Behold! The well-read, well-coiffed, well-heeled man in his natural habitat: The subway.An Instagram account named @HotDudesReading has become a voyeuristic sensation, documenting attractive young men on the New York subway system with books in their hands. Their user bio strictly advises: #NoKindles. As of today, they have 393,000 followers.
The account moderators, who asked to remain anonymous for an interview with Medium, identified themselves as “a very close-knit group of 20- and 30-something male & female New Yorkers” who “always chatted about falling in love on our subway commute.”
The common denominator? Hotness. Duh.
Right, right. But also books! Real paper and ink books! Reading on the subway is weird novelty that has taken the digital masses by storm, some photos having upward 40,000 likes and comments from admirers, such as: “I’d travel across middle earth without shoes blindfolded & battle Sauron for his love.” While the ethics of this venture are unquestionably questionable, as it’s unclear whether the subjects have agreed to be photographed in the wild, the authors of the account have approached the pursuit as urban anthropological research of sorts. They tell FlavorWire:
“We’ve noticed certain patterns, like bearded hipsters are a dime a dozen on the L, and the Wall Street types dominate the 4/5/6, but there are hot guys reading all over this city. We love capturing the different types regardless of the line.”
Unfortunately Fortunately the coverage hasn’t spread beyond New York City, no MBTA-riding-while-reading hotties representing–yet. However, our subway system lacks the ability to work, so we’re taking the defense on that one. But until the fateful day that we too receive an Attractive and Literate Men on Public Transit account of our own, we shall have to live vicariously through our Manhattan-based, mahogany-bound lovers on Instagram, where there is no limit on shame when it lives in a perfectly filtered square with a snarky caption and appropriately mindful hashtags.
