Saturday, July 6, 2013

Day or Night, Rain or Shine, I'll Keep Reading On

When do you like to read? Do you listen to audiobooks while checking tasks and chores off your to-do list? Do you enjoy reading with a hot cup of X while the rain beats against your windows?

Personally, I enjoy reading late at night. I turn off my main lights and turn on a lamp or some fairy lights, pour myself a cold drink, light a candle or some incense and begin. It is one of the most comforting and comfortable experiences I can create, and from very little.

When I say late at night, I mean late at night and I'll continue reading into the early hours of the morning. That's my 'power time'- the time when I'm most 'awake' and content, but it's also time I have completely to myself. When everyone else sleeps, and the world is quite and peaceful. No one to disturb me, nowhere to go, no chores that need doing. I make sure to finish everything else I want to do during the day long before I open the pages.

There is nothing more annoying (in my opinion) that getting into a good book and being repeatedly taken out of it by everyday life. Or worse, trying to get into a book and being repeatedly pulled away. When I read, it's for long periods of time and let's face it, that's hard to come by most of the time, but at night, work is over, daily tasks are done and there's nothing left but me and the words.

I tend to call the time between the late hours of night and early hours of morning the 'Midnight Hour'. Okay, so it's a lot more that one hour, but it gets the point across. It almost feels like time stops, and I can completely immerse myself in the story. The added darkness helps bring it and the characters to life.

I happen to have synaesthesia (where colours are connected to sounds), so I'm used to painting colours onto a black canvas. Reading in a darkened room (though still safely lit enough to not harm my eyes) is a similar concept to me. Of course, my imagination is powerful enough that I can still picture scenes in my mind in a brightly lit room, but I feel more contained in a dark one. More removed from the world, so less susceptible to distractions, and closer to the world in the book.

A bit of a rambly post this, but I'm interested in when other people's 'power hours' are. When are you happiest reading, and how long for? Do you read quick snippets on a daily commute? Do you read to distract and escape or just for the sake of it?

No comments:

Post a Comment