Knowing this personality detail about my friends is cool. I like to find out how they read best. Some of them prefer reading on dark, story days with the fireplace blazing. Others like to read curled up on the couch, blanketed by adoring felines. Some people read en route to work, by necessity, like on a train or even using audio books (something I have yet to try). Some people read in the bathtub with a deep glass of wine.
Well, today, quite by surprise, I enjoyed the year's first taste of my own favorite way to read.
The sun was not just golden but toasty. Hot, even. The clouds were lightweight and shed a few drops of easy moisture now and then. True sun-showers. I was free to lounge outside and luxuriate with sweet iced tea, apples and cheese, and a soft green yard full of clucking, puttering geese and chickens.
Weren't we huddled against a final winter blow just three days ago? Not today. Today we enjoyed a preview of summer.
No television, no cell phone unless I wanted it, and no hurry. Chanta, our big paint horse, was roaming free and kept sneaking up on me to nibble my toes or snuffle my bare back. Mia, my ever faithful gander, kept vigil of course. He honked and whined and smacked his muddy beak at the pages of my current haunt. Jealous of the attention being lavished to Miguel de Cervantes, I'm sure.
Reading like this always puts me on the brink of a deep sleep, but if the book is good enough then my grip on reality is traded for full immersion to the story's setting. Today was that good, that magical.
"Tranquility, a peaceful place, the pleasant countryside, serene skies, murmuring fountains, a calm spirit, are a great motivation for the most barren muses to prove themselves fertile and produce offspring that fill the world with wonder and joy." ~Cervantes
Here's wishing you a few hours of your favorite reading conditions, friends! Soak up the best of whatever is offered you, and get lost in some paper.
"So many books,
so little time."
~Frank Zappa
xoxoxoxo
Hi Marie, My favorite place to read is in a hammock in a screened pavilion in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. Wish I was there right now, but am in Florida where it was also nice and hot. Sounds and looks like you had a beautiful day. Never read Cervantes, but he's on my list. Love your descriptive writing as always; you bring me in.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a delightful day. No work other than feeding the animals, a good book and some sunshine. Ahhhh! Heaven!
ReplyDeleteFriday afternoon and Sunday morning I read Harry Potter outside under sunny skies, the bees buzzing around me. It was gorgeous. Glad you got some time under the sun as well.
ReplyDeleteTwenty years ago my family took a week for a vacation in Florida. We drove nine hours from South Carolina to a little hotel in a little town on the east coast. I carried a suitcase full of books and my bathing suit. I spent five days by the pool sunning and reading! What a great week! My husband was mad on the nine hour drive back home. He said I could have read all those books in our own back yard and we could have saved a lot of money! He was right! Now I read in the back yard all the time (and pretend I'm sitting by the pool in Florida). Your post sounds wonderful!
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