"Goldilocks" Readers

Are you a Goldilocks kind of reader? Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum? Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose and you can read?

I can (and do) read anywhere and everywhere. Hooray for public transportation! Although I do miss driving, I'm more than willing to trade it for more reading time while someone else has the job of moving me from place to place. Also, the book provides some protection. People are less likely to approach me (Excuse me, are you a foreigner?) if I'm reading.

Background noise: You know what works really well for me? QVC, the home shopping channel! I miss it so much -- the hosts, mostly female, have kind of pleasant, singsongy and drony voices that immediately turn to white noise in my ears. I tried a couple of Korean home shopping channels, but they do more of a hard sell, talking quickly and excitedly, getting progressively faster and louder. Also, it's in Korean, and listening to those tensed consonants without a break hurts my head after a while.

Around The House: This won't take long to summarize, since I live in a studio apartment. I really miss having a sofa. The bed is OK -- it's where I do most of my reading, but it's not the same. If I stay in Korea much longer, I may have to buy a sofa.

Reading at the table while I eat is nice (one of the perks of living alone), but there's always the danger of dripping or splashing on the book. There's a definite correlation between my interest in a book and a decline in my chopstick skills.

Of course, there's reading in the bathroom, which I've been doing since potty-training days. This particular location continued to have its charms during childhood and adolescence because I could block out the world by shutting and locking the door for a while ---short or long depended on how many bathrooms we had at the time. Speaking of the bathroom, another thing I miss having is a bathtub, or I'd be reading there almost every evening after my last class.

Today is the first day in over a week without rain. The sun's out! There's my blue sky! With any luck, I'll be heading up to the roof to read, as I mentioned in my last blog entry. I'm especially fond of the roof of my office building -- the view from there is really pretty.

This question has given me an amusing earworm -- "I've Been Everywhere", sung by Johnny Cash, except I've mutated the title to "I've Read Everywhere"!