Learn Hardcore Russian: В поезде мне хорошо читается, а дома вечером иногда совсем не читается. - On the train I read easily, but at home in the evening sometimes I can’t read at all.

Мне is in the dative because this is an impersonal construction describing how reading feels or goes for the speaker, not what the speaker does.

Я хорошо читаю = I read well (my skill, my action).
Мне хорошо читается = It’s easy/pleasant for me to read / Reading goes well for me (how the activity happens to me in this situation).

In Russian, such “how it goes for someone” sentences often use:

dative for the person: мне, ему, нам
a verb with -ся: читается, спится, работается

So мне here means “for me / to me” in this impersonal sense.

Why is there no subject? What is the subject of читается?

Grammatically, this is an impersonal sentence—it has no explicit subject in the nominative.

Russian often talks about states or how things go without a subject:

Мне холодно. – I am cold. (literally “It is cold to me.”)
Сегодня плохо работается. – It’s hard to work today.

Similarly, В поезде мне хорошо читается literally means something like:

“On the train, it reads well for me.”

The activity of reading is happening, but Russian doesn’t name a subject like “I” here; it just presents reading as a state or process that “is happening to me.”

What does the -ся ending in читается mean here? Is it a passive?

Here -ся is not really “reflexive” in the usual sense; it’s marking an impersonal / “how it goes” construction.

Читается can have different nuances depending on context:

Impersonal with a dative experiencer (our case):
- Мне хорошо читается. – I find it easy to read.
- Focus: how the action feels for the person.
Quasi-passive / property of the object:
- Книга легко читается. – The book is easy to read.
- Focus: the book has the property “is easy to read.”

It’s similar to passive in that the agent isn’t mentioned, but here it’s more about how an action proceeds, not who does it to whom.

What’s the difference between мне хорошо читается and я хорошо читаю?

They’re close in meaning but not the same:

Я хорошо читаю.
- Emphasis: my ability/skill as a reader.
- Rough: I read well (I’m a good reader).
Мне хорошо читается.
- Emphasis: the conditions / mood / situation make reading easy or pleasant right now or in general in this place/time.
- Rough: I can read easily / reading goes well for me (under these circumstances).

In the given sentence, the contrast is about circumstances:

On the train, reading “goes well” for me.
At home in the evening, sometimes reading just “doesn’t happen.”

So мне читается / не читается is about whether you’re in the right state/conditions to read, not whether you know how to read.

Could I say В поезде я хорошо читаю, а дома вечером иногда совсем не читаю instead? What would change?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct, but the nuance shifts:

В поезде я хорошо читаю… – sounds more like:
- On the train I read a lot / I manage to read well (possibly focusing on productivity or habit).
В поезде мне хорошо читается… – clearly emphasizes:
- On the train it’s easy/pleasant for me to read; reading just flows.

The мне читается / не читается version makes it sound more about:

feeling, mood, mental state, environment

The я читаю / не читаю version sounds more like a plain statement of what you do or don’t do, with less emotional coloring.

Why is it в поезде and not на поезде?

Because here в поезде means “in(side) the train”, i.e. the location where the reading happens.

в поезде = in the train (inside the carriage, as a place).
на поезде = by train (as a means of transport: “to go by train”).

So:

В поезде мне хорошо читается. – I read well when I’m on the train (physically sitting in it).
Я еду на поезде. – I am traveling by train.

What exactly does дома mean, and how is it different from в доме?

Дома is an adverb meaning “at home”.

дома = at home (general, your home environment)
в доме = in the house (inside a house as a physical building, more concrete/locational)

In this sentence:

… а дома вечером иногда совсем не читается.
- = but at home in the evening sometimes I just can’t get any reading done.

If you said в доме, it would sound oddly focused on the physical building, not the idea of “being at home” as a personal environment.

Why is вечером in this form, and what does it add to the sentence?

Вечером is the instrumental singular of вечер used adverbially to mean “in the evening” / “during the evening.”

It answers the question “когда?” (when?).

дома вечером = at home in the evening

So the structure is:

В поезде (where?) – мне хорошо читается.
А дома вечером (where? when?) – иногда совсем не читается.

Вечером narrows the time: not just “at home” in general, but specifically “in the evening at home.”

How do иногда and совсем не work together in иногда совсем не читается?

They combine to give a nuanced meaning:

иногда = sometimes
совсем не = not at all, absolutely not

So иногда совсем не читается is:

sometimes it doesn’t happen at all / sometimes I really can’t read at all.

Pragmatically:
There are evenings at home when the person just can’t get any reading done—zero, nothing.

Other possible nuances:

иногда не читается – sometimes reading doesn’t go (neutral).
иногда совсем не читается – sometimes reading really doesn’t go at all (stronger).

Why is the verb читается (imperfective)? Could we use a perfective like прочитается here?

In this construction, the imperfective is natural because we’re talking about:

an ongoing process / general ability in a situation, not a single completed act.

Читается here means:

“reading (as an activity) goes well / doesn’t go.”

A perfective like:

мне хорошо прочитается
would sound odd or force a very specific meaning (e.g., about one particular planned reading getting finished successfully), and even then it’s not idiomatic in this “how it generally goes” sense.

Impersonal мне X-ся with -ся is overwhelmingly used with imperfective to describe states and processes:

мне не спится, мне хорошо работается, ей трудно пишется, etc.

Are there other verbs that work like мне хорошо читается? Can you give some patterns?

Yes, this is a common pattern: dative person + adverb/adjective + verb with -ся to express “how something goes for someone.”

Examples:

Мне хорошо спится. – I sleep well / it’s easy for me to sleep (right now/in these conditions).
Сегодня мне не работается. – I can’t work today / work doesn’t go for me today.
Ему легко пишется. – Writing comes easily to him.
Нам здесь хорошо живётся. – We live well here (life is comfortable here).
Ей тяжело думается об этом. – It’s hard for her to think about this.

Your sentence fits this pattern:

мне хорошо читается / не читается – reading goes well / doesn’t go for me.

Can I replace хорошо with other words like легко or трудно? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can:

мне хорошо читается – it’s pleasant / comfortable to read.
мне легко читается – it’s easy to read (no effort).
мне трудно читается – it’s hard to read (requires effort).
мне плохо читается – reading doesn’t go well (uncomfortable, not productive).

So for your sentence, variants like:

В поезде мне легко читается… – On the train I find it easy to read…
… а дома вечером иногда очень трудно читается. – but at home in the evening sometimes it’s really hard to read.

The structure stays the same; only the nuance of your experience changes.

Could читается here be understood as “is being read (by someone)” in a passive sense?

In this sentence, no—native speakers will hear it as an impersonal “how it goes for me” construction, because of:

the presence of мне (dative experiencer)
the absence of any nominative subject (no “book”, no “text” specified)

Passive-like читается typically has a nominative subject:

Эта книга легко читается. – This book is easy to read.
(book = subject)

Your sentence:

В поезде мне хорошо читается…
- No subject, only мне in dative → impersonal state, not passive.

Where can иногда be placed in the second part? Is дома вечером иногда совсем не читается the only option?

Иногда is quite flexible. All of these are possible (with slightly different rhythms/emphasis):

… а дома вечером иногда совсем не читается.
(neutral, very natural)
… а иногда дома вечером совсем не читается.
– slight focus on “sometimes there are evenings at home when…”
… а дома иногда вечером совсем не читается.
– less common, slightly clunky; usually вечером and дома stick together as a chunk.

Most natural for everyday speech:

дома вечером иногда совсем не читается or
дома иногда вечером совсем не читается only if you really want to stress “sometimes in the evening” as opposed to other times of day.