h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Fascinating though their book/newspaper etc might be, people can tell if you are reading over their shoulder. This has several psychological implications. They might think you are a cheapskate who can't be bothered to buy your own reading material. They might think that you will be judging them in some way, by their reading matter. You might personally see something you don't want to see, which taken out of context could be really embarrassing for you when they realise that you've been reading it.

However, if you really must read over other people's shoulders on the tube pick a decent tube line. The District Line is particularly good as it goes into Temple and so's the Central Line as it goes into Chancery Lane and you might be able to see lots of lawyers and barristers "briefs" or "cases" or whatever they call them. I've seen lawyers reading all sorts of cases on the tube. What if I happened to be on the jury? Or what if I was on the opposite side? Why do these people read so many confidential items on the tube??

Remember the lines from this poem when you think about who might be sitting next to you

"They're a ravenous horde -- and they all came on board
At Sloane Square and South Kensington Stations.
And bound on that journey you find your attorney
(Who started that morning from Devon)"

The Nightmare Song, from Iolanthe W.S.Gilbert

However, according to Andrew Martin writer of the weekly Tube Talk feature in ES magazine, there is another reason for reading on the tube:

"It is absolutely not acceptable to make eye contact on the Tube. If God had meant us to look at our fellow traveller, he would not have invented the Evening Standard".