Did You Have a Special Reading Place as a Kid?

I have distinct memories of sitting in our backyard in the warmer months as a kid, at a bright red and yellow plastic Little Tykes table, to read and write. I have disposable camera images, Polaroids, and VCR footage of me sitting at it throughout the years. I still like to read in the outdoors amidst the fresh air!

I remember the first time I came across a question like this, and feeling very confused – everywhere is a good place to read! I especialy liked reading in bed, curled up under my duvet, but enywhere else was a great second best.
I even perfected my “reading while walking” talent while studying foe a BA in comperative literature (i remember specificaly duing this with a very BIG copy of Le Morte d’Artur). To this day, I will read whenever and wherever (this has become especially true with Kindle and Libby on my phone).
Nothing in the world makes me prouder than seeing my 10 year old daughter curled up under her duvet at night, reading just as I used to, and pleading to have just a few more minutes before lights-out to finish the chapter. If I will do nothing else for her – at least I managed to pass down to her my love of reading…

When I was little, the stairwell was my favorite place to read! In the afternoon the sunlight would glow through the backdoor and warm my feet, and the turn of the bottom few steps meant that I had countless ways to position myself and the fictional world in my hands. It was my little slice of heaven! I never returned to that house after Superstorm Sandy, and the whole place is different now. However, my husband and I are currently in a semi-nomadic, house-hunting phase, so I’m hopeful I’ll find a new reading nook soon, maybe even another stairwell! :)

There was a tree in the front yard of one of my friends in the neighborhood. We’d sit up there for hours reading until it was time to go inside for dinner. It was such a cool spot to be able to feel like you can see everything but no one really knows you’re up there.

I lived in a log cabin my dad built, and there was a U-shaped log post on our front porch that was just the right size and angle to curl up in with a book. I was the only one in the family who found this to be a perfect place to sit in, so it became “my spot.” I still climb up into it when I go home to visit my parents, 20ish years later.

When I was in elementary school, after my bedtime I would create a fort for myself in my closet and read in there for hours and hours. I’d usually remember to get back in bed, but a few times I fell asleep in there and the first time it happened my mother was so confused when I wasn’t in my bed in the morning. It was my favorite place to curl up, especially when I was in the middle of a Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley book and just *had* to know how it ended.

Car rides! When my family would go on beach trips every weekend, I would bring a tote bag of books ranging from fiction to history. I never knew what mood I would be in, so I had to make sure I packed it all!

I would sit in the corner wedge between two couches that lined the walls. I would have a book and a bag of baby carrots to snack on. It was a quiet little nook away from my younger siblings.

My favourite was up in a tree. But I was reading all the time, everywhere. Book after book.

We had a huge living room closet with tons of blankets in it. I would often play in there, but could be found asleep, half hanging out of the sliding doors. A book was never far behind.

Aww you guys are my people! Like so many here I was the quintessential bookworm growing up and always always had my nose stuck in a book — in the car, in the classroom, at every single family gathering — and it was all on purpose because any attempt by anyone to engage me in small talk would just about give me a panic attack. Home was also a pretty toxic environment so books were literally my escape from reality. I wish I could say I had a special spot for reading but the house was pretty tiny and we were all pretty much underfoot, so the closest I got to that was reading under the covers in bed late at night with a flashlight. More than anything I wished for a treehouse to escape to, because there were trees in our front and backyard, but alas they were not sturdy enough to hold a house or even little kid me. The branches with enough foliage to hide a small person were too high up and at that height the branches thinned out into sticks, so no go there. I would have loved a cute attic space or the lovely bay window to read in — that would have been perfectly dreamy. But I think my most favourite space of all to read in is in a library — any library with its hushed environment and stacks upon stacks of deliciously old books — because there at least you’re more likely to be surrounded by people who actually appreciate books. I remember spending whole afternoons in my college library curled up in one of the couches just reading or daydreaming with a book in my lap, looking out the window alone with my thoughts, and it was total bliss. It was a bonus if it was raining outside and semi dark and moody with a crisp cool breeze with autumn leaves dancing in the air. Love!

I was anti pants as a little kid and wore big long t-shirts around the house most of the year. Obviously I got cold sometimes, so my favorite spot to sit and read was literally on top of the furnace vent in the floor at the foot of my bed. I’d make a tent out of my baby blanket and my big t-shirt and enjoy the warm air and my current reading obsession.

