A time and place for reading: what's yours?

Good question, Tartarin! I read different things at different times and places. To wit:

Meals at the kitchen table: Can only read newspapers, never books. Books and serious magazines I read when I can focus on reading--no eating (drinking is OK), no music. I never read in the bathroom, under any conditions.

All this is based on long custom. Reading the paper at the table, for instance, was how I escaped from boring meals when my mother droned on about her days and everyone ate as quickly as possible.

I also read while I ride the bus to work, usually the paper, but books are acceptable there, too.

How about you?

I do most of my reading in the winter since things pretty much slow down to a crawl. I have a comfy lazyboy chair that I like to read in late at night when everyone is sleeping.

I've changed my reading habits over the years. When I used to travel a lot I read while waiting on planes or in flight. Then I switched jobs and was commuting on the subway so I read on the subway on my way to.from work every day but now it's mostly a chapter or two before bed at night. Every now and again I get to spend an afternoon on the patio with a pitcher of iced tea and a book but this year has been way to rainy to get much of that in.

The paper at the table. Books mostly at night, preferably late. There's an extra feeling I get about getting into bed at night, and anticipating the book. Always stacks of them on the big round table next to the bed. Can't read on the sofa; I fall asleep. But I can read on a chair, and ensconced outside with the cat and iced tea. The bathroom is reserved for crossword puzzles and crostics.

My favorite reading time is in the winter, at night, during a rain or snow storm, or with all the snow already there.

As for doctot's offices, I usually bring the old New Yorkers, or New Republics, or whatever as a contribution. And I usually take home the PC World, since, I've been told, I'm the only patient who reads it.

I have The Chair -- actually, it was my father's old chair (and will soon have to be replaced!). Since I live a rural life, reading depends on when the sun goes down in the evening, which gives me a short time between dusk and bedtime. I get up pretty early and that's my best time for reading -- IF I don't have outside chores to do which I often do in summer and which I try to keep to the cooler morning hours. Elsewhere, I've noted that I keep Chekhov's short stories in the car -- for that 90 minute wait in the garage when the car's being repaired, for that 20 minute wait in the dentists's office, for that lunch eaten when I'm on the road (and I can't eat without reading!). Winter is a better time for reading -- more dark hours. Not having TV has been a major plus; having A2K, while not exactly a minus, does eat into reading time... Oh yeah, and I'm WAY oversubscribed to periodicals (we've discussed this before!). Another quirk. Yes, yes, I know hardcover books are Better, but I like the feel of the paperback much more and wait for books to come out in ppb before reading them. Not academic books, though. They rarely seem to come out in paperback. Oh, and one more thing (this is something I've always done), I keep a notebook with me at all times when I'm reading (except when eating!). I jot down ideas provoked by what I'm reading in really, really bad handwriting which is almost impossible to decipher and therefore useless much of the time!

I do have a chair I like a lot, a Stickley in my living room. I don't have a lot of nice furniture, but I decided I could justify one nice chair. And that's where I do most of my reading. Sitting there with a good book is about as refined as I get...

Like most of you, I read the newspapers on the kitchen table. My chair in the living room is flanked with a stack of books--both library books and indulgent paperbacks. Magazines are in the bathroom and in the basket of my stationary bicycle.

I always have a re-readable paperback in my tote bag (just in case I have to head out the door without time for a judicious selection.

As a bulwark and balance to the computer, I have a small bookcase filled with books to read and books to reread.

When I last replaced my respectable purse, I attracted the suspicious attention of a vigilant sales clerk. Obviously she did not feel that the most important aspect of a stylish piece of leather was whether or not a thick paperback would fit inside.

I like to read books either sprawled out on the couch or sitting on my patio -- newspapers at the table. I probably do more reading in the winter, but there is something particularly relaxing about sitting outside with a good book. I also love reading through magazines at the doctor's office -- even if they only have "Fly fishing Weekly" or something like that -- because it is something I wouldn't pick up for myself at the store, I always end up learning something I wouldn't have, otherwise.

Reading outside is a treat for me, too, especially because, around here, it's not exactly an everyday activity. But when it's warm and dry, I'm out there. Newspapers, magazines, books--all are suitable for outdoor reading. Throw in a cigar and a glass of ice water (or something stronger)--and I'm happy. Until, of course, some SOB cranks up his power mower or trimmer. Paradise lost!

Fly Fishing Weekly! That's the best magazine in the whole world! lol

I have a tote problem. For a variety of reasons I carry both a cellphone (which I never use but which is for emergencies -- at which point the battery will have run out of course) and a digital camera along with various bits of necessary female drek in my REI shoulderbag. It's gotten pretty heavy. So the Chekhov lives in the car (and smells like it: wet dog + mechanic's ciggie smoke). It would be nice to be very, very thin and wear chic cargo pants with a ppb in every pocket. It'd look funny, but it'd be handy...

You could wear one of those fly-fishing vests, Tartarin. Lots of pockets--and so chic!

Why not both? (I wish I could draw an avatar of the ideal self, the pocket person, laden with half-read books.)

I've got a friend who wears a Filson canvas jacket sometimes. It has about a dozen pockets, and some are large. He's been known to carry a small dictionary and a fifth of whisky, among other things, when he wears it...

All this is reminding me of Virginia Woolf wading into the river...

Good point. She used stones, if memory serves, but books and bottles would probably work well, too...

Soggy Ulysses, or perhaps selected vols of the OED...

I guess the new Harry Potter volume would work well, too...

I've read that literate divers who must ascend slowly to avoid the dreaded bends keep soggy paperbacks under water to amuse themselves while their blood nitrogen levels stabilize.

Evidently the nasty, crinkly waterlogged book gets that way when it is dried out. When kept under water, the book is pleasant to read.