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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Is reading a physical book on the subway completely 'out' in China?
I know I'm not exactly the vision of youth anymore but boy does the subway make me feel old here. Nobody seems to read a good old-fashioned book anymore. Instead they all just stare at the tiny screens of phones, ipads and kindles. I sometimes get the feeling that I get stared at not for being foreign, but for still reading actual paperback books.
Maybe technology is moving faster than you are, but an e-reader is a lot more convenient than a big heavy book. That being said, I do see most people are actually playing Fruit Ninja or watching movies on their electronic devices.
Possibly another reason for book reading not being popular is that "it is bad for the eyes" to read while on a moving vehicle. Of course no one has made the connection that looking at a screen might be the same. Or even better, people have figured out that the "it is bad for the eyes" thing is just old wives BS
Sort of kind of Yes it looks to be that way. I've read paper back books and I saw one other foreigner reading one before too.
The nice thing about carrying a book is that you always have paper with you.
the attention to electronic gadgets by more than half the passengers makes thiefs and pickpockets feel like they have died and gone to heaven, i am always amazed how inattentive and gullible people are in public among strangers.
GuilinRaf:
Couple of weeks ago in the subway, I saw a girl who was completely mesmerized with her i-phone that she walked right smack into a column.
Her friends saw what she was about to do but kept quiet and laughed their butts off when she crashed.