Cocoon

The literary site LitReactor recently asked readers to share photos of their reading environments. But since leaving a comment there would have required me to download an app that I'll never use again, or register at the site, I'll just skip all of that and post it here instead. The photo above shows where most of my serious literary reading gets done - car 7288, Metra Heritage Corridor line, departing at 7:05 a.m. from Joliet. (I read on the evening train, too.) It's an officially-designated "quiet car", which means no cellphone conversations and no chatting between riders - just a nice dull hum that's very conducive to focused reading. And the view outside the window has become so familiar after ten years of riding Metra that it's no longer the major distraction it was early on.