Confession: My reading is not limited to classics, literature and deep philosophical tomes. I am an eclectic reader. A compulsive reader. Couldn’t pass up reading the back of a cereal box when I was a kid. Today, I am enchanted by the blurbs in Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer. The American Science and Surplus catalog has me snorting, and Daedalus catalogs have provided useful book reviews.
I read a lot of children’s literature. Frequently it is better than the average modern fiction book. It captures your attention immediately and does not drag on with sesquipedalian prose. The author cannot afford to lose the audience. Children’s books are one example of great bedtime reading for adults.
And that’s what I want to talk about here: bedtime books. I don’t know about you, but I tend to have anywhere from three minutes to maybe twenty before I fall asleep once I crawl into that bed. The photo above illustrates the kind of reading I choose for those minutes. Each of these books is a quick read, easily dividable into five minute portions. They are generally fairly uplifting…no horrific images to haunt your dreams…except perhaps the iron-fisted poetry by Maggie Jaffe. .
The uniquely different item in the photo is a 1943 diary. I have been interested in creating a National Diary Archive in the United States so I spend some time reading old diaries. No worries about forgetting the plot.
Anyone care to reveal some of their pillow books?
The Eclectic Reader 
I prefer Johnathan Shrift’s Gullible’s Travels, in which the Sesquipedalians of Sesquipedalia experience a series of small misadventures and catastrophes due to their misguided adherence to Sesquipedalian Sesquipedalianism. –W
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sesquipedalian? I could not have managed to fit that into my discourse. My first thought was of sequins and artificial adornment to catch the eye but be of little value in itself. Thank you for that moment of thought.
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Well said, Cynthia. Literature written for younger readers nicely facilitates one’s descent into “the arms of Morpheus.” Having struggled with the various horrors of everyday existence, I’m reluctant to accept additional challenges from sophisticated reading material at day’s end. –W
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