I love to indulge in 19th century modern pleasures, such as reading magazines on a train. This is why I read with great pleasure – from my window seat in my living room – Tyler Brûlé’s most recent Fast Lane column on the FT last weekend.
To be honest, one needs to be discerning in picking trains and press. The German combo highlighted in the article is one of the most satisfying. I can’t resist the temptation of stocking up on Brand Eins, Dummy, Der Spiegel, WiWo when I am in a Bahnhof, be it Munich, Berlin or Frankfurt, thus making my tote bag with Monocle, The Economist and Wired definitely bursting at the seams. And no matter what my German friends say, I still find ICE trains quite above EU average!
Eurostar crossing the channel for me is synonimus with Tatler, Vogue UK and L’Officiel. But this is more like browsing magazines, not really an immersive experience. These magazines remind me more about work, so they are not so relaxing as they used to be 10 years ago, when I was sipping advertising, not tasting it while thinking about the competition’s advertising strategies. And to be honest they just look all the same.
Getting through Brand Eins needs definitely more focus since for me German is not a language I can browse through. I have to embrace the text, dive into it, abstract from everything else. And mark with my purple PILOT pen a few newly minted German words which I will then add to my vocabulary.
Trains and good press. What a fabulous way to connect and disconnect at the same time. To reach a destination without jumping towards it. Reading, not browsing. And conversating with a total stranger on a train retains such a magic that no blog, forum, facebook will ever be able to convey.
The train, sublime social networking platform, leaving in 4 minutes from platform 3!
Photo: www.seat61 .com
Sarà…ma io in treno mi faccio solo delle enormi dormite!!!
Sono out in tutti i sensi….
perche’no…ma la grande cosa del treno e’ che, per quante cose da fare (in ufficio, in casa) ti possano venire in mente, in treno ti puoi solo rilassare!! (sempre che sia un treno come si deve). e’ meglio del sofa’!
E’ il classico non luogo, come direbbe Augé….
Dopo una capatina al centro commerciale, un treno dormiente ci sta tutto!
Ero la meringa mascherata da marito della meringa…;-)