N.Y. MTA offers reading promotion to subway riders

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has partnered with Transit Wireless and Penguin Random House to launch "Subway Reads," a special eight-week long joint promotion celebrating the installation of free wireless connectivity in more than 175 underground subway stations. The promotion will provide customers with access to five free e-shorts, as well as extensive samples from full-length books, to enjoy while on the subway.

Subway Reads builds on Governor Cuomo's mandate for the MTA to accelerate the introduction of Wi-Fi to all 278 underground subway stations by the end of 2016. Recently added stations include the first six Wi-Fi activated stations in Brooklyn and Downtown Manhattan; you can find the latest Wi-Fi-enabled stations using the newly designed Transit Wireless WiFi coverage map.

Customers who visit one of the more than 175 underground subway stations will be able to log into the free Transit Wireless Wi-Fi and access two different categories of content:

Free e-Shorts
As part of "Subway Reads," Penguin Random House created a special platform to offer subway customers free access to five full-length e-shorts, including High Heat, a Jack Reacher novella by Lee Child; F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic short story, The Diamond As Big As The Ritz; 3 Truths and A Lie, a short story by Lisa Gardner; The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe; and At the Reunion Buffet by Alexander McCall Smith.

Samples of Full Length Books & "Read Time"
Subway customers will also be able to access extensive excerpts from 175 Penguin Random House publications. While selections come from a wide range of authors from all over the world, Penguin Random House included as many titles by New Yorkers – or about New York – as possible. As a result, selections include poetry by essential New York poets Walt Whitman and Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States, acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction including Beloved by Toni Morrison, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann,Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben, and Open City by Teju Cole, as well as Spanish-language titles such as Manuscrito Encontrado en Accra by Paulo Coelho, Así es Como la Pierdes by Junot Díaz, and El cuaderno de Mayaby Isabel Allende.

In order to optimize the reading experience for commuters, Penguin Random House also has created a special feature for the book excerpts called "read time" that enables customers to sort the short stories and samples by the amount of time it would take the average reader to complete them. A commuter who expects to spend half an hour on the train could, for example, click "30 minutes" on the Penguin Random House page, and be given a list of stories or samples that would take that long to read.

MTA customers will also be able to purchase the e-books in the promotion directly from various retailers with the click of a button and the MTA will receive a revenue share for any books actually sold.