Anna rides the Chunnel train a lot.
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins – The people involved in the games travel only by train.
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell – Cavendish has the worst train ride in literature while trying to run away from loan sharks.
Two Pound Tram by William Newton – People mistake it for public transportation
I really enjoyed The Necropolis Railway-Andrew Martin. A crime caper featuring Jim Stringer, a ‘Steam Detective’ An historical crime thriller and Steam Trains…whats not to like?
That is a really good marketing idea, although I really, really wish they’d apply it to books that haven’t already been promoted quite a bit. If I were entering the competition (which I’m not because I’ve already won so much here) I think my suggestions would be:
Anna Karenina (Vronsky and Anna on a train)
The Railway Cat (must have read this at least twenty times when I was a kid)
The very last Narnia book…Silver Throne is that? (although the train episode is very sad)
The Railway Children
The Harry potter books (how would they get there otherwise)
The Secrets of Patform 13 (again must have read this at least twenty times if not more)
And here’s a little geeky transport fact for you – did you know there’s going to be a metro crash in Coronation Street and the Manchester metro people are suppousedly consulting with them so that the Corrie people will get the details of how to crash a metro right?
One of Ruth Rendell’s best as Barbara Vine is KING SOLOMON’S CARPET which has a brilliant opening scene set on the tube and is also a history of the Underground.
How about Lisa St Aubin de Teran’s *The Slow Train to Milan* (or her *Off the Rails: Memoirs of a Train Addict*).
A classic British mystery, Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers, has a puzzle involving train times, routes and tickets. All so convoluted I can’t remember any details – except that the train was the key to the mystery.
There’s Moscow-Petushki, by Venedikt Erofeev, where most of the action takes place on a suburban train.
And Victor Pelevin’s The Yellow Arrow takes place entirely on a train, albeit a train of a rather strange sort.
Public transport – trains, again – are essential to the plot of Zeno Was Here, by Jan Mark.
This latest Mills novel is not available over here
(North America) so I am not seeing any marketing right now.
I wasn’t sure if some of these count as they are not all “pure” novels. DP
“Notes from Overgound” by Tiresias
“Big Red Train Ride” Eric Newby
“Anna Karenina” Leo Tolstoy
“Thirty Nine Steps” John Buchan
“The Great Railway Bazaar” Paul Theroux
There’s also Tobias Hill’s Underground, the sstting for which is, as you might expect, the Tube.
And Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky takes place almost entirely in the Moscow metro – there are no trains running, as it’s a post apocalpyse novel, but the vast majority of the action takes place underground withing the metro tunnels, with the different stations and lines having their own factions.
The Railway Detective series by Edward Marston. I haven’t read this yet, but have read some of Marston’s other series which were really enjoyable.
Underground by Haruki Murakami, although the main focus is the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo who perpetrated the Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway.
I haven’t read it, but how about Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman?
One of the short story in by Eileen Chang I read recently is completely set in a public tram (titled Sealed Off).
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry features LOTS of train scenes. What can be more colourful than trains in India?
The Railway Children springs to mind!
Hmm… Murakami’s Underground, about the attacks on the Japanese subway – really good but definitely non-fiction, and exactly what you’d want to be handing out to people about to get on the tube, either!!
Funny, there are lots of films based around train travel but I can’t think of as many books…
Great responses, thank you all so very much for this… now then having randomly popped you all in a generator could Jon please email me his address for a copy of Maintanence of Headway please!!!! Congrats, sorry everyone else but thanks so much for all your thoughts!
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