I assume we all got the old "No reading at the dinner table" thing? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Dawn: Are you kidding? Dr. Keiser: I never kid about my amazing surgical skills.
'Bring On The Night'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Polter-Cow - Jul 11, 2004 7:46:01 pm PDT #4996 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Connie Neil - Jul 11, 2004 7:49:49 pm PDT #4997 of 10002
brillig
But dinner in front of the TV was perfectly fine. Folding trays and everything. I'd be over on the couch behind my tray with a book open on the couch beside me.
Hil R. - Jul 11, 2004 7:50:42 pm PDT #4998 of 10002
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
I frequently got "stop reading and go outside and play," because my mother was pretty insistant on us getting some exercise every day. I'd usually just go read on a swing, or climb a tree and sit in the branches reading.
Daisy Jane - Jul 11, 2004 7:54:06 pm PDT #4999 of 10002
"This bar smells like kerosene and stripper tears."
I was never told not to read. I was even allowed to stay up and read in my room until I fell asleep. I think mom figured I was unlikely to just drop off, and better to have me reading than tossing and turning. Reading at the table was no problem since I was an only latchkey kid, so no parent for dinner. Otherwise we were at the tennis courts where no one really cared what I did.
billytea - Jul 11, 2004 7:55:01 pm PDT #5000 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
Funnily enough, I found book-a-thons counterproductive for my reading habits. I was fine when it was for my own pleasure, but I have a peculiar stubborn streak at times when someone else is trying to tell me what to do.
Susan W. - Jul 11, 2004 7:56:15 pm PDT #5001 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
I was allowed to read at the table if I was eating by myself, but not at family meals.
I picked up love of books at home. Both my parents read a lot, and some of my earliest memories are of my mother taking me to the library, and the vaguely musty book-smell, and having to stand on tiptoe to place my books on the check-out counter.
§ ita § - Jul 11, 2004 8:02:06 pm PDT #5002 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
My parents still don't like when we read at the table. Though I suspect newpapers might get a pass. Table's for either eating or talking. Growing up in Jamaica, eating in front of the TV wasn't really an issue. We did have one house in England with a TV in the kitchen, and that was tolerated.
Hil R. - Jul 11, 2004 8:04:28 pm PDT #5003 of 10002
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
We were never allowed to read at the table. It wasn't even an issue, or something I'd try to sneak by -- it was something that was just Not Done.
§ ita § - Jul 11, 2004 8:05:16 pm PDT #5004 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
My mother doesn't even like us to do it now, when we're alone.
Angus G - Jul 11, 2004 8:15:16 pm PDT #5005 of 10002
Roguish Laird
I hated read-a-thons too; you got sponsored for a certain amount per book, which favoured those who were still reading picture books over those of us who were reading 300-page novels! I always found that most unfair. And I resent to this day the idea that reading more = reading better.