Reading in Bed

Amusement Oi, Caldecott :)

The Purgatory of Submission

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
For as long as I can remember, I've read in bed before going to sleep.

I read in other places, of course, including on the 'throne'! I've known several people who had bookshelves in their bathrooms, so they plainly expected you to be gone for some time and to come out from your ablutions more intelligent than when you entered.

Reading at work was easy when I was a librarian and a teacher, as it's expected, but I once had a dreadful job on a production line in a factory that made artificial cream. I was second in the process, standing on a raised platform 12' high, manning a stainless steel bath which tilted in a cradle operated by a large lever. Huge pipes supplied me with liquid ingredients, pumped from silos large enough to contain a bus. I filled the bath with the correct proportions of ingredients—lecithin, milk powder, gelatine, sweetener and vegetable oil, stirring it with a giant wooden spoon to prevent clogging, before tipping the mixture into another pipe which descended to filters and blending mechanisms. These pipes decreased in size until they entered the packing room, where the jollop was poured into pots to be sealed with foil lids. I was up there with nothing do for twenty minutes, in between batches, so took to reading a paperback—until the floor manager saw me. I was banned from reading...worker ants aren't meant to use their brains.

Incidentally, the single and double 'cream' we made had an extra ingredient for a couple of weeks, as a lazy operative failed to clean one of the filters, which was awkward to dismantle. He went on holiday, and his replacement discovered a dead and rather rotten rat in the filter! They didn't issue a recall for the thousands of pots of cream affected.

Laying in bed with books for companions is relaxing. I've lived alone for a while, but have read to wives and lovers, and occasionally been read to. There's something that's charmingly soothing about being told a story, like regressing to childhood.

I'm not sure that I could easily get to sleep, without reading first. I like to ring the changes, so have four books on the go at the moment—a novel, a poetry collection, a lovely art book by David Trigg called Reading Art: Art For Book Lovers and a popular psychology book. About 90 minutes of reading sees me nodding off, and after turning the darkness on, I send a wish to my self-conscious about my WIP before descending into sleep.

Do you read in bed?

To yourself, a partner or a child?

Do you have a clip-on book light?

Or, do you read from an ebook reader?

Or, an audiobook?

Do you ever dream about what you read?

What are you reading at the moment?

87.jpg


Reading In Bed by Mernet Larsen
 
I like reading books that have stand-alone chapters like the English Abroad and explain one particular behaviour aspect of the British character, short stories or articles. I like to be able to finish something before I go to sleep. Nowadays, I read magazines or do quizzes, not so much crosswords because that makes you think but easy things like spotting the differences, and I revel in jokes and cartoons.

Yes, I always read before turning the light off. I have a box where I drop whatever catches my fancy so I always have a choice, and place it next to me on my double bed which I share with doggy and a few wandering kitties that haven't decided where to kip for the night.
 
For as long as I can remember, I've read in bed before going to sleep.

I read in other places, of course, including on the 'throne'! I've known several people who had bookshelves in their bathrooms, so they plainly expected you to be gone for some time and to come out from your ablutions more intelligent than when you entered.

Reading at work was easy when I was a librarian and a teacher, as it's expected, but I once had a dreadful job on a production line in a factory that made artificial cream. I was second in the process, standing on a raised platform 12' high, manning a stainless steel bath which tilted in a cradle operated by a large lever. Huge pipes supplied me with liquid ingredients, pumped from silos large enough to contain a bus. I filled the bath with the correct proportions of ingredients—lecithin, milk powder, gelatine, sweetener and vegetable oil, stirring it with a giant wooden spoon to prevent clogging, before tipping the mixture into another pipe which descended to filters and blending mechanisms. These pipes decreased in size until they entered the packing room, where the jollop was poured into pots to be sealed with foil lids. I was up there with nothing do for twenty minutes, in between batches, so took to reading a paperback—until the floor manager saw me. I was banned from reading...worker ants aren't meant to use their brains.

