You’ve just returned from the store with a copy of the latest book by your favorite romance novelist. You’ve been waiting for months, perhaps even longer, for this story; and while you’re sorely tempted to stay up late and rip through the whole thing tonight, you decide to save it for later. You want to take your time with this one. You want to savor it.
How will you do that? And where, and when? Will you wait for a rainy Sunday afternoon, then make yourself a cup of herbal tea and retreat to a quiet corner of your home? Will you get someone to watch your kids and then steal away to the park, perhaps making a quick stop at Starbucks first? Will you draw a bubble bath and light some candles for scent and atmosphere? Or will you snuggle under your bedcovers and read the night away?
I read romance because it makes me feel good. When I read an extra-special romance novel, I like to enhance the experience by sinking into the soft pillows on my living room sofa, my legs tucked underneath me. The house has to be quiet, and I enjoy having fresh flowers on the coffee table so I have something pretty to stare at when I look up from the book to think about a great line I’ve just read. I also enjoy having a bowl of sweet cherries at hand. I love twirling each cherry by its stem and then slowly nibbling its succulent flesh away from the pit as I read.
How about you? What are your favorite romance-reading rituals?
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No reading rituals for me. I prefer to read when it’s relatively quiet, but if I’m enjoying a book that doesn’t matter very much. To paraphrase Dr Seuss: ‘I would read them in a house. I would read them with a mouse. Yes I like them here or there. I like reading anywhere.’
I’m a paperback in the back pocket, pull it out and read while waiting kinda guy. (More than once folks have seen me sitting with Valerie’s bag reading a romance while sitting outside the ladies’ fitting rooms and started conversations about finding something to read in my wife’s purse.) If I’ve got more than five minutes and a hand free to hold a book, I’m reading.
If I’d waited that long for a book I wanted to read, I probably would have parked under a shady tree on the way home and started reading.
I’m with Laura (and Dr. Seuss). Anytime, anywhere, any position. If my anticipation has been particularly high and lengthy, good luck trying to distract me with anything short of a house on fire or a severed artery.
Brenda’s description of her ritual reads like a long, slow seduction, whereas I am frenzied and depraved.
Brenda, congrats on making the RITA finals!
I rip into it right away and read all night. As long as the book is good. That’s what I did with Ward’s last one and what I’ll probably do with the next one. If I HAVE to be alert next day, I’ll try to put it off 24 hours, but once I’ve started, I just don’t stop.
I’m also with KeVin and Laura. I whip out whatever I have with me wherever I am. So to speak.
And congrats on the RITA finalist position, Brenda.
I don’t like to start a romance unless I think I have time to read it straight through. My all-time craziness was starting Sergeanne Golon’s Angelique at 6 PM and reading it all night. I finished around dawn. But I was maybe 14 at the time and books were the most important thing in my life. As for atmosphere? Who the heck cares? The book is taking me far away. That’s the whole point when you’re 14 and not allowed to go anywhere.
I’m a cover-to-cover reader. So until I know I can do that, I don’t attempt to pick up the book. Even if it’s one I’ve been waiting on for months. It doesn’t matter where. Couch, recliner, bed, tanning outside. I do aviod the bath since my water would be cold and I’d be wrinkly before finishing.
“…you decide to save it for later.”
You decide to save it for later, yes. But, seeing it’s here, might a well read the first page, no? And it’s as good as you hoped, so you’ve just got time to finish the chapter. Both of the first two chapters. And then just the next page to find out what happens with…
My most remembered, I-should-try-and-save-this-for-later-because-I-don’t-have-time-to-read-it-now read was one of the Harry Potter books. (4, perhaps?) We were opening the garden the next day, and as visitors were to come into the house for coffee that meant both house & garden had to be immaculate. I have a blissful memory of sitting in a sunny corner of the living room, just reading, knowing there were fifty other things I should be doing, and reading on regardless.
I’m definitely a read it whenever/wherever I can kind of girl, betweeen the husband, the kid, the full-time job, and the part-time job not to mention my own great american romance I’m working on. I take the spare minutes whenever and wherever I can get them.
Although I do long for one of those moments you described, complete quiet in my favorite chair and a cup of tea by my side…it ain’t gonna happen
No ritual for me. I grab my reading time where I can. Right now I’m on killer deadlines plus a day job, so the time I steal for reading is a decadent luxury. But Poison Ivy’s comments about being 14, and having a book that was so important…I remember that feeling. For me, it was Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Wolf and The Dove. It had been out for a while, but I had just discovered her. That book was the most important thing in my world, and as soon as I finished it, I opened it up back to page 1 and started all over again.
