Comments on: Sneaky reading

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:40:54 +0000

I love your commitment, and Artemesia’s above. Reading by walkman indicator light or troll doll glowing stomach is impressive. Kids these days are probably lighting up the pages with the flashlight app on their iPhones–if they’re not playing Angry Birds instead.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:39:07 +0000

This is smart. Though it wouldn’t work for me since I slept with the door cracked open since I was afraid of the dark!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:38:26 +0000

I love the idea of your parents putting the stuff away when they checked on you but never mentioning to you that you could just read if you wanted. It’s so much more fun when you think you’re being clandestine!

By: Sarah Henson

Sarah Henson — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:49:38 +0000

I did in fact read under the covers with a flashlight. My dad would come in and take the flashlight away, thinking that I would sleep. Instead, I would pull a troll doll out of the pile on the bed. If you pushed his belly button he said something and lit up. I’d put my hand over his speaker and read by his pale green glow until I fell asleep.

Another favorite was to curl up under my bedside table on top of the air vent in the winter. So warm and cozy!

By: Artemesia

Artemesia — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:53:09 +0000

I used to read under the covers by the little red indicator light on my walkman. It only lit up a few words at a time, but it worked. And I wonder why I need glasses now…

By: Kurt Hartwig

Kurt Hartwig — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:31:01 +0000

I rolled up a towel and put it at the base of the door so that my mother couldn’t see the light bleeding through. She saw it was dark and assumed my light was out and I read above the sheets in peace and quiet.

By: Gilbert J. Avila

Gilbert J. Avila — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:11:35 +0000

I’m almost 63 and I still remember reading Edgar Rice Burroughs under the blankets with a flashlight and coming up for air every 15 minutes or so. Good times.

By: Julie Nilson

Julie Nilson — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:55:37 +0000

I didn’t use a flashlight under the covers–I just used a mini-flashlight and put it as close to the page as I could so the light wouldn’t “spread.” In retrospect, my parents probably knew (especially since I occasionally fell asleep and then found my book and light left neatly on my desk the next morning), but I’m sure that they were sneaky readers too so they let it go.

By: Teri Carter

Teri Carter — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:36:18 +0000

When I was kid, my mother worked the night shift a lot and I stayed in our apartment alone from age 9 on. So of course I had every light in the house on and read as long as I could stay awake!! Sometimes I stayed with Grandma and she liked to stay up late and watch scary movies — so I could read then, too.

They all figured if I was reading I wasn’t in trouble, so they liked nothing better than to see me with pile of library books, no matter the content. Now I look back and can’t believe the stuff they let me read.

By: Ciara

Ciara — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:56:56 +0000

This reminds me of when I was a kid and I really wanted to do that, reading under the covers by flash light thing but found it way to uncomfortable and frankly unnecessary. My parents were quite relaxed about letting me read past bedtime, I suppose they too thought a book crazy kid was not the worst thing in the world.