I'm re-reading

[hippywife]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Almost finished with it. It's not that I really like the book, it's just that I need to read in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. It usually takes an hour or so and that was immediately at hand.

I've also re-read most of my Michener collection.

Anyone else do this? I swear it's become an absolute necessity to have a book, any book, with me when I go to bed at night.

[Windy]

1. My husband and I are going to CERN in Switzerland in May...

that is the particle accelerator that is referenced in Angels and Demons. We are so excited!

[hippywife]

3. Oughta be interesting.

I wonder how many people have checked it out since reading the book. It's not a terribly good book, it just kinda sucks you in. I actually didn't remember reading it before and borrowed it from my MIL. As soon as I read the first couple pages, I remembered it. Oh, well. It fills the middle of the night whole, even if it is difficult to suspend disbelief for a lot of it.

Enjoy your trip! :hi:

[gateley]

19. Wow! File a report when you get back, okay? nt

[Windy]

26. I will. Hubby is on an Einstein quest. We are going to Bern, Zurich, Ulm in Germany and Cern...

Should be very interesting.

Cern is going online this summer. We were very lucky to get in to take the tour. I had to arrange it four months in advance!

[Kutjara]

27. There's a funny story about Dan Brown's visit to CERN.

Apparently, after Angels & Demons was published, the Director of CERN was a bit...erm...conCERNed that his establishment and its activities had been misrepresented in A&D. In particular, he felt the whole "antimatter" plotline was very far-fetched, given it would take something on the order of a trillion years for CERN to produce the amount of antimatter stolen from the facility in A&D.

The Director read an interview with Dan Brown, in which the author mentioned having toured CERN as part of his research for the book. When he asked around, however, the Director was unable to find a single employee who remembered showing Brown around. The question was finally asked at a monthly staff meeting, at which point one of the junior administrative folks put her hand up and said, "Oh, I remember him. He came in one afternoon and asked for a tour. None of the researchers was available, so I gave him the basic tourist spiel and that was it. It took about 45 minutes." When asked if Brown had subsequently been in contact or submitted any follow-up questions, the admin said no. Apparently a 45 minute gee-wiz visit was all the research Brown needed to do.

The Director of CERN was pretty philosophical about the whole thing. He said, "Well, since the publication of the book we've had a 10,000% increase in the number of requests from members of the public for information about our activities. It's been great publicity and has enabled us to get our message out to a much wider audience. That's all a very good thing. Just don't go by what you read in the book."

[gateley]

2. I always go to bed with a book and have it there if I wake up in the middle

of the night.

I'm currently re-reading -- by mistake -- a Grisham book (I read so many books I forget which ones I have or haven't).

I bought it yesterday because it LOOKED like a new paperback from him. Three pages into it I realized I'd read it when it first came out. (The Testament).

So yeah, I can identify.

[hippywife]

6. The really weird thing is

that when my eyes are getting too heavy to keep reading and I nod off, my mind is still reading but not what's in the book. I'll bolt awake and try to pick up where I left off and wonder where in the heck I came up with the stuff I thought I was reading! LOL

And if I put it back on the nightstand, I wake up again. I have to just leave it in the bed by my side. I can't really explain that one, either! :rofl:

[gateley]

16. That's happened to me too!

I'm lying there and my eyes are closed and it's like I'm reading the book in my head anyway.

At least you put your book on the nightstand. I inevitably wake up with mine on the pillow in front of my face. First thing I see when I open my eyes.

:7

[hippywife]

18. I don't put it back anymore.

I've found that to be totally futile! Now I just tuck it in beside me and drift off. I can't explain why that works. LOL

:hi:

[MadMaddie]

13. Honestly I think the publishers should stop doing that.

Repackaging a book with a new cover and then act likes it's new. I have been suckered by that ploy many a time. Well I always end up re-reading the book anyway.

[gateley]

17. I agree - I usually check the copyright date because I often forget the title,

and read so many books that the plots mush together in my mind, so the blurb on the back doesn't help much.

I won't NOT check the copyright again.

In the 90's I read a book THREE TIMES and all through it I'm going "I think I read this before...this seems to ring a bell..." I think that's when I began my copyright scrutiny. :)

[redwitch]

4. Insomnia is miserable and yes, I keep favorite books by the bed.

Then it doesn't matter if I read the same paragraph over and over. :-)
We need a yawning smilie for threads like this one.

[hippywife]

8. Here ya go...

[redwitch]

24. that is adorable.

