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I was really hoping to do some substantial reading this weekend and I have realized that I don’t have a good reading chair at home. I have my loveseats and my little chair but they are all stuffed with feathers which cause them to become really lumpy really fast…grr. Reading in bed is out of the question because I will just fall asleep. Where can I go to be quiet and read and curl up comfortably!?!?I want a reading chair too.
If you want to do some serious reading, a reading chair is indispensable. My faves were old, well-worn, leather reading chairs like the one pictured above, but more broken in than the one you see, and tucked into a corner somewhere (the placement of the chair above feels like an interrogation by authors), with a reading lamp perfectly nestled to the upper right or left.
I had the privilege of studying for a time at the 4th-floor library of the University Club of New York where such chairs exist in abundance, in perfect light and somehow in muted appreciation of history regardless of the taxi honks and lights and bustle of Fifth Avenue below. However one must wear jacket and tie to get in. It was worth it to me. Plus they have a really great catalogue of books of which most bibliophiles are unaware. The librarian staff are fanatic and gush over anyone who loves what they have.
My favorite memory: sitting in such a chair, reading Henry James, The Golden Bowl. I actually got through about half of it in a “work day”. Yeah, I probably took a doze too ;-). But when I looked out the 8-foot window across 53rd street at a guy in a cube working, I thought to myself, “I may have no income, but I am reading Henry James in a really great library, in a really great chair, and I can work… later.”
Well, now is later, but the memory persists, and I will carry it gladly.
