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Cozy Reading Setup
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message 51:
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DivaDiane
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Nov 07, 2021 01:46PM
That sounds wonderful, Anna! I love it when serendipitous events like that happen!
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No reading nook, there's no space in our house for that - we have a smallish house and a lot of stuff accumulated over the nearly 40 years we've lived in it. But you don't miss what you've never had, so I'm quite happy in these autumn/winter months with a comfortable sofa in the main room, plus a low table on which to put my mug of tea or coffee.However, my ideal situation for reading is sitting in a garden chair on the back lawn on a hot summer's afternoon, with a clip-on parasol attached to the chair so I'm in cool shade, and a cold glass of cola on a small table next to me. When I look up, I see our dozen pots of red geraniums in full bloom, and with any luck our local blackbird will be singing at some point in my neighbour's tree. Doesn't get much better than that.
But it's November now, and the daytime temperature is 11 centigrade, so no sitting out in the garden for a good long while yet. Back to the sofa - for now.
My cozy reading setup is my room with my reading light
Chris wrote: "No reading nook, there's no space in our house for that - we have a smallish house and a lot of stuff accumulated over the nearly 40 years we've lived in it. But you don't miss what you've never ha..."My wife had such high hopes for reading outside in the garden this year, but she also recently got into birdfeeding...so she would get too distracted watching birds to focus on her book XD
I can read pretty much anywhere, really. I'm usually just sitting up at a table. No fancy armchair...yet.
Shane, I can definitely relate to your wife's distraction! That's why I can't read out back. My eyes would be glued to our slew of feeders!!
Anna wrote: "I'm hoping that setting up a dedicated reading spot might help, because I wouldn't associate that setting with anything but reading."I love the idea of a dedicated reading spot, but as an apartment dweller there isn't a whole lot of room for that. (/me tries and fails to contain envy at the picture of Allison's reading cave)
The only piece of furniture we own that isn't a hand-me-down is a La-z-boy recliner that we bought a few years ago. When the neighbors aren't making a bunch of distracting noise I read there. When they are, I go back into the bedroom and read on the bed with a little fan running.
Those Ikea POÄNGs (all caps, for some reason?) look great and already I am thinking there is a corner in the bedroom I could clear out, and squeeze it and a little lamp into so I can have a chair to read in back there.
Jan wrote: "Sadly I can't read in bed cos I just fall asleep, kindle still open LOL. Can't listen to audio books in bed either for the same reason. *sigh*"
I mentioned this recently in another thread, but I have a similar issue. For me it's a good thing because reading or listening to a few paragraphs and conking out is preferable to dealing with an overspinning brain for two or three hours.
Also, I love it when YKK talks about Ernest. <3 Our cat is the boss of the furniture too, and can also take up 95% of the bed by herself, somehow.
I have a spare bedroom I could use as an office or a "library" or anything really, but I use it for drying laundry XD I prefer having it out of the way and not have to worry about cooking smells vs. fresh laundry. (Dryers aren't very popular in Finland, we air dry.) Everything else is crammed into the living room, because I only want a bed in my bedroom. And that's why I haven't gotten the chair I found yet, because I'm not sure if I want to give up my laundry drying space.
Haha Beth, it’s amazing how much space these tiny creatures can take up by lying in just the right (or wrong) spot!I spent the first 15 years or so of my adulthood living in one-bedroom apartments, so I can definitely sympathize with both the noisy neighbor issues and the lack of space. There was one apartment where the walls were especially thin. Shortly after I moved into it, I heard my neighbors in their kitchen. I don't think they were doing anything unusually loud, but it sounded so clearly that I thought they were in MY kitchen, and I lived alone, so I went charging into my kitchen to confront them. (Which in retrospect was probably pretty stupid if I really believed a stranger had invaded my kitchen, but for some reason my reaction was that I was going to give them a piece of my mind!)
Anna, I think I would probably need an entire room too if I air dried all my laundry! I have this one set of linen bed sheets that aren’t supposed to go in the dryer, and I always hate it when I have to wash them. I don’t have a proper place to hang things that big, or any sort of proper drying rack, so I end up spreading them across the stairway banisters. It looks like I’ve created a big blanket fort and every time I want to go downstairs I have to sit on the top step and push up the sheet and slide down on my butt until I get far enough down that I can stand up. :D
we used a few of these in our houses in both Houston & Paris, France. They don't look stupid when they're retractedhttps://www.amazon.com/BESy-Retractab...
We just moved and I now have two whole rooms for my books / library. The formal dining room because we always just eat in the kitchen which is plenty big enough, and one of the extra bedrooms. My husband is building a Murphy Bed for that room for company, but when there is none, it will simply be my books other room. I have a wingback chair and stool, small table, perfect lighting and a cubby for paraphernalia. There's also a dog bed so my little one can sit in there with me when I am eventually sequestered there for hours, lost in a book!
We have an awesome, Italian-make laundry aired “Foppapadretti” (ridiculous name!): https://smile.amazon.co.uk/FOPPAPEDRE...Ours is a little smaller than this and I don’t ever have all the things pulled up. I also don’t have the thingy for hanging shirts, although that would be pretty useful. I just hang them off the end.