Marianne, I know exactly what you mean about “just a little more”. I was reading Already Dead by Charlie Huston, and I’d gotten about two-thirds of the way through the book. My daughter wanted something. I told her to wait until I was through with the chapter, something she is very used to hearing. About 45 minutes later, I thought, “Damn, this is a long chapter.” Nearly three-quarters through the book, I finally realized there were no chapter breaks! (Sorry, honey. Bad mommy.)
One day I turned to the shelf in search of a quote or inspiration or something to that effect. I did this around noon. About seven hours later, I had to reach for the light because I could no longer see the print in the inky blackness of the room. It was like a reunion with old and dear friends, and I didn’t care that I’d “wasted” the entire day with them.
I usually read the novels I buy same day (I speed read) but then I go back and read the good ones more leisurely later.
Sometimes I get so busy with work and writing that I don’t get a chance to read and I so miss it. Like the passion in a good romance, that need to read builds up until I have to set everything aside and just give into it no matter what else I have to do. I grab a book from my TBR, curl up on my couch, or out on a chaise on the deck if the weather is nice, and read!
I also take at least 2 or 3 books whenever I fly. I hate to fly and getting pulled into a good story is one good way for me to stop thinking about being in a plane.
Sometimes the milk doesn’t make it to the fridge. Other times it sits and gathers dust. It all depends on the mood.
If it’s a book I’m really looking forward to, I always wait until I have time to give it my full attention. No reading on the subway or in public. Better if it’s a quiet Saturday, curled up on my couch.
No reading rituals for me. With three young kids and deadlines, I read when I can find a few spare minutes. I used to be the kind of reader who once I opened a book I would stay up all night to finish it, but real life obligations put an end to that.
I curl up in my bed with the cup of hot chocolate or some Oreo cookies and the book.
I read whenever I get the chance. As the Mom of three I tend to read on the go. I read while waiting to pick my oldest up from school, I read after I’ve driven around for an hour to get my youngest to sleep so I have to sit in the car, I read while nursing, I read in the bath. Again, I’m with those Dr. Seuss advocates above.
I’m so glad I asked these questions, because several of the comments on this post have made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the entertainment, people!
Kerry and Sarah, thanks for the congratulations. Yes, I’m tickled to be a RITA finalist.
There’s no way I save a book for later, if I really want to read it. If I’m able to put off reading some of it, then I’m not that interested in it.
Tempest Knight…I have almost the same ritual!
When it’s cold out I like the hot chocolate and whatever else I can find. My ritual is to feel cozy. Be that making tea or hot chocolate, practically creating a fort in my bed
, or lounging on the couch. I can’t ever wait to read a book. I have a horrible habit of reading several books at a time because I like to start them right as I get them!
I have a confession to make. Even if I could savor a book, my brain won’t let me. I read so fast that I inhale the book all in one fell swoop. Since I can read a 500 page book in less than 2 hours, it makes it very difficult to savor anything.
There are times, like this weekend, where I buy a book I want to read slow so I can enjoy every minute of it & I CAN’T!!! I just bought the latest Kim Harrison book and it was amazing, but I was done in a couple hours. *sigh* How sad.
Holy cats, Brenda, I didn’t make the connection.
Congratulations!
Put off? Are you kidding? I’m voracious and insatiable. If I’ve been anticipating a book, I lay into it as soon as I am not behind the wheel of a car and plow through it, ignoring everything short of a housefire or unavoidable real work. I’ll lose sleep, forget to eat, and generally put life on hold until the book is finished (which is generally less than 24 hours).
“Holy cats”
I wouldn’t go quite that far in my appreciation of The Cat in the Hat. And as far as I know Brenda doesn’t write ancient-Egyptian-themed inspirationals.
Sorry, I’m being very silly.
Laure, I am (emphatically) not a cat lover, so I’d be hard-pressed to write anything remotely “inspirational” about them.
Whoops, I didn’t finish that last comment….
I think this
is supposed to be a devil, but I always think it looks like a cat.
And KeVin–many thanks.
Book. Food. Drink. Bed.
The world could go up in flames and I would not notice.