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The never-ending search for a comfy place to read:
I am an avid book reader. Anything with words I’ll pick up and start to read. I just love to do it. The main problem is finding the perfect place to read. No matter how good a book is your body can only stay in one place so long until part of it starts to fall asleep or get sore. And always having to switch positions can lead to disrupting your reading, and there is nothing worse than reading the same paragraph more than once, not to mention a big fat waste of precious reading time.
The most obvious place to read is your bed. There are blankets, pillows, and, as I stated before, obvious comfortableness. But the main problem here is that when our bodies hit the bed, they are programmed to sleep. So the bed is not a good place to read if you have to read something where you really need to pay attention, and I don’t know, learn something. But for those awesome page-tuners that you just can’t put down, it’s all about the bed.
Another choice of course is reading somewhere in the great outdoors—in a park under a tree, on the beach in the sand, on a boat in the water. In my experience, this is always the most difficult place to read, because as lame as it sounds, you are battling the elements in order to concentrate on your book. The bugs, the wind, the glaring sun, all to distract you from the book that you just must finish.
When you do actually have to read something, that isn’t just for pleasure, but for work, or school, or just making yourself into a more knowledgeable person about boring topics, you can never read in a place that is too comfortable. I suggest reading in a plain dining room chair, and while your reading it’s also a perfect opportunity to work on your posture.
Now the hardest part, are those really good books, that inevitably have that really boring section in the middle. In these situations, there is no other choice then to keep switching positions until the book picks up pace again.
I believe that there will never be a perfect spot to read any book, but hopefully there are good enough books that will let us ignore what our body wants, and let us concentrate on immersing ourselves in the story at hand.
You’re obviously an avid reader, and it seems that you’ve done your homework as far as trying to find the perfect place to read. However, I think you should be a bit more literal (no pun intended) in your search for “the perfect spot to read”. By that, I mean you should not try to “find a spot”, then see if it works as a good place to read. Let’s look at your suggestions first, then I’ll give you mine.
I don’t think your bed or a dining room chair are the best places to read. My understanding has always been that you should never do anything in bed other than sleep, including read, watch TV, etc. (of course, there are exceptions for “recreational activities”, if you know what I mean). Your body is conditioned to sleep when you get into bed for a reason, and that is that our bodies need as much sleep as we’re able to give them in this workaday world. When you start doing other things in bed, like reading, paying bills, watching TV, etc., you’re actually reconditioning your body NOT to fall asleep when you get into bed. This disrupts your body’s ability to fall asleep as quickly as possible, thus reducing the amount of sleep you get, including the much needed REM sleep, which leads to a much poorer quality of sleep overall. No, reading in bed is a definite no-no.
Sitting upright in a dining room chair is also inadvisable, for the obvious reasons: A hard backed chair (uncomfortable) in the middle of a room that is made for socializing (disruptions). Losing yourself in a good book should have ALL of your attention. It shouldn’t have to compete with spine-realignment or your sibling/spouse/roommate coming in to make a sandwich and tell you about his/her day (boring!). Nope, dining room chair is out, also.
Sitting under a tree or on a park bench is also inadvisable for the same reasons: Uncomfortable and potentially distracting (swap a hungry roommate for Momma Duck leading her line of 8 little ducklings to the water and I promise you’ll be watching them for the rest of the afternoon). Similar distractions abound on the lake and at the beach (although “beach distractions” can be far more entertaining!). No, the outdoors are definitely “out”, too (again, sorry about the pun).
I suggest looking at this another way. Instead of trying to find an existing spot and seeing if it works as a good place to read, CREATE a spot, made for no other reason than to read. Find a spot in your home and/or office that provides the desirable amount of privacy and quiet (total, if possible), then place a “reading chair” there, one whose sole purpose in life is to cradle your body in total comfort, allowing you to lose yourself in your book. I suggest some sort of recliner or “chaise lounge”, that will keep your body at an angle where your forearms are as close to horizontal as possible while you’re holding your book, allowing your blood to circulate easily. Your hands can be slightly higher or lower than your elbows, but not too much. Too low and you’re leaning forward to read (bad). Too high and blood circulation to your hands will diminish (worse). If you’ve ever been lying flat, holding your book above you, and your hands suddenly go numb, you know what I mean. Having your body at a 45-degree angle accomplishes this, and adding the comfiness (sp?) of a recliner (or a chaise lounge if you need more firmness) only adds to the comfort.
The downside of this, of course, is transportability. If you are on your lunch break, and want to finish the last chapter of Moby Dick, for instance, (spoiler alert: The whale did it!) you can’t very well drag your Barcalounger out to the park to finally find out who the heck “Ishmael” is. However, the passenger seat of your car can do in a pinch. Park in a non-distracting location (facing a brick wall, for instance), then move the seat as far back as it will go, recline the seatback to a 45-degree angle, and raise the front part of the seat bottom, if possible (if your car’s seat doesn’t raise that way, a pillow under your knees will suffice). The objective is to get your body at that 45-degree angle, with as few possible distractions around you.
Use these tips, and I promise you hours of uninterrupted, comfortable reading.
So, to sum up: Bed = bad. Reclining to a 45-degree angle in a comfortable chair or the passenger seat of your car with a pillow under your knees and as few distractions as possible = good.
Okay, I may need to work on my “summing up”…