Reading is all about finding the perfect spot

I was unable to resist a recent headline over at Wirecutter on a piece by Kase Wickman: "How I Customized My Kindle for the Coziest Reading Sessions of My Life."

I have been an e-reader fan since the very earliest Kindles. I love having a ton of books with me at all times, I love being able to switch between them on a whim, I love not accumulating physical books I don't have room for, and with some books, I love being able to search for a passage I remember.

A reader relaxes in London. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

I do not, however, always love the physical reading experience, particularly when lying in bed. Even if you find the right case, it's easy to end up sort of crooking your elbow funny, or having your hand in a weird position, or suddenly realizing you've got your wrist pulled back like a claw. What the Wirecutter piece suggests is a two-part solution: You put your Kindle on a stand, like the kind of bendy contraption you'd use for a lamp, so you don't have to hold it. Then, you buy a remote consisting of a clip that attaches to the edge of the Kindle and the actual remote (about the size of a pack of gum) that you hold in your hand. What this means is that you can lie in bed with the little remote in your hand but nothing else, press the button to advance pages, and read without moving.

Now, when I duplicated this setup for myself (because of course I did), I rather gleefully told people I had discovered a new level of being lazy. And I still believe it. It took a little fiddling to get it all working, but when I did, I could indeed lie still, hold almost nothing in my hands, and read a book that hovered in front of my face.

I am not necessarily endorsing this setup; it is the understatement of the century to say that I do not need it. If I lived with someone else, there is an excellent chance they would giggle at me, and I would have no defense. (By the way, setups similar to this can be very important for people with disabilities; I am speaking only about my experience as a person doing it because I feel like it, sheerly for the comfort.)

But I do think there's something about reading. On the one hand, you can do it almost anywhere: in line at the bank, on a plane, in the back of a car, on a desert island. But on the other, it is such a profound pleasure to get your setup exactly how you want it. The chair, the light, the ambient temperature, the sound or lack of sound. (Some people can listen to music while they read; I mostly can't.)

Nothing should take you out of the book. Nothing should disturb you. Nothing should bug you. You should be responsible only to the book; that's the dream. Reading is personal. You do it at your own pace and on your own schedule (book readers were debating the binge versus the little-bit-at-a-time long before Netflix). It is for you and nobody else; it is not even available to people who are in the room with you. It is the mental activity I find closest to meditation.

And so, yes, I lie in bed now, my little remote in my hand, my dog asleep at my feet, my Kindle hovering in front of my eyes like a robot on The Jetsons is presenting it to me, and I read. The colder it gets this winter, the more glad I will be that the only thing that has to peek out from under the covers will be the remote hand. I have no regrets, just lots and lots of books to read.

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