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Here’s how you can ride the NYC “Library Train”

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With the launch of the Subway Library, a NYPL-inspired, wrapped train is rolling through Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens this summer.

To celebrate New York City’s latest project: free underground wifi and cell service, the NYC public libraries, the MTA, and Transit Wireless have teamed up for the “Subway Library,” a new initiative that will provide access to free books for the thousands of weary commuters who ride the subway to work every day.

All you have to do is download SimplyE, the free library e-reader app that allows you to browse, borrow, and read hundreds of e-books from your smartphone or e-reader device while on the train. Then, once you’re underground, connect to the TransitWireless wifi and start reading. The categories range from New York stories to thrillers, to Young Adult, with new releases like Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell.

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Commuters will also have the opportunity to ride the Library Train, which has been made to look like the NYPL’s Rose Main Reading Room. Seats and doors have been given the illusion of bookshelves, and the ceiling of the car is ornately designed, just like you would see at the historic public library itself.

While the “library” is available to use on any MTA train, you can find the decorated train alternating on the E and F lines on both the 6th Ave and 8th Ave corridor lines until July 20. TransitWireless and the NYPL will also be hosting a contest with the chance to win a Kindle, Library Shop merchandise, and other prizes by snapping a pic of yourself on the train and sharing it to social media with the hashtag #SubwayLibrary.

So the next time you’re packed into the insufferable L train with all the hipster Brooklynites, where you’ll inevitably get re-routed to the stop you didn’t want, at least you’ll have a good book to get lost in.

Chelsea Szmania

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