Where do you read yours? - Karen Bush





I read everywhere and anywhere it's possible; and especially when I'm in the middle of a knicker-gripping page turner of a book, I can find it very hard to put it down. I end up being late for appointments, and the book will invariably go everywhere with me in the hope that I can grab a few more minutes with it.


I read books on buses and trains (the only good thing about commuting to a job I had in London once was the pleasure of three and a bit hours of reading time on the train), I read upstairs in bed, and downstairs on the sofa: I've even been known to absent-mindedly push the Hoover round with one hand while reading from a book held in the other.
At school I mastered the art of reading from a book concealed beneath the desk on my knee. I read while waiting in the hairdressers to collect my Mum: I used to read in the pub when the conversation turned to boring stuff about car engines and motorbikes. I read while in the dentist's waiting room (and would read while he was mining my molars too if it didn't get in the way) and while waiting for my car to be MOT'd.
Since having my Kindle, it's been much easier to carry my reading matter round with me: it reduces even the fattest of books to a nice slim volume which is easy to fit into a bag or even a pocket and take anywhere. Well, almost anywhere.
One of my great pleasures at the end of the day is to soak in a long bath with a glass of wine or G&T and a book: bliss.
I do wish they'd invent a waterproof Kindle ...

Now it's your turn - where do you read yours?
















Pre-Kindle it was much easier to spot whether someone was reading your stuff ...





The Great Rosette Robbery and other stories
Available as a Kindle book on Amazon

You can find out more about me and my books at http://karenbush.jimdo.com/

Comments

Linda Newbery said…
I like the fact that you can hold the Kindle in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. Also, you can read it while eating with a knife and fork (as I discovered yesterday) by laying it flat on the table. Not so easy with a book!
Susan Price said…
This brings back memories. Reading at table with book propped against anything that would hold it up – as did my father. Reading under the blankets when I’d been told to go to sleep. Reading in the car, despite feeling sick. Reading as I walked along in Truro and falling over a cast-iron shop sign and cutting my shin.
Did you put the book on the floor and read while you tied your shoelaces? I still read while brushing my teeth.
My partner despairs because the first thing I do when visiting him is pick up his newspaper. Don’t mean to be rude: it’s a compulsion. There’s print I haven’t read. Therefore I have to read it. Sometimes he simply removes the paper and places it out of reach. (The Irish writer Flann O’Brien talked about ‘the compulsion to pass the eyes over print’. He explained that his secret labs had developed a drug which they had put into printers’ ink.)
Once a teacher caught me, at the age of about 14, reading a book of my own, cunningly (but not cunningly enough) hidden inside the dull class reader. She denounced me for thinking that I didn’t have to follow the rules everyone else did. Then she found that the naughty contraband reading was Renault’s ‘Fire From Heaven’. It was interesting watching her struggle with what to say next.
I was once, in a B&B, accused of eavesdropping because I was discovered sitting on the stairs outside a room. I explained to my accuser – who, luckily, knew me – that I had been getting dressed in the nearby bathroom – while reading, of course, with book balanced on sink. I had come out and had sat down on top step to put on socks – while reading book on step beside me. Had become interested in book and had forgotten socks – which, indeed, were still in my hand – and sat on the step for some time, deep in the book. Whatever there was to be overheard in the room, I had heard nothing – which was the truth. (Rather wish I had overheard it, if there was something to be overheard, but didn’t.) My accuser looked at the book on the step, at the socks in my hand, shrugged and said, “I believe it.”
Agree with Linda about the readability of kindles – so much more proppable. Pages never spring shut!
And was talking to a student studying nano-technology yesterday, who told me that flexible, foldable, water-proof electronic paper is on its way! – As soon as they can get the nano-technology to do as it’s told.
Jan Needle said…
i recognise that i wasn't very well brought up, but my mind is boggling like barmy over the wonderful idea of a knicker-gripping read. my favourite example of a compulsive reader came when i was watching a brass band playing in a park near oldham and a novel fell out onto the grass from behind the music-holder of the young woman playing the flugelhorn. she'd obviously been reading it while playing (from memory), but she didn't miss a note, and the conductor didn't seem the slightest bit surprised!
Our son's first word was 'a book' (well, I think that's what he meant by 'gaboook') mainly because I read constantly, around him, over him and sometimes to him, while feeding him. (An unsung advantage of breast over bottle - although maybe you can do it while bottle feeding as well!) A Kindle would have made it even easier.
madwippitt said…
Some wonderful stories!
Sue - that was hilarious about the eavesdropping ... and Jan's tale of the musician makes me marvel ... and I love the idea of a child's first word being 'book'!
Debbie Bennett said…
I have a kindle cover that hinges on the bottom rather than the side. And it's got a little wedge thingy so it stands up all by itself at an adjustable angle so I can read while cooking and eating too.
Enid Richemont said…
Why is reading on the loo so delightful? And if the book really grabs me, I migrate into the bathroom cupboard and go on reading.
Reading in the bath is a forbidden pleasure on the Kindle. Writing in the bath, however, is a doddle - soft pencil and rubbish paper and I'm off!
madwippitt said…
My ex was banned by the doctor from sitting reading on the loo ...
Nevertheless, we still have a shelf of books in the bathroom!
Jennie Walters said…
But apparently you can get waterproof covers for Kindles so they CAN be read in the bath!
madwippitt said…
Jennie, tell me more! At the moment I have to keep a paper book for bathtime reading as well as whatever I'm in the middle of on the Kindle!
Jan Needle said…
could you electrocute someone by dropping an electronic book into their bath? make a great midsomer murders!
madwippitt said…
A killer read? As opposed to a knicker gripping one?

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