Who said physical books are on their way out? This was the scene on the Hammersmith and City line on Wednesday.

I was reading Bill Emmott’s [amazon_link id=”0300186304″ target=”_blank” ]Good Italy, Bad Italy[/amazon_link]. My neighbour was reading [amazon_link id=”1903436338″ target=”_blank” ]King Richard II[/amazon_link], no doubt having just seen the superlative version shown in The Hollow Crown on BBC2 last week. Across the way, inevitably, a young man had a [amazon_link id=”B004GJXQ20″ target=”_blank” ]George Martin[/amazon_link] doorstop (although, as someone pointed out on Twitter, Shakespeare’s history plays are the original Game of Thrones). There was someone with a beaten up old copy of Nick Hornby’s [amazon_link id=”0140293469″ target=”_blank” ]High Fidelity[/amazon_link], and a serious looking chap with the paperback of [amazon_link id=”0141033576″ target=”_blank” ]Thinking, Fast and Slow[/amazon_link] by Daniel Kahneman.

[amazon_image id=”0300186304″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy Must Conquer Its Demons to Face the Future[/amazon_image]

There were, of course, a few Kindles to be seen. I now always assume that their owners are reading Fifty Shades of Grey.