The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory really. I catch the train because I don't enjoy wasting my money on petrol to get to the city and also because I dislike paying for daytime parking within the city. I'm a cheapskate basically when it comes to transport. This means that naturally I usually have a couple of hours, give or take, to spend as I wish on public transport when I use it. Hence I use it to my advantage and usually have a book or magazine. It just makes sense. Here's a little roundup of some of the books I have read or am currently reading on train trips...

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby-I mentioned this in my last book post but props to Penguin for making compact, lightweight, wallet-friendly classics a thing. They're the best if you're like me and tend to leave the house with every single thing in tow. Anyway, High Fidelity is about Rob, a 35 year-old singleton who owns a record store in London. At the beginning of the book he is lamenting what lead to the breakdown of his previous breakups, including his most recent. It sounds depressing but it really isn't. Okay, maybe in parts it is a bit bleak but for the most part this is rather hilarious. I envisioned Rob as Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, just a bit more cynical. Maybe that helped. Anyway, this book is largely centred around romance, a lack thereof and music. It talks about how these two things can bring people together and just as easily tear them apart. Nick Hornby's writing is pretty top notch, in my eyes at least so I really enjoyed this one. 

The Bricks That Built the Houses by Kate Tempest-This was my most recent trainside read and I loved it. In saying that I find it really difficult to write and talk about because it's one of those books you just have to really read and immerse yourself in, without the potential background noise. I went into this blind and had little knowledge of its content or plot development. It follows a group of twenty-somethings in London as they all embark on various careers. It starts in the present with them all fleeing the city in a car with a suitcase and travels back through each of the character's psyches. Tempest breaks down what makes them all tick and looks at ideas like career aspirations and the idea of feeling lost by the ambiguous paths our lives may take. I've not read anything like this that gets so immersed into the character's mindsets. It's amazing. I also loved how each of the characters various plots all ended up intertwining in such a seamless way. If this book sounds appealing I urge you to read it. It's fantastic. 

The Children Act by Ian McEwan-I've not read an awful lot of this yet but it had been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long so I threw it into my bag in an attempt to coax myself into reading it. This is the first Ian McEwan book I've read and again I am really enjoying it so far. I will keep you posted on this one. 

-Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?