Millions of people around the world use their commutes to read books. In London, commuters have been handed free books to enjoy on their way to work, in a program that has proved wildly popular. The affordability of e-readers has also made it easy to get through a novel during your journey – so if you read a lot of books on the commute, you’re not alone!
However, there may be times when you’ve run out of free e-books to read, or maybe Proust’s prose just isn’t entertaining you any more. For that, you’ll need to turn to some other activities to enjoy yourself during the commute.
Play Games
While most e-readers don’t support file types other than PDFs and specialized e-book files, many tablets do feature mobile browsers and allow you to download apps. If you’re on a tablet and not an e-reader then you’re in luck because there are hundreds of thousands of easy-to-play games that allow for some casual fun on the way to work.
For something accessible, you could have a look at real money bingo. These are played directly through the host sites on mobile browsers, so you don’t need to worry about downloading an app. There are single-player bingo games or for something competitive, there’s also multiplayer bingo. The game isn’t difficult to follow making it ideal for commuters, plus bonuses and descriptions of bingo game themes will help you to choose a game that you’ll like if you haven’t played before.
Read Articles
Your e-reader or tablet isn’t just suitable for reading e-books – it’s also great for reading articles. There are some brilliant apps for reading news, such as Apple News (which comes preloaded on all iOS devices), Google News (which pulls sources from news outlets around the world), and AP Mobile (the news app for Associated Press articles). These apps are brilliant if you have less time to read on your commute or if you don’t have any books left on your reading list. You’ll still get to read, but you’ll be reading something shorter and you’ll be up-to-date on the world’s goings-on by the time you get to work.
Even if your e-reader doesn’t support apps, you can save online articles and send them to your e-reader. On Firefox and Chrome, install the Send to Kindle extension to send an article to your e-reader and make it readable on your device. However, be warned that it strips formatting so the articles may look a little different.
Watch Movies
In the US and Canada, the average commute is just under half an hour and in the UK it’s just under an hour. While the time you have will vary on your location, you will likely have long enough to watch a movie or at least catch up on the latest episode of your favorite TV show.
This is again one for those with access to a tablet or mobile device, but there are some great apps for streaming movies including Netflix, Tubi TV, and Vudu. Many of them allow you to stream media for free, or with a small subscription cost (trial periods are also available). With thousands of shows, it should mean that you have entertainment for as long as you commute to work!
Commuting to work can often be boring, but it doesn’t have to be. Watching movies, playing games, and looking at popular articles online are some other ways for you to have fun while you travel to work – not just reading. This way, your commutes can stay productive and you can enjoy yourself.
Markus lives in San Francisco, California and is the video game and audio expert on Good e-Reader! He has a huge interest in new e-readers and tablets, and gaming.
