The paradise book spot doesn’t exist.
I’m sorry if this has also been your lifelong daydream and you weren’t expecting this plot to twist today. I get it. I’ll sit with you while the thought sinks in.
I’ve searched most of my reading life for a book spot that delivers. What are the qualities?
- Remote
- Breezy
- Oceanview, Mountainview, Sunset or Sunrise view
- Minimal Destractions
- With tea, chilled spritzer, coffee
- Comfortable
- Covered with option to be uncovered
- Low energy
- Next to a pool or a very self-sufficient dog
- Wordless music playing at a soothing decible level
Am I sounding picky yet? For years, I based the quality of our vacations on the opportunity for my husband and I to read. I’d try to read on a lounge chair in the sun. We’d wind up growing tired, falling asleep, getting burned. Or, we’d pack a great read for the flight to wherever. Our new seat mate would borrow 45 minutes of the 2 hour flight in jovial conversation. I’d find the coziest hammock in Costa Rica, nestle in, three pages in, and an actual monkey would steal my book (and my banana).
Then we had children. Kids don’t disappear with a book spot appears.
Nothing is remote or low energy unless they are somewhere else. And we happen to like them enough to keep them with us most of the time. We’ve been really lucky to visit places that fit the paradise spot book bill. And a few times I’ve read an entire book in one precious sitting. But it’s few enough times that I can remember it happening only once.
Even if the perfect spot exists. It’s not with you every day. It’s not possible often enough. It’s not accessible to the typical human with a typical budget.
A different paradise exists but it’s not the one I’ve been dreaming.
The paradise book spot is the place where I’m reading.
That’s it. The place where I’m reading.
It usually looks like
- me hiding in my car before I head into the house for the evening
- eeking out one page a day while sitting on the toilet
- listening to an audio book during exercise
- headphones on the flight, ignoring everyone, and finally getting a whole chapter read before I zonk in exhaustion
- watching a movie instead because it seems to hurt less
But reading changes me. So I need to keep doing it, regardless of the environment.
And I imagine in changes you too. It takes us to places and invites us into conversations.
I can’t imagine life without it. So, maybe the paradise book spot isn’t something we can slide into as much as we’d like. But there are ways you can read, if you make it a priority. And when you do–you’ll find like I have—paradise is the joy getting to know another mind and to get to play around in someone else’s thoughts.
Communication paradise is real and it’s found in the folds of pages or in the audio recordings of books.
What are you reading lately?
Here’s my latest list.
FEB-MAR-APRIL BOOKS (Click the title for more info about each.)
BOOK: GLORIOUS WEAKNESS by Alia Joy
(I read this one on a trip. Finished it in 24 hours. It’s been such a long time since something has capitvated my heart and thoughts so deeply.)
BOOK: THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander
BOOK: GEOGRAPHY OF GRACE, DOING THEOLOGY FROM BELOW by Kris Rocke & Joel Van Dyke
(I’m still not finished with this treasure. It’s deep and needs a slower pace. Thanks to Irene Cho for the gift from her office.)
AUDIO BOOK: THIS IS MARKETING: YOU CAN’T BE SEEN UNTIL YOU LEARN TO SEE by Seth Godin
AUDIO BOOK: THE LAST BLACK UNICORN by Tiffany Haddish
AUDIO BOOK: INSPIRED by Rachel Held Evans
(I’ve read this book but wanted to hear Rachel read it this time. It was such a shock to hear of her death. I can’t imagine a world without her voice in it.)
DIGITIAL BOOK: I’LL PUSH YOU: A JOURNEY OF TWO BEST FRIENDS, AND ONE WHEELCHAIR by Patrick Gray
(An incredible story about two friends – pilgrims on the journey of the El Camino)
AUDIO BOOK: CARRIE FISHER: WISHFUL DRINKING
