If you thought that Metro rides were too short to read and finish books in, think again. With the Metro now criss-crossing the length and breadth of Delhi and people travelling up to even an hour in the train, reading books is becoming the next best option to plugging in earphones.
If you are a regular, you would have already noticed a few books featuring frequently in your fellow-passengers’ hands. These include the two books in writer Amish Tripathi’s ‘Shiva Trilogy- The immortals of Meluha’ and ‘The Secret of the Nagas’; Chetan Bhagat’s latest ‘Revolution 2020’ besides his previous novels; ‘Can Love Happen Twice’ by Ravinder Singh; Dan Brown’s books - most importantly ‘Deception Point’ and then few more. Of course, as book publishers get wind of the trend and start marketing books accordingly, newer books keep featuring in the Metro.
Perhaps the first publishing house which spotted the trend and cashed in on it was Penguin India which came out with a new category of books called ‘Metro reads’ in 2010. Since then they have brought out numerous titles such as ‘Kiss and Tell’ by Nistula Hebbar, ‘Dreams in Prussian Blue’ by Paritosh Uttam, ‘The Premier Murder League’ by Geeta Sundar and others. As explained on their website, ‘Metro Reads’ “should not weigh you down with complicated stories, not ask for time and shouldn’t have to be lugged around.”
Kapish Mehra of Rupa & Co. feels that these books are “mass market commercial fiction, have more entertainment value than information value.” Rupa too has brought out ‘The Incredible Banker’ by Ravi Subramanium and ‘Right Fit, Wrong Shoe’ by Varsha Dixit.
The idea indeed seems to have taken off since publishing houses have also set up shops at Metro stations to aid book enthusiasts.