When I was a kid and then a teenager, and then a university student, and then a homesick Canadian living in London and then a person who had a real job with actual lunch breaks, I read voraciously. In my early years and my teens I would hole up in my bedroom, curled up on my side on the bed with the book resting at a 90 degree angle next to me, flipping and flopping it depending on which side of the page I was reading.
I was taught to read with Dr. Seuss – some of my earliest memories are of sitting on my dad’s knee, sounding out The Cat In the Hat and my very favourite line in all of literature “glop shlop with a cherry on top” (from Oh the Things You Can Think). My first chapter book was the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was a Christmas present when I was six along with two other “chapter books”. I was entranced. I read it over and over and over and over and OVER again. One day my mum gently suggested I might like to try some of my other new chapter books but I thought this was quite ridiculous. No book could ever be as good as the Wizard. But eventually I was convinced to open the cover of a Bobbsey Twins book and I have pretty much been hooked on mystery novels ever since.
I made my way through them and the Enid Blyton Adventures and Famous Five series and then moved on to Nancy Drew, mixed it up with all the Anne of Green Gables books, Beverly Cleary, the Narnia series, Judy Blume and all the other usual suspects.
Eventually I exhausted the school library and the local library and moved on to my parents bookshelves and found Agatha Christie, Ivanhoe, Jane Austen, Barry Broadfoot and John Steinbeck. I probably stumbled on (and devoured) East of Eden about 5 years before I should have – and consequently thought reading the Red Pony and the Pearl in jr high to be a colossal waste of time. My dad bought me my copy of Catcher in the Rye when I was 11 and I still have it – its instantly recognizable burgundy cover with yellow text worn around the edges from being read almost as many times as the Wizard of Oz and Anne of Green Gables, marked up with notes from having to study it many years later in both senior high and university (x2!). Like all teenagers, it spoke to my angst years where nobody understood me and I would burrow even further into my room but now accompanied by my walkman and it’s yellow headphones (as ubiquitous as the white apple ones today!) – endless Bryan Adams, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Glass Tiger, Platinum Blonde, New Order. Totally dating myself here, right?
In University I would try to score a “comfy” bench… comfy being a relative term… in between classes in the SFU applied science building. I was an arts student but the AQ was made up of cement benches. The applied science building had cushioned ones. Often my breaks would be 4 or 5 hours and if you know SFU, it’s on the top of a mountain. Going up and down between classes took up too much time. A cushioned bench was a luxury! There I would pull myself through piles of history textbooks for my major as well as Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and countless other dreary, dull classics for my lit classes for what I thought would be an English Lit Minor, but that somehow morphed into an archeaology minor. The Margaret Laurence semester was a breath of fresh air! Reading for pleasure went out the window and I forever blame uni for making me feel like reading fiction is the ultimate guilty pleasure when I could be reading something useful.
As a homesick Canadian living in London after university, I fell upon my Aunt’s books and she introduced me to Maeve Binchy and then I discovered Marion Keyes and fell into a steady diet of Irish literature that fascinated me with it warmth and humor and gentle way of exploring harsh topics. I would while away the hours lying on the deck chairs in the sun in many London Parks (Stanley Park… take note: deck chairs. For real) when I wasn’t working in Chelsea or window shopping on Regent Street or Kings Road. Talk about a fish out of water. A poor starving shop girl working in the richest part of London! My customers spent more on hairbrushes than I spent on groceries all week. Reading was free entertainment.
After returning to Canada I went through a phase of what one lit prof called “chip dip lit”: John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Ridley Pearson, Patricia Cornwell. My brain was still too fried from university to want to read anything that required too much thought and I didn’t want to analyze another book for hidden meanings when really, sometimes the kitchen sink was just that.
But eventually I started to creep back out into a broader spectrum of reading material. I would still curl up on my side in bed with the book propped up, but I spent more and more time in Starbucks on my lunch hours in an armchair, being the only 30 something in the place with their legs curled up underneath them or cross-legged with the book resting on their Chuck clad feet.
And now, my attention is so divided and so short. For years I read one book at a time, savouring it, sometimes reading it all in one sitting, never starting another until I turned the final page in the current one.
Now I have 3 or 4 on the go in an eternal state of being half read. I never seem to finish one – I just start another. At Christmas I turned off all the machines for a few days and wallowed in a novel – one I read for pure pleasure. Not a business book, not about photography, or design, or dogs or marketing or food. It was wonderful. I forgot the satisfying feeling of tiredness that sinks in after finishing a book because you’ve become so absorbed by the characters and their lives and emotions.
