The Book Tower

Following last week’s Reading in Public, a follow up meme from Booking Through Thursday. Where don’t you read?

Although I try to squeeze in a chapter or two at lunchtimes, I don’t read at work. Well, I do in a way, but it’s all work related, which tends to take the pleasure out of it. As I manage a website, I can get away with looking at forums and blogs and internet magazines in the name of research although there’s only a limit that my conscience will allow.

My daily commute to work lasts for an hour each way and because it’s by car I lose a lot of valuable reading time. I miss squeezing onto the underground with my paperback when I lived in London, which is something I never thought I’d say. I’m stuck instead with UK radio, which can rot the soul. I know, I should try audio books.

As I said before, I try not to read where I think it might offend others. Mainly family gatherings, or visits to places where I am meant to be doing something, such as water parks, which – inexplicably – I always find myself in. I’ve cunningly found a way around these situations. If you pack a book with your flask and sandwiches for the family picnic, or slip one in with your swimming costume and towel, you need only produce it momentarily when others are looking. Then there’s always the possiblility of striking up a book-related conversation if someone like-minded is passing round the paper plates, or standing behind you in the queue for the water rapids.

Talking of water, I never read in the bath as I can’t bear wrinkly pages, and logistics prevent me from reading whilst sleeping (although I’ve tried, and often wake up in the morning with an open book sprawled over me). Otherwise, I will try my best to read when and where I can.