It’s hard to ride a DART train these days without invading the personal space of your fellow commuters. Although most people fiddle with their phones, a good number still read books. This is the inaugural edition of a new series of posts on FrontRow we’re calling “Riding and Reading.” Here’s what the people around me were reading this week:

Northbound Red Line train, leaving downtown at 5:50 p.m. Monday:

— Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence by H.W. Brands

— Smack: Heroin and the American City by Eric C. Schneider (checked out of the Richardson Public Library)

— The Bible, specifically the Book of Exodus (being read by a woman with a pen in hand for marking favorite verses)

Southbound Red Line train, rolling into Mockingbird Station at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday:

— Going Broke by Trista Russell, specifically a chapter called “Bank Statement #3”

— The Mercy Rule by John Lescroart

Northbound Red Line train, leaving downtown at 9:15 p.m., when the crowd is not very bookish:

— Finding Calcutta by Mary Toplin

Southbound Blue Line train, leaving Mockingbird Station at 8:30 a.m. Thursday:

— Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

— Breathless by Dean Koontz, accessorized with a fancy bejeweled bookmark

Northbound Red Line, leaving downtown at 4:30 p.m.:

— Open by Andre Agassi

— For the Love of Pete by Sherryl Woods

— A paperback copy of Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon that looked like it had spent time underwater