I tried e-books for the first time last year on my iPad. It’s great for certain situations like commuting or traveling but I still can’t get cozy with one – just like I can’t get cozy with a hardcover book. And that’s a key reading requirement for me. So I still gravitate to soft covers.
Sometimes I fear the world of blogs, news snippets, soundbites and eye tiring screens has ruined our ability to concentrate on reading anything with any depth in it for more than a moment or two. It makes me sad. All those worlds we shut the door on. I notice it in myself every day. But that is a discussion for another time.
One thing that has always been a constant for me with books is food. I can’t eat without reading and I can’t read without eating. Be it books, magazines, newspaper or cereal boxes. Snacking on apple slices, raisins, cookies, or as an occasional treat as a kid, smarties. (I could make an entire box of smarties last through a full day of reading!). It’s not a mindful way to eat but it’s something I’ve always done – nibbling away in teeny tiny bites to make whatever snack I had been given or had made last as long as possible. The part in Little Women where Jo March talks about eating an entire plate of apples while reading in the attic completely makes sense to me!
But honestly, the best one is and always has been, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk – now tea. And these chocolate chunk toffee cookies were put to that task. They were chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, with the sweetness of white chocolate to balance dark cocao-y goodness. The toffee was just a little je ne sais quoi. Along with the fact that I had extra toffee chips to use up.
- 1¼ cup butter
- 2 cups sugar (white or brown will work)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ cup cocoa
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks or chips
- 3 1 oz squares coarsely chopped white chocolate
- ½ cup of toffee chips
- preheat oven to 350F
- cream the butter and sugar together till fluffy
- add eggs and vanilla and mix well
- sift or whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt
- add chocolates and toffee chips and stir in gently
- drop onto a greased cookie sheet (or use a silpat or parchment paper) by the tablespoon
- bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes
The book in the photograph is Pride and Predjudice – my well worn copy. Elizabeth Bennett is my favourite literary heroine after Anne Shirley. Kinsey Milhone comes third and Dorothy Gale is in fourth. I’d love to say it’s what I was actually reading when I ate these cookies but it wasn’t. These accompanied Arlene Dickinson’s Persuasion
– she’s one of my favourite, most respected real-life business women and her books is an interesting look at using the softer, genuine approach to working with people. I’ve learned a lot so far.
What about you? What are you currently reading? Do you have a “must have” reading snack? Or a spot you love to curl up in? Is it paper or e-book?
*** author’s note: I know my posts have been sorely lacking in photography tips and hints lately. I promise they are coming back. Life has been hectic with work and prep for FBC2013 which is fast approaching with just a month to go.
I truly enjoyed this post and learning of your love of books/reading. I too love to get lost in a good book and I always snack while I read. While I can see the usefulness of e-readers, for me, nothing will replace curling up in a comfy chair and getting lost between the pages, pages where you actually feel the paper as you hold the book 🙂
Having a plate of these delicious cookies on the end table beside me as I get into a book would be a delightful way to pass a few hours.
my thoughts exactly Paula! It’s all about the cozy factor!
I loved reading this post. Growing up, I adored reading and some of my best birthday presents were beautiful hardcovers of Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which all still live at my parents house because I don’t have enough shelf space to give them the proper display they deserve.
I recently read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time (somehow I missed that one in school), but other than that my brain has been too much like mush during my morning commute to really absorb anything beyond the daily metro newspaper. I see everyone reading from their tablets and e-book devices and I’m envious because I love the appeal (no heavy books, endless library!), but I like the feeling of a real book in my hands and being able to flip the pages. I also like reading while taking a hot bath and I’m afraid of what I would happen if I dropped the device with I was still in the tub. 😀
My favourite book snack is eating a bowl of cereal between my elbows while at the kitchen table, but if someone put down a plate of cookies like these near me, I would have a hard time resisting!
oooo… I had Peter Pan and the Alice books too! Forgot about those ones. I loved all of them. To Kill a Mockingbird was my favourite book I ever had to read for school. In fact, it touched me so deeply, I’ve never been able to reread it. I think now enough time might have passed that I could give it a reread.
And yes – I fell asleep in bed holding my iPad in front of me while reading – it slipped in my hands and hit me square on the forehead! Hazardous to my health (I can’t even imagine what damage I’d do to it near a bathtub!)