Sheets I hang over (dusted) doors, folded. But now I’m wishing I had stairs I could hang them over!!
DivaDiane wrote: "We have an awesome, Italian-make laundry aired “Foppapadretti” (ridiculous name!): https://smile.amazon.co.uk/FOPPAPEDRE......"I love that! We have a line in the back yard that looks a bit like a spider web, but no way, other than draping or the shower rod, to hang things inside.
Foppapedretti! :D From now on I'll think to myself "I need to go put the laundry on the Foppapedretti", it sounds much fancier than a drying rack. Mine isn't that fancy though, but I don't need it to be fancy :D
i’m trying to find a better set up. i tend to read in bed, i need silence and the kids and my wife provide constant noise which easily distracts me. However i’m finding laying in bed reading sends me to sleep instantly and it’s not what i’m trying to achieve, maybe it’s my age cos i don’t even see it coming , 10 pages in i’m thinking i’m fine , then i’m gone….i’ll manage a book a year at this rate!
Steven, you might want to consider white noise or nature sounds. Also, asking them to let you have some time to read seems fair... they should be reading too, after all. Oh, and my family uses headphones when they're on their devices listening to podcasts or whatever.
Steven, doesn't that drive you crazy?! No one in my family ever seems to want to speak with me until I get to the endgame of a book. It took 90% of the book to get there, and then every family member wants to chitchat ;) Sometimes I have to backtrack fifty pages to enable the proper dramatic build-up to the interrupted point. (I sometimes take my books too seriously!!)
We mostly use clotheslines in Australia for drying clothes. (Unless it's wet, but that doesn't happen very frequently). They're generally modelled on the Hills Hoist.If the two drum kits could be moved from what I once hoped would be a cosy reading room, then that would be great.
I’m a dryer girl myself. I have some clothes racks for stuff I can’t put in the dryer but mostly I just shove it in the dryer. The house where Hubby is working at the moment doesn’t have one and it gets a bit annoying if it’s dusty or raining and I can’t get them dry.
Oh, poor Leonie; drum kits are not cozy. even if they're collecting dust they just *look* noisy!
Cheryl wrote: "Oh, poor Leonie; drum kits are not cozy. even if they're collecting dust they just *look* noisy!"Definitely not collecting dust, but after having a son drumming at home from 13-18 years of age, followed by a brief return from 20-21, and a husband now learning, I have a very special part of me that sometimes doesn't even notice when the drumming stops.
I know, weird, eh? I think it's related to the bit that blocks out kid noises.
Leonie wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Oh, poor Leonie; drum kits are not cozy. even if they're collecting dust they just *look* noisy!"Definitely not collecting dust, but after having a son drumming at home from 13-18 ..."
At my house it was my son on his electric guitar. Oh, how I hated his amp!
Michelle wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Oh, poor Leonie; drum kits are not cozy. even if they're collecting dust they just *look* noisy!"Definitely not collecting dust, but after having a son drumming at h..."
I think the drumming would be better...our son is at least an excellent drummer. I hope your guitar player was also excellent! 😂🤦🏽♀️
Actually, his really is good, and he's self-taught. I would give him special requests sometimes, and he could just wing it and play it. My sister used to be the same way. She had taught herself to play five different instruments. One of which was the drums! (Phil Collins used to be her drumming idol). So it's not as if he was making an awful cacophony of sounds; it was that he was playing when I was trying to concentrate on reading :)
piano and my husband in our house - I had to ban playing Diving Duck when I was trying to sleep (too much pounding and repetition)
My two oldest played an assortment of instruments which filled our house. The younger of the two was in Stomp for a few years so took every opportunity to beat on anything handy. "Anything can be an instrument." apparently.
Drummers tap. On everything. Hard surfaces, soft surfaces, pets...
I'll bet your tinned cans would disappear from the pantry, Kandice!
And brooms, assorted pots, bowls, plates, you name it!
How cool that your kid was in Stomp. I saw one of there shows a million years ago and it was wonderful!
I can always retreat to the basement for a quiet read.
I don't have a cozy nook, but I do have my lazy boy chair that I snuggle down in to read. I usually need quiet as well when reading though I will turn on background sounds of the ocean as that is soothing to me while reading. :)
Marie wrote: "I don't have a cozy nook, but I do have my lazy boy chair that I snuggle down in to read. I usually need quiet as well when reading though I will turn on background sounds of the ocean as that is s..."That sounds so peaceful!
we built a house that we designed, it is for us as we get older. ONe room is my hobby room: computer desk, lazy boy recliner opposite the speakers, huge book cupboard.i love lisening to music while i read.
but i also have an exercise bike in there, the kindle sits well on the front and i can read while i exercise.
Kateb wrote: "we built a house that we designed, it is for us as we get older. ONe room is my hobby room: computer desk, lazy boy recliner opposite the speakers, huge book cupboard.i love lisening to music whi..."
Nice.
Kateb wrote: "but i also have an exercise bike in there, the kindle sits well on the front and i can read while i exercise...."
Nice! That's about the only way I can make myself exercise.
ha ha ha. My sin is the other exercise i do. i have a pillow that sits on my knees as i sit in the recliner. the kindle / book sits on that.then i do weights
i am never going to be in a great physical shape, but i feel the halo when i do these things
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