A Lifelong Reader's Reading Rituals

from a reader who didn't think she had any

I didn’t think I had any rituals relating to reading. As an avid reader my entire life, reading is second nature to me, so I hadn’t noticed any special habits related to it.

“I just read” I thought. I don’t have a special spot, a comfy blanket, I’m not lighting a candle or fixing a cup of tea; I just grab my book, open it, and read.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, describes rituals as “temporal techniques of making oneself at home in the world.”

Which got me thinking “what about the way I read, makes me at home in the world?”

For one, any home I have ever lived in has been required to have bookshelves. Even my rentals. Because just the sight of books gives me comfort and joy.