Question: I want to tell someone the following:  

"I bring an e-reader with me on the bus every day so that I have something to do during my commute to work."  

Does the phrase "commute to work" clearly refer to the trip there **and** the trip back from work? Or is it more proper to say "commute to and from work" in order to ensure that it is clear that I mean both directions?

Answer: 
Using the word 'to' adds a sense of direction (that being towards place of work).

I would use:

> 
> "my daily commute"
> 
> 
> 

since the word [commute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuting) already describes the travel between work.
In OP's context, "commute" would normally include both journeys, but since "commuting" in this sense invariably implies "to and from **work**", the explicit mention of "to work" *could* mean only the outward journey.

Having said that, I think it would be a perverse interpretation to automatically assume only the outward journey was intended. But I wouldn't think it was unusual if the utterance went on to *force* that interpretation...

**...so I have something to do during my commute to work, but on the return journey I have a drink in the buffet car with colleagues.**

[Here's](http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=commute%20to%20and%20from,commute%20to&year_start=1950&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3) an NGram showing over 110K instances of "commute to", with less than 5K for "commute to and from". By definition 50% of every commuter's journeys are coming home – I seriously doubt they're talking about the outward journey over 95% of the time!