Books on rails

Books on the Rails Government of Mexico City

In Mexico City, run by the leftist Democratic Revolutionary party, a huge and unique campaign has begun to promote literacy and provide an "antidote to the lack of reading". People who use the Metro rail now have the opportunity to read while they travel. Some 250,000 copies of short texts -- essays, stories and poems -- by 9 Mexican writers have been made available at 22 Metro stations on the '3 Line' (one level in the city's combined three-level train route, that altogether transports 4.7 million people a day). People can pick up these texts from stands set up in these stations.

The texts are for free. But it is also hoped that after people have gone through the booklet they pick, they will "return" it to the stands in any of the stations. What if they don't? "The expropriation of a copy should be reason to celebrate," says writer Carlos Monsivias. If a reader does not return the book upon arrival at his or her destination, it means he or she is reading it, he adds.