I love seeing all these comments and dreaming of–hoping for?–the day that I find my sweet little child in some odd spot in our home, or up far too late sneaking in ‘just one more chapter!’ with a flashlight under the covers in bed. Already, at 2 years old, every once in a while I find him with a pile of his books in his little play tent flipping through the pages ‘reading’ to himself aloud and it just melts me :)

I remember balancing my book on top of the shopping cart while at the grocery store with my mom. I wouldn’t even look up the whole trip – just walking along the cart with my nose in my book worlds away from cereal boxes and cash registers!

as a kid, after lights out I’d go into the bathroom with my book, lock the door, and make a little nook in the corner on a pile of slightly damp towels. It felt foolproof and sneaky and like I wasn’t really disobeying the lights out curfew because how can you deny your child bathroom time? I’m really not sure why it took so long for my parents to catch on what I was doing…though now that I think about it, they probably had some idea because they never asked if I was feeling sick because I spent so much time in there! eventually they got me a book light and let me stay up, reading until I fell asleep with my glasses on and hand holding the book open.

I grew up in a big family and shared a room with my two sisters. There was never anywhere private to spend hours reading in peace until I discovered the floored attic space over our garage. It was accessed by a drop down/fold up ladder and I would climb up there with all my supplies and then lean out and pull the stairs up so no one could bother me. It wasn’t heated or cooled and I spent many summer days sweating it out because at least I was ALONE.

Ooo I love these! I read everywhere as a kid – in bed, under the bed, in bed under the blankets, snuggled on the couch, sideways in chairs, laying on the floor, sitting on the heating vent in the bathroom in the winter, at the table, leaning against trees, in the car (the thought of that now omg, the nausea), in the bath, on picnics, walking to and from school, in forts I built with my sister, etc.

My ultimate (unfulfilled) dream though was to read on a fire escape, leaning against a pillow, shaded by a big tree, just like Francie Nolan :)

I love this question and these comments so much! When I was growing up as a total bookworm, I made myself a corner in the living room to read. It was behind the sofa, under the window, and next to the radiator, which had one of those covers that look vaguely like a middle eastern screen, with repeating geometric cutouts. Our drafty old house was always freezing, so I would sit on a scratchy crocheted afghan, snuggled up to the radiator screen, surrounded with stuffed animals and daydream and read the winter days away. Not sure I’ve felt so content and safe since.

Oh yes! My family owned a bookstore and in the winters I used to read the whole afternoon near the photocopier machine. It was so warm and cozy…

Lovely post and comments
I was an avid reader as a child( still am at 46) and it was a family joke that I would read ANYWHERE
There are pictures of me reading atba wedding party with live music inches away
But my favorite spot was in my bed with lots of snacks
My 10year old is exactly the same and I laugh every time I see her do the same thing

I remember as a kid I always wanted to read in trees. I think I read about it in a book and thought it was sooooo cool! I tried so hard to read books in the various trees around our property and it just wasn’t that comfortable. Not to mention the fear of falling. So I mostly read books in bed to the point my mother threatened to take my lightbulbs away and to this day, I still mostly read books in bed.

Love this! My favorite spot was my daddy’s recliner — brought home after his dad passed away. For some reason it was the most comfortable when I was upside down, neck hanging off the edge and feet in the air. Then we’d sit together and talk or draw or read or play Sega til bed.

As a kid my favorite spot was in the corner of the dining room near the kitchen and living room, sitting right on top of the heat vent, and leaning against the sliding glass door leading out to the porch. I was warm, a bit hidden away from the hubbub, but could still keep my eyes and ears open to everything happening if I wanted to. I read countless books right in that very spot!

As a child, I was such a massive reader… I would read all the time and books were my trusty friends in a not so light childhood. BUT my favourite place to read was… under my desk ! I had pillows and blankets and my favourite teddy bear and my cat sometimes and it was my whole universe. At my grandmother’s house, I also have a similar nest, into her wardrobe :). Sometimes I think about this space and it always brings calm in me. (Sorry for my english, I’m french !)

I read absolutely everywhere I could as a child, including the car and under the table, but my favorite place was in the soft corner of the sofa in the living room of the apartment where I lived alone with my dad. Now, 40 years later, I still own that couch, even after moving continents, and that corner (reupholstered) is still my happiest place.