Traveling to work whilst reading is a fairly easy one to cover considering all the other obstacles we have come across so far.
You have washed (we hope) dressed (poorly) breakfasted (without a detour to the hospital).
Now you are ready to leave the house.
So here are the methods of transport available to us.
Car, Cycling/biking
I would never recommend reading whilst driving or cycling, so the only option for these is an audio book.
Walking
You can walk and read, but you must be aware of those pesky roads, I don’t want to be responsible for you getting run over or walking into someone.
It may be helpful if you can get a walking stick to help find any obstacles, this means knowing your surroundings very well. Alternatively you could get a friend to escort you, but you might feel obliged to make conversation and that would cut into your reading time.
You could hire an escort, this means that you can have someone to guide you without the nagging feeling that you should perhaps make conversation. The down side is of course the cost.
Bus/train
It’s easy to read on the bus/ train, but how do you get to your stop, find out your time, get on the correct bus/train and get off at the correct stop?
In order to get to your stop see the walking section.
The rest requires planning and forethought.
First off you need to read the timetable, easy right?
No. This would mean that you have to stop reading your book.
In order to get around this issue you may have to learn to read brail. Or you can ring the station to find out the times if you know the number.
A device (called DAISY) is being developed that will be able to read CD’s will be able to convert the times into speech, this would be the easiest option. However this has not been developed yet.
Alternatively if you hired an escort, as suggested above, ask them to work it out for you.
(Note: when hiring your escort you may want to make sure she/he is literate and can understand the 24 hour clock.)
In order to make sure you get there in time you may need to set an alarm to warn you when you need to leave the house. You may need to leave yourself more time to get there than usual, add an extra minute for every minute it usually takes you to walk.
You also need to set an alarm to tell you when your bus/train should be arriving. You can do with this aid of your phone or digital watch.
If you have set an alarm for the bus/ train arriving, you may want to set it five mins early. Just in case it’s early. It may not hang around for someone whose nose is stuck in a book.
Another way to make sure you get the right transport is to ask a kindly citizen to inform you when your transport has arrived.
Now all you need to do is to purchase your ticket and read until you reach your destination.
But how to know when to get off?
With a bus it is fairly easy to ask the driver to pull over at the right stop for you. In a train you may have to time how long it takes for your train to reach its destination or ask a friendly passenger to let you know when you have arrived.
Again this is all made much easier with the aid of an escort.
Sensible option
The default sensible option is once again the audio book.
Warning
This is not a foolproof system and may result in lateness and or bruises.
Be warned that walking whilst reading, even with the aid of a stick, can be hazardous to your health and others.
The use of escorts is also not advised.
For previous antics in constant reading see 1. Getting washed, 2. Getting dressed and 3. Making breakfast
