If you're a city commuter, you know the drill: you squeeze onto the 8:17 inbound train 10 seconds before the doors close, shoulder-check someone's oversized tote bag to find a spot, and spend the next 45 minutes staring at the same ad for a personal injury law firm playing on the loop above the doors, half-scrolling TikTok until your phone dies. I spent 18 months doing that exact routine on Chicago's Red Line, wasting 10 hours a week of dead time I could have spent doing literally anything else---until a coworker who caught the same train at the same stop mentioned she was reading a cozy fantasy novella on her commute, and we decided to turn our 20-minute shared ride into the world's lowest-stakes book club.
No after-work meetups, no $18 wine budget, no pressure to finish a 500-page literary epic in 4 weeks. Just two people, a paperback, and a reason to stop zoning out during the most miserable part of the day. Two years later, our "train book club" has read 27 books, swapped dozens of terrible and great recs, and turned my daily commute from a chore I dreaded into the part of my week I look forward to most. If you want to do the same, here's how to start, no fancy planning required.
Start small, and skip the rigid book club rulebook
The biggest mistake people make when trying to start a book club is overcomplicating it: they set a 300-page monthly read, assign formal discussion questions, and plan a post-meetup happy hour that no one actually has time to attend. Your train mini book club doesn't need any of that. First, your crew doesn't have to be 5 people. It can be one coworker you say good morning to every day, a neighbor who waits for the same connecting bus at your stop, or even a friend who takes a parallel line and texts you their takes while you ride. No minimum size required. Even better? It's a low-pressure way to connect with someone without the awkwardness of forcing a new friendship. If the conversation dries up, you can always go back to scrolling with no hard feelings---no forced follow-ups, no awkward coffee meetups required. Second, ditch the long, dense reads. Start with novellas, essay collections, short story anthologies, or even graphic novels---books you can read 10-15 pages of a day without feeling overwhelmed. If you hate the book halfway through? Quit it. No questions asked, no guilt allowed. The goal is to make reading a joy, not a homework assignment you stress about finishing. We started with The House in the Cerulean Sea , a 232-page cozy fantasy that took us two weeks of casual commuting reading to finish. No deadlines, no essays, no pressure. We just read a few pages a day, and chatted about it when we sat next to each other on the train.
Keep discussion low-stakes (no literary analysis required)
The reason most people hate traditional book clubs is the pressure to sound smart, to pick apart symbolism and themes and have a "profound" take. Your train book club is the exact opposite: the only rule is that you can say whatever you want, no overthinking required. Skip the formal discussion questions. Instead, use prompts that work for a 20-minute ride between stops:
- What's the dumbest thing a character has done so far?
- If this was a bad Netflix adaptation, who would you cast as the lead?
- Did any line make you snort-laugh so loud the person next to you stared at you?
- Would you trust this character to watch your pet for the weekend? That's it. No deep dives into subtext unless you want to have them. Most of our best train book club conversations have been about how the cat sidekick in our latest read is a better manager than both of our actual bosses, or how the main character's terrible decision-making is exactly what we'd do if we were stuck in a fantasy novel. It's fun, it's casual, and it doesn't feel like work.
No in-person crew? No problem---build a virtual train book club instead
Not everyone commutes with a friend, or even talks to the same people every day. If you ride alone, you can still build a mini book club that fits your routine, no small talk required: Join a transit-specific group chat or Discord server for your city's train line (most major cities have active, low-pressure spaces for commuters: NYC's 6 train crew, London's Northern line readers, Tokyo's Yamanote line book swap are all popular, where people drop their current reads, swap recs, and post their dumb takes mid-ride). You can even coordinate a "buddy read" where everyone reads the same short book over a month, and posts their favorite line or hot take in the chat at the same time you'd be on your evening commute. If you prefer to keep it even more low-key, start a little shared note with a friend who takes the same line, where you both drop 1-sentence takes when you finish a chapter. No long paragraphs, no pressure to respond right away---just a little way to feel connected during your ride. And if you're feeling extra adventurous? Leave a copy of the book you just finished in the free library at your local train station, with a sticky note on the inside cover with your 1-sentence take. You just started a one-person mini book club for the next commuter who picks it up.
Lean into the commute itself to make it more fun
The best part of a train book club is that it turns the most boring part of your day into a little adventure. Lean into that with small, silly tweaks: Pick books set in your city, so you can point out landmarks as you pass them. We read The Devil in the White City last month, and spent half our ride pointing out the old museum buildings we passed on the Red Line, making up fake facts about the serial killer to make the ride feel less like a grind. If your commute has a set number of stops, pick a book with the same number of chapters, and agree to discuss one chapter per stop. It's a dumb little game that makes the ride feel faster, and gives you a built-in timeline so you don't lose track of the plot. Save your "guilty pleasure" reads for commute time only. If you only let yourself read your favorite romance novels or silly graphic novels on the train, you'll start looking forward to your commute just so you can find out what happens next.
Quick don'ts to keep it low-pressure
- Don't feel like you have to finish a book. If you hate it 3 chapters in, quit it, and pick a new one next week. No guilt allowed.
- Don't judge anyone's reading tastes. If your book club buddy wants to read a trashy thriller on the commute, that's their business. The point is to have fun, not to impress anyone.
- Don't add extra work to your schedule. All the reading and discussion happens on the train, during time you were already wasting anyway. No after-work meetups, no extra homework, no stress.
The daily commute is usually the worst part of being a city dweller: it's crowded, it's unpredictable, and half the time you're stuck waiting 10 minutes on the platform because of a random signal issue. Turning it into a mini book club doesn't fix the delays or the overcrowding, but it gives you something to look forward to, a little dose of fun in the middle of a long work day, and a reason to stop scrolling and actually engage with something that makes you happy. You don't need a fancy membership, a fancy book, or even a big group of friends. All you need is the person sitting next to you, a cheap paperback, and 20 minutes of dead time you were already wasting anyway. Next time you're on the train, just ask the person next to you what they're reading. You might just end up with your new favorite book club.