Abibliophobics Rejoice! The MTA Has Introduced 'Subway Reads'

If you live in New York, love to read and commute on the subways, it's likely you've at least once endured a bout of abibliophobia -- that is, a fear of lack of reading material. It seems the MTA has ensured you'll never ever have to endure such torture with "Subway Reads," a new platform that delivers free reading material straight straight to your mobile devices.

Created in partnership with Penguin/Random House and Transit Wireless, the service gives New Yorkers access to free novellas or book excerpts, just long enough for their commutes.

Users can access Subway Reads by logging onto the free Transit Wireless Wi-Fi. They'll then be able to download short stories from authors including Lee Child, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edgar Allen Poe, as well as Penguin Random House publication excerpts with a New York theme, from writers including Walt Whitman, Billy Collins, Ron Chernow, Jonathan Lethem, Toni Morrison and Harlan Coben. Readers will also find some Spanish-language titles, from Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende.

Project partner Transit Wireless is the provider that brings free wireless internet to more than 175 MTA underground subway stations, a number that will increase to 278 by end of year.

Those of us living in car cities demand an audiobook version.