"Reading and Riding" is the first in-depth study of Hachette and Company's railroad bookstore network. The Bibliotheque des Chemins de Fer, begun in 1853 as a means to market a special collection of books to train travelers, developed into France's first national chain bookstore. This analysis of the railroad bookstore network demonstrates how it transformed Hachette and Company from an academic publishing house into Europe's dominant publisher and distributor of all types of books, newspapers, and periodicals. It reveals the network's critical role in the modernization of the French publishing industry through the application of new marketing techniques, the use of the growing rail network as a primary means of distribution, and the large-scale employment of women.