Top Ten Favorite Places To Sit & Read
by Paige Harbison
1. The old standby—a hammock. But my hammock would be in a big, green-lawned backyard. I could look out through the trees and see the glittering lake. My dog would be sitting in the shade beside me.
2. On a white beach, on a plush chaise longue. In the shade, by a turquoise ocean.
3. On a wintery night in Barnes & Noble. I’d have a grande, non-fat, with whip, White Mocha from Starbucks on the table next to me.
4. When I was a kid I loved to go out into my mom’s car during a thunderstorm with a bunch of pillows and read with my itty bitty book light. I loved reading various princess stories and time travel romances there.
5. In a screened-in porch, also during a warm rain. I’d have a plate full of cheese and crackers and an Arnold Palmer.
6. In my childhood backyard, which was small and in a terrible neighborhood. I used to lie down in my little 90s belly shirt with my awful, page-boy haircut, and lie down on my dog Bailey’s shoulder and read for hours. She’d just lie there patiently and pant.
7. In my future home, I want a circular room. It’ll be powder blue with ultra-white crown molding, there will be millions of books on the towering shelves surrounding me, and I will have…the PERFECT reading chair.
8. At the pool at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Reading while tanning forces me to tan my back, which I won’t ordinarily do—and then I look like a playing card.
9. Also in my future home, I want my own pool. It’ll be surrounded by plush, soft, green grass, and at night it’ll be lit from underneath by lights. There will also be a hot tub—obviously.
10. Anywhere, if I’m reading the perfect book. From an impossibly small and dingy flat in London, on an impossibly grey and dreary day, to an airplane with seats so uncomfortable that I’d rather lie flat on the floor.
2. On a white beach, on a plush chaise longue. In the shade, by a turquoise ocean.
3. On a wintery night in Barnes & Noble. I’d have a grande, non-fat, with whip, White Mocha from Starbucks on the table next to me.
4. When I was a kid I loved to go out into my mom’s car during a thunderstorm with a bunch of pillows and read with my itty bitty book light. I loved reading various princess stories and time travel romances there.
5. In a screened-in porch, also during a warm rain. I’d have a plate full of cheese and crackers and an Arnold Palmer.
6. In my childhood backyard, which was small and in a terrible neighborhood. I used to lie down in my little 90s belly shirt with my awful, page-boy haircut, and lie down on my dog Bailey’s shoulder and read for hours. She’d just lie there patiently and pant.
7. In my future home, I want a circular room. It’ll be powder blue with ultra-white crown molding, there will be millions of books on the towering shelves surrounding me, and I will have…the PERFECT reading chair.
8. At the pool at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Reading while tanning forces me to tan my back, which I won’t ordinarily do—and then I look like a playing card.
9. Also in my future home, I want my own pool. It’ll be surrounded by plush, soft, green grass, and at night it’ll be lit from underneath by lights. There will also be a hot tub—obviously.
10. Anywhere, if I’m reading the perfect book. From an impossibly small and dingy flat in London, on an impossibly grey and dreary day, to an airplane with seats so uncomfortable that I’d rather lie flat on the floor.