Incidentally, the single and double 'cream' we made had an extra ingredient for a couple of weeks, as a lazy operative failed to clean one of the filters, which was awkward to dismantle. He went on holiday, and his replacement discovered a dead and rather rotten rat in the filter! They didn't issue a recall for the thousands of pots of cream affected.

Laying in bed with books for companions is relaxing. I've lived alone for a while, but have read to wives and lovers, and occasionally been read to. There's something that's charmingly soothing about being told a story, like regressing to childhood.

I'm not sure that I could easily get to sleep, without reading first. I like to ring the changes, so have four books on the go at the moment—a novel, a poetry collection, a lovely art book by David Trigg called Reading Art: Art For Book Lovers and a popular psychology book. About 90 minutes of reading sees me nodding off, and after turning the darkness on, I send a wish to my self-conscious about my WIP before descending into sleep.

Do you read in bed?

To yourself, a partner or a child?

Do you have a clip-on book light?

Or, do you read from an ebook reader?

Or, an audiobook?

Do you ever dream about what you read?

What are you reading at the moment?

87.jpg


Reading In Bed by Mernet Larsen

Sadly I have a temperamental back that means I can no longer sit up to read in bed or I am hobbling the following day.
An early night, with a bath or a shower, clean bed linen and a good book used to be one of life's finest pleasures. Tragic, really.
 
Tombland. I can't go to sleep without reading. I like the moment when none of it makes any sense, and you know it's time to stop.
I do that too, but I fight it until I fall asleep then wake up and admit defeat!

It’s always a paperback or e-reader for me. For some reason I can’t listen to an audiobook in bed - those are for the bath with a glass of wine. :)

Bath book is Rob Roy by Walter Scott. He defeated me in paperback for years, but his wordy style has charm in audio format. Bed book was Whom the Gods Would Destroy by Richard Powell. Tonight I don’t know. The suspense is killing me.

Never dreamt about books or TV.
 
Do you read in bed? Yes, extensively. It's my favourite place for reading.

Do you ever dream about what you read? Not that I can remember, although as a child I used to have nightmares after reading ghost stories (which were a favourite at the time). The other night, I was (reportedly) talking in my sleep about chasing frogs, however no frogs have appeared in any books I've read since I read Wind in the Willows many, many years ago. And that was a toad anyway.

What are you reading at the moment? I have just finished Children Of Time by Adrian Thaikovsky, the first hard SciFi I've read in ages. Pretty good and now I'm waiting for the second book which is due out very soon.
I also have several other books (mainly non-fiction) "on the go" at the moment.
 
I pretty much always read as a prelude to lights out. Because of the distractions of kids / job / internet / my own writing (not necessarily in that order) it's often the main chance I get. The only novels that have ever given me nightmares are Wuthering Heights and The Handmaid's Tale.

My main medium switches between print and E-reader, currently the latter because it was easier to manage with a broken wrist.

I'm going through a historical novel phase, and at the present time I'm part way through Ken Follet's Through The Eye Of The Needle.
 
@KateESal Ken Follett sure knows how to take you on an emotional journey, hey? Pillars of the Earth was a rollercoaster maze.
Yes, indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed Pillars...and its sequel. If you like that sort of thing, Minette Waters' The Last Hours and The Turn Of Midnight are also cracking page-turners.
 
@KateESal I didn't realise Pillars had a sequel, what's that called? Added the others to my Goodreads 'want to read' list, thanks!
Copied from wikipedia.
Its (Pillars)much-later sequel, World Without End (2007), returns to Kingsbridge 157 years later, and features the descendants of the characters in Pillars. It focuses on the destinies of a handful of people as their lives are devastated by the Black Death, the plague that swept Europe from the middle of the 14th century.

The next novel in the series, A Column of Fire,[13] was published in September 2017.[14] Beginning in 1558, the story follows the romance between Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald over half a century. It commences at a time when Europe turns against Elizabethan England and the queen finds herself beset by plots to dethrone her.[1

I haven't read A Column of Fire but World Without End is great.
 
Haven’t read the two sequels yet, but Pillars was great fun. The first two books were also made into miniseries, which are really enjoyable.
 
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Amusement Oi, Caldecott :)

The Purgatory of Submission

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