fiction files redux discussion

i'm driving along this morning and get stuck behind a really really slow car, so i go around them and look over as i'm passing and instead of seeing someone on their cellphone or applying mascara, the lady is reading a paperback! while driving! she has it propped up on her steering wheel. i'm always happy to see someone reading, but jeez, c'mon in the driver's seat?

i myself am an unadventurous reader. i usually read in bed before sleeping. maybe lounge on the couch. the weirdest place i guess i've ever read would be in the bathtub. very not weird, i know. and i can't even read in the car (as a passenger!) at all anymore. motion sickness. though as a kid i could. on a family trip to mexico when i was 10, i read "amityville horror" in the back seat. and i can't even read on the elliptical. i've tried. so i watch "married with children" and listen to t rex. what about you guys? read anywhere interesting?

Grad school convinced me that I could read anywhere, but I'd probably draw the line at reading while driving.

I'm familiar enough with many of the local trails that I have been known to read while hiking, which has been known to offend others on the trail.

i read a lot at the laundromat. i like to read there because i can leave my book there, drive home, realize three days later i forgot the book, go back, and it's still right where i left it. nobody in the laundromat has any interest in books. they probably don't even know what they are. some kind of strange lizard.

t rex!!!!!

Neil wrote: I'm familiar enough with many of the local trails that I have been known to read whi..."

interesting.

were they offended because they felt you were missing out or offended because they thought you would trip and bring them down a mountain with you?

Between my job, my fiction writing, my freelance work, and my family, I find myself reading almost exclusively on the toilet these days. It's the only chance/time I have.

One ancillary disadvantage: reading has become more expensive, since I now have to buy every book I read (I won't read a library book on the pot, out of basic decency).

-G

Neil wrote: "I'm familiar enough with many of the local trails that I have been known to read while hiking, which has been known to offend others on the trail."

If I did that I'd face plant into the book about every ten seconds. How do you not fall?

I'm with you Jen in that I usually read in bed before going to sleep. Or I read on the couch while Phillip watches football.

On the other hand, I do carry a book with me at all times so I do read in other places: at the gym while riding the stationary bike, in my work cafeteria, in doctors' waiting rooms, in a movie theater waiting for the movie to start, in a restaurant if I'm eating alone or just waiting for someone to meet me, etc. I guess those places aren't really strange though.

interesting.

were they offended because they felt you were missing out or offended because..."

Offended because I'm ignoring the beauty of the nature around me. Obviously not knowing how often I've traveled those trails.

If I did that I'd face plant into t..."

Despite my glasses, I have excellent peripheral vision. In addition, I only do this on trails I have some familiarity with.

Ben wrote: "i read a lot at the laundromat. i like to read there because i can leave my book there, drive home, realize three days later i forgot the book, go back, and it's still right where i left it. nobody..."

yes, t rex! aren't you proud?

i lived above a laundromat once. in the summer. it got really really hot up there, living above the laundromat. i got clothes stolen on more than one occasion. i never left a book there though.

I went to Holland Park once and left my awesome "Literary Walks of London" book on a bench...I realised this and went back...about 3 minutes later...and some fucker had stolen it...I hope they are reading it and not using it to make roaches for joints...that would piss me off.

despite having promised lara that i would stop doing this, i do still read while walking. sometimes, if the sidewalk is really crowded, i'll stop at the corner of a building to finish reading the end of a section.

honestly, i don't think there is a bad place to read. except while hiking. how do you look at the birds and the fungi if you are reading, neil?

Patty wrote: "despite having promised lara that i would stop doing this, i do still read while walking. sometimes, if the sidewalk is really crowded, i'll stop at the corner of a building to finish reading the e..."

Seeing people reading whilst walking really pisses me off...it just irks me...truly...almost as much as seeing people reading Ayn Rand during this economic crisis (it's happened more than you'd think!)

I'll make an exception for Patty though. She's cool.

I was about to say... how can we give someone as dear and wonderful as Patty a hard time about anything?

Patty wrote: "despite having promised lara that i would stop doing this, i do still read while walking. sometimes, if the sidewalk is really crowded, i'll stop at the corner of a building to finish reading the e..."

I only do this on trails I know well. If the trail is new to me, or the season has changed or something else catches my eye I'm all about checking the scenery out. I do hike 2 or 3 times a week.

No pass for me to read while walkin', eh? I see how it is. ; P

i just remembered! i would read in the big ash tree in my parent's back yard when i was a kid. i read several pippi longstocking and ramona quimby books up there. i even got attacked by a blue jay once. sadly, i have no climbable trees in my yard. if i can even climb a tree now.

Childhood reading nooks!

I grew up in a fairly old house, and I loved to read ghost stories/horror novels in the old coal room. There were no windows, it was hard to access, and very very quiet. My father had carpeted the whole room, floor walls and ceiling. I brought in some old lamps and I was set. It was practically a sensory deprivation tank.

you've lured me in with this one from my never-ending quest to find a good job. still no job, by the way. it's been a year.

anyhow, i really hope we can open up that pass pile martyn, because i also walk around the city reading. inevitably, some yuckster will say, "must be a great book" as they pass by. like neil, i have excellent peripheral and am very good at not inconveniencing others while i am hucking up the street with my book, and i've been doing it since i was a kid, so i don't foresee any changes there.

like kerry, i always have a book in my bag, if not two or three, for incidental reading. and in fact looking at all of your places, i have to say the only place i don't read that you've listed is on the can, and i'm less inclined to spend hours reading in the tub than i used to be. laundromats can have excellent acoustics so i used to give impromptu concerts in those during reading breaks, annoying suckers like jen who had the misfortune to live above or beside them. :P

those childhood reading nook stories are the ones that really got to me though: i lived in a really small house (a little over 800 square feet) with a lot of people (including me there were 8) so there wasn't very much privacy, or quiet. i read and played a lot under the dining room table, drawing and writing on the underside as i lay there. i also read in a pup tent in my yard, or under my favourite tree a lot, and when i became a teenager i used to pull the windows out in my bedroom (by then all my siblings had moved out), crawl out on the roof and read, and smoke.

i've read during concerts which might be the weirdest place, i guess. :)

I can't think of a weird place.

I read everywhere when I was a kid, there is no one place I remember - maybe because we lived in so many different homes - I moved almost every year of my life from the age of 5 to the age of ... hmm... 15? Yeah, just about, with one or two 2-year stints.

I do remember that I used to read out loud, all the time, just to annoy my brother. We read in the same room - me in some kind of yellow wicker rocking/easy chair kind of thing, my brother on the floor: "Moooom, can you please tell Shelby to read to herself?"

I even read comic books out loud. God, that used to piss him off.

Maureen wrote: "you've lured me in with this one from my never-ending quest to find a good job. still no job, by the way. it's been a year.

anyhow, i really hope we can open up that pass pile martyn, because i a..."

Dear Maureen, please submit an application form, available from my good self, requesting the pass.

M.