The prompt for the second day of the Book Blogger Challenge, hosted by Good Books and Good Wine is about bedtime reading rituals. From as early as I can remember my parents read us a story every night, or my dad would tell us a 'made up story', which were the best and I'm still trying to get him to let me proofread them and 'publish' them for Benji, so that got me into the habit of reading at night very early on. As soon as I could read to myself I used to beg to keep the light on for just ten more minutes and read just one more chapter. I also used to keep my current read in the end of my bed, with my stuffed toys. Not a lot of my childhood books have survived...
In terms of bedtime reading as an adult, I go through phases. Honestly, on nights when I'm at home I wish I could just go to bed about 9:30 and read for a couple of hours before I sleep. As it is, I'm mostly using my evenings either to actually see Rhys, or to craft/network like a crazy person for my business and so I don't generally get to bed that early at all. That said, I do still usually read for at least an hour once I'm in bed, which generally just means that I am knackered the next day, but better knackered than no reading, right?
I know that I sleep better when I read before I sleep. I always wake up feeling more rested. Back in the days before I got married, I would quite often come in in the wee small hours, a little bit the worse for wear and fall asleep in front of episodes of Friends or Gossip Girl which was nice, but I always woke up feeling like I hadn't slept, whereas now I get probably the same amount of sleep but a) I'm not drunk, so I don't wake up hungover, and b) I read before bed rather than watching a screen and that helps my mind switch off a lot faster, so it's all good.
I may start to give myself a bedtime again, though, and go to bed half an hour earlier than normal with a hot drink to give myself time to wind down :-) I'm reading so many things at the moment, it would be nice to have a bit of quality time with some of them!
I'm trying to get myself off to a good start in the new house by blocking out some quality reading time before bed. I haven't switched my home laptop on since we moved - we haven't got internet yet anyway - so every evening I've been sitting in my new little reading nook - a comfy chair and little table in the corner of my room - and reading. Last night I actually read for about 2 hours without looking up, which I haven't done in AGES! Clearly it helps having a quiet area of the house and a peaceful technology-free room to enjoy... (and the chocolate croissant I bought at Tesco's probably contributed too, hehe).
ReplyDeleteHere's to bonding with our books before bedtime! :)