True, and I'm already 10 chapters into Moby Dick, but it's just not the best environment for that. It feeds back into the article. There's a reason studying is synonymous with a quiet place, or with people also studying with you. Doing it under less ideal circumstances than that creates overhead on your attempts to "get ahead" that people with means do not have to deal with. Not making excuses for myself, I am of means, but I can definitely see how an uphill situation quickly becomes a complete vertical situation.
I've been making some good progress coding on the bus, fwiw... but a new, light-ish laptop with battery life certainly helps with that, so that's more an argument for why more people with means should be taking the bus more rather than any kind of dismissal of your thesis.
(Sorry for the late reply) I spent too much time over the past few months putting a budget together, and I'm about to head back to school to finish the last year of my degree while working, after which I'm likely getting married, so I'm being frugal. My response to my car crash was, "get through this spending as little money as possible. Also make going without a car hurt so that paying for rental car coverage next time is easier". I also thought the ordeal would be handled by my insurance by last Friday, but the police report hasn't been finished and is holding everything up.
As for the laptop, I've got a Samsung Chromebook (the small, ARM one) running Ubuntu and I recommend it. It's ARM, which makes getting things running a bit hard, and it's not the beefiest, so if you want to wait for the new ones this year that will likely be x86 and beefier for $250, you can do that too. I don't take it on the bus though. That was the first bit of advice I got from someone else on the bus.
"Also make going without a car hurt so that paying for rental car coverage next time is easier."
On the flip side, I like to make sure I can get by without a car. Of course, my understanding is that's a whole ton easier up here (Bay Area) than down there.
I used to commute nearly an hour each way on the tube in London, and read endlessly. Until someone asked me about the books I'd read lately and in could barely recall then story lines. Yes at the time I was engaged and was enjoying the story and act of reading, but it just didn't go in to my mind in the same way that reading at home or on the beach does.
So I stopped reading and started cycling.
Much better use of my time, and I was forced to spend that time with my thoughts (and watching my safety on the road) I was better off mentally than when I was kidding myself that I was being productive.
I'm not saying you can't read or work on a commute, but it did not work for me in the slightest.