Hi Melissa,
Besides the recipe, which I can’t wait to make, I love your writing. It seems that all those years of reading have really paid off :).
thanks 🙂
I so enjoyed this post. We share many similarities when it comes to reading history and reading habits! Right now I have a few cookbooks on the go (just cracked open Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking” and can hardly wait to go through it), as well as food books (just finished David Leibovitz’s “Sweet Life in Paris” and am now working through Dianne Jacob’s “Will Write for Food” – eager to hear her speak at FBC2013!). Mysteries are my fiction of choice, along with other literature. Kinsey Milhone is a treasure (do you think Sue Grafton will get her all the way through the alphabet?). The latest Ian Rankin is waiting for me, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next Elizabeth George.
I’ve been reading on an ipad for over two years now. In some ways it felt wrong (shouldn’t books be on paper?) but it was a real blessing for me as I’d injured my wrists and it was painful to hold a book. (As a fellow bibliophile I’m sure you can imagine how tragic that seemed.) I’m much better now, thank goodness, but still do a lot of e-reading. I love to check out library books electronically! For me though, cookbooks have to be the real thing; I collect them and also enjoy the physical experience of browsing through them, or how a certain books just falls open to an often-made favouite recipe.
And by the way, your cookies look AH-mazing! I aspire to your level of photography; the pictures are incredible.
I’m reading “Will Write For Food” on my iPad as well – have to prep before I meet Ms Jacob at FBC2013 🙂
I so hope she makes it to Z. I fell into the series around L so I had a whole bunch to catch up on but now it’s painful to wait a year + for each new one! I heard she has a new book coming out called Kinsey and me which is more autobiographical. Sounds interesting tho!
Looking forward to meeting you next month!
Our readings of youth are identical. The Famous Five made me want to sit on some heather eating squares of chocolate…
with ginger beer!!
I love my books and library. I’m having a difficult time transitioning to digital because I luv having the actual book to hold and have. Adore the Dr. Seuss books we had as children. My childhood favorite is Tolkien. Read the LOR trilogy and Hobbit when I was 12 and couldn’t get enough of ’em. Those books got me through an awkward age of preteenage years. 🙂
I’m not reading too many novels lately. Most books are tech stuff. I keep trying to get started with Martin’s Game of Thrones books. I think the last book I actually finished was Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”
Mmmm…those choco chunk cookies would not last long in my kitchen. Delicious, Melissa!
btw: I’m not receiving email updates from your blog anymore. Missed the last three posts (including this one). Checked my spam folder too. Should I re-subscribe?
how odd! I emailed you – hopefully we can figure it out. Somebody told me the other day they thought I’d enjoy Game of Thrones but I can’t seem to pull myself to try them. Also, I just have a ridiculous amount of unread books floating around the house as it is. sigh… 🙂
Love this post! I also had post-university brain fry and could only watch shitty tv for a few months (not even books!)
I love books that center around food, feminism, or are fiction set in a real historical time (preferably india or China). Ohh and Canadian Authors like Margaret Atwood. I love reading books over and over and over and the two I think I’ve read around 15+ each are A Fine Balance and Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China <– read it!
I used to snack when I read, but now I read before bedtime so no snacking for me 🙁 I also like to bring my books into the bathtub, drop them in the water, and then freak out about it.. i never learn.
I love this post because of the writing (but the cookies look great too!)
I have been thinking about an e-reader too, but so far they could not convince me. I can see the benefit of them in certain situations (going on holidays and only having to take one “book” that holds them all with you), but so far the oldfashioned way has worked for me.
And a book for me is more than just the writing… the package really counts as well. The typesetting, the cover (oh, how shallow of me)….
these cookies look fabulous Melissa
I loved this!!! it was a flashback to so many of the books and authors I have loved over the years! Lucy Maud Montgomery, Maeve Binchy – totally!! I had a similar brain wave a ways back… (you don’t have to post this link with the comment, I just wanted to share it with you) 🙂 http://www.tastes-good-to-me.com/shortbread-fingers/
Ah remniscence of those wonderful years, your post really make me nostalgic. I was a book worm, and now I cant even seem to finish a simple fiction book! Thanks to too much blog reading that seems to take up all the free time. The cookies look fabulous:-)
What a GREAT read. How I can relate! Books were my salvation for most of my life: until “the computer”! TV didn’t even woo me. My attention span is that of a gnat, now. Is it age? Is it the technology? I read, and go to sleep. Eating won’t even help. The cookie would be sticking sideways out of my drooling and snorking mouth.
🙂
V