Comfort reading

I always have a book. I keep old paperbacks in the car in case I decide to stop at a fast food place for lunch (or any other place to eat). The trick is to have a book you are interested in enough to read during a meal, but not interested enough in to take it in the house - thus depriving yourself of a book to read when the need arises. I've been known to detour to a book store to pick up something to read while I eat, if I can't get home.

I don't understand people who don't read while eating alone. Reading at the table used to be forbidden when I was growing up. We could read the paper (the funnies, of course) at breakfast, but since lunch was in the dining room with a tablecloth and Peggy serving and the whole family present - books were not allowed.

The pattern changed a little when we got TV - we would eat supper in the kitchen and watch our one channel.

Now both Byron and I read through meals AND have the TV on.

Comfort reading is also what I have when I can't sleep. They say that stewing in bed while not sleeping is counter-productive and makes for bad memories of your bed. So I usually move to my chaise longue where I have a good light, and read. I usually don't choose that new thriller or the psychological mystery at that time. This is the time to reread an old, comfortable favorite. Some of mine are the Mary Lasswell novels about the three old ladies in San Diego, Agatha Christie mysteries, Phoebe Atwood Taylor's Asey Mayo and Leonidas Witherall mysteries, the Cheaper by the Dozen books, or Betty MacDonald's "The Egg and I" or her Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. You don't want anything troubling, which might keep you awake.

Now that I have a Kindle (thank you to the family for the Mother's Day gift!), it will be interesting to see if my pattern changes. i tried it out this morning at Panda Express. I downloaded "Tea for the Traditionally Built" by Alexander McCall Smith and it is great. A wonderful feature is your ability to choose the size font that you can read most comfortably.

It will never take the place of the book in the bathtub, however.