Something to read

It is very dangerous to get caught without something to read.

Elizabeth Savage, The Last Night at the Ritz

Elizabeth Savage

Books are a frequent topic in Elizabeth Savage's The Last Night at the Ritz, which may be one reason I enjoyed the novel. At one point our narrator says "an encyclopedia can always cheer you up," a statement so odd it stops you in your tracks and makes you think about it? How might an encyclopedia cheer you up? She prefers the 1928 edition, she says, because "I'm really not all that interested in what's been going on since 1928."

I have always found an encyclopedia somewhat intimidating. There's just too much knowledge consolidated in one place. It might be useful sometimes, but cheery?

Earlier in the novel Savage says, "Like many old English majors, we don't hold staunch opinions about anything much but books." She later disproves that statement by voicing staunch opinions on all sorts of topics, yet still I appreciate her comment. I find opinions about books more interesting than opinions about most other subjects, too.

But the statement she makes about books I can most identify with is the one printed above. I might not say it is dangerous to get caught without a book, but risky sounds about right. The risk is being trapped in a waiting room, a long line or wherever with nothing good to read, nobody to talk with and perhaps even nothing to think about. Other people play with their phones; I read a book.

When I'm waiting to be served in a restaurant (and I'm dining alone, as I usually am these days), I don't fiddle with the silverware and watch people at other tables. I read a few pages, sometimes even a chapter or two, depending upon the promptness of the service.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a book, of course. Magazines work as well. Travel brochures might also do the trick. Or catalogs. But I prefer a book, and I always keep one in my car for this purpose. I read several additional books a year this way.