Riding The Rails

Spent the day with the Hubbin riding the rails around the Virginia area.  There is something a bit old school romantic about a train, something old fashioned and adventurous that I love.  I very much associate trains and reading.  There is nothing better then clickity clacking down the tracks with the scenery flying by and a good book in your hands.  I don't know why reading on a train is better then reading on any other mode of transportation, but it is.  I think I associate trains and books together so strongly because so many of my favorite books begin (or sometimes end) with a train ride.

The Chronicles of Narnia- Most of the books in this series have a train ride somewhere in them.  The four children go to the country side in the first book on a train.  In the second and third book a train station is a starting and ending point and of course in the last book a train is the ultimate end.  So many trains!

Anne of Green Gables- Anne (with an E) describes her train rides in such an imaginative, romantic, whimsical way that one cannot help but associate a spring time ride on the train with our favorite carrot top.  Today's train ride through the blossoming tree's brought her to mind.

The Boxcar Children-One of my childhood favorites a group of  four children (the magic number) live without adult supervision in a box car.  This of course inspired me to drag my three younger siblings around looking for our own train living situation...until Mamma called us home that is.

Pollyanna-Our little ray of sunshine both arrives and leave her book on a train, marking the start of a new adventure each time.  I must admit I had many visions of being carried to and from a train through a crowd of admirers after a horrific, yet heroic accident...what can I say, I have always been a drama queen.

Harry Potter-Of course we can't forget the Hogwarts Express, perhaps one of the most wonderful and magical modes of transportation.  The only problem with reading about the Hogwarts train is that I am very disappointed when my train does not have a trolley full of cauldron cakes, pumpkin juice or Droobles best blowing gum.

I am very happy that I got to have my little reading adventure today.  The weather was perfect, the seats were perfect, the book was perfect, the company was perfect.  All in all a very refreshing, nostalgic, reading type of day.
A word of caution, I am starting a 60 hour shift at the station so Monday's post may be late, incoherent or non exsistant, but I shall do my best.

What is your favorite mode of transportation to read on?  Do you think trains are nostalgic or out dated?  Does the very idea of reading while moving make you sick?