Two years ago, Uli Beutter Cohen started asking people what they were reading on the subway and documenting it – now she’s taking the project to other cities

“Don’t ask what New York can do for you. Find out what you can give to New York.”

Such was the advice a friend gave Uli Beutter Cohen upon her imminent move to New York City. Beutter Cohen swapped south Germany for the US 14 years ago, spending the majority of that time on the west coast before deciding to make the move east. But she had reservations about the move. “I’m not kidding: I was very afraid of the subway,” she says. “I thought: how can anyone navigate it? So, [before moving, I went] and forced myself to take a ride on the G train.”

New Yorkers would probably be astonished at the possibility of someone romanticizing that particular line, which travels between Queens and Brooklyn and is famous for its smaller trains, frequent disruptions and poor service (although statistically that characterisation isn’t accurate). But “there was something magical that happened there” for Uli. She remembers the train looking “like a caterpillar” coming out of a tunnel. Her fascination with the subway prompted her to start an Instagram account called Subway Book Review in December, which later developed into a Tumblr. With almost 45,000 followers and counting, the account features book recommendations from strangers, pictured on the subway with the books they are reading.



It all started after she was immediately struck by “how quiet the subway is in New York. People have this unspoken code of conduct, even on packed trains,” she explains. “You have this image of New Yorkers – so chatty, and curious, and I thought: ‘It can’t be that I’m standing in front of all these people and not talking to them.’” Books became an excuse to start conversations – and she is amazed at “how much of people’s lives is connected to the books they’re reading”. The project is giving Beutter Cohen, who “above ground” works for mental health start-up Everbliss, a new sense of purpose. “Older New Yorkers have told me that I’m bringing something back to the subway that is getting lost.”

After almost two years running the project, she has figured out that some lines are better than others when it comes to literary rides, and there are trains she avoids when scouting for bookworms: “For some reason, the numbered ones aren’t ideal. The G and the F are amazing book lines.”

Open call for new cities

Beutter Cohen’s plan is to expand the project to other cities in 2016. For that, she’s just launched a call-out for people who might want to become chapter curators for their own city. Anyone who wants to apply can do it here.

Some of Uli Beutter Cohen’s favourite recommendations

You can see more here.