[MadMaddie]

5. Hey Hippywife...the Seattle Public library system has a book

sale twice a year....they purge the libraries of too many copies of books. I go twice a year with a rollinig suitcase (others go with rolling trash cans)and $20.00 The last day of the sale the paperbacks are 25 cents and the hardbacks are 50 cents. I get ennough books to last me until the next book sale. Which means I start and finish a book every three days or so.

Oh wait it gets worse if I don't like the remaining books I go to the library and check out more books.

So yes I am the same....if I could read all day and all night for a career I would do it.:hi:

[hippywife]

12. It's not the worse addiction in the world, heh?

I can't remember a time when I didn't love to read. I was always checking books out of the library that most kids would have had no interest in at all.

I'm so afraid of losing my eyesight one day. I work in a retirement center and see it happen all the time. And I can feel mine getting worse, too. Been wearing glasses since 4th grade and bifocals for the last four or five. Oy! I know I can do books on tape/CD and I do enjoy those at times but I still love to curl up with a good book...literally!

That sounds like a really great deal but I would make myself nuts and I have so little storage space for them as it is. I keep the library busy with online book reservations.

Enjoy all your treasures! :hi:

[gateley]

21. That's cool -- there are so many good books I wanted to read but didn't, and

this would be a great opportunity.

I hope to move back to Seattle by the end of the year -- I'm going to remember this! Thanks!!

[MadMaddie]

22. I hope you make it....it's a book lovers dream.

http://www.splfriends.org/index.php?page=BookSales

The sale occurs twice a year in April and September.

[gateley]

23. Thanks again!

:headbang:

[NMDemDist2]

7. I used to read like that

now I have wireless earphones connected to the Dish and I can turn off the TV and listen to CSpan without disturbing hubby and the topics usually put me to sleep

OMG!!!!! this is it!!!! 39999!!!!!

GD here I come........

:rofl:

[hippywife]

9. Go for it, girl!

Glad to have helped!

[NMDemDist2]

11. thanks so much, I totally would have missed it again!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2886833

[Warpy]

10. It's either a book or cryptic crossword puzzles

both of which require me to wear drugstore magnifying glasses over my regular glasses and give me a raging headache in under an hour. However, I generally get pretty sleepy in less than that so the headache never kicks in.

Books I reread include my complete Jane Austin, my complete Shakespeare, "Little Big Man," and "A Canticle for Liebowitz," all of which have been absent my reading list until my sight gets better.

[hippywife]

14. Even with bifocals,

I take my glasses off to read because it just isn't comfortable to keep one's head tilted back in such a position for very long. I've caught myself lately trying to read really small print on something and reaching up to find I already have my glasses off. I think I'm eventually doomed where my eyesight is concerned.

I hope yours does get better, Warpy. What a terrible world it would be without the ability to read. I can't even imagine it, even tho I see it in others everyday.

On the upside tho, as I told one of my elderly residents with terribly low vision, I think the loss of eyesight can be a boon, a compensation in some ways...at least we don't have to watch our boobs sagging! :rofl:

[Staph]

15. I'm in the middle of Jane Austen as well

while PBS is in the middle of an Austenathon on Masterpiece Theatre. Dozing off in the middle of an Austen leaves one with the most wonderful dreams!

[Richardo]

20. Me!

:hi:

I have to have something to read (almost) no matter WHAT I'm doing. But especially eating or going to sleep.

[hippywife]

29. Fancy running into you

twice in one week! LOL :hi:

[Upton]

25. Have read Centennial

twice so I can relate to rereading Michener. My, what a writer he was.

[hippywife]

28. Truly

a fantastic writer. I've read a dozen of his books, half of them twice. I've never read an author so adept at getting one to see, feel, and understand both sides of human conflicts.

Welcome to DU, Upton! :hi:

[silverweb]

30. Yup.

Bedtime reading is an essential, life-long habit.

An old book to re-read for a third or fourth time is better than no book, and reading on the computer just doesn't cut it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. I cannot fall asleep without reading

Even when I've been up past midnight working on a job for a Japanese client and am practically collapsing onto my computer keyboard, once I get into bed, I'm wide awake unless I read something.

[pitohui]

32. well sort of but not quite

if i want it to put me to sleep i read something technical, it won't take any hour or so, it will take about 10 seconds

get a good book on shorebird taxonomy and see if you need an hour to nod off! i don't think so! or perhaps a nice book on gull identification will be your insomnia cure

[Tesha]

33. I can't sleep without reading first...

... and half of what I read is probably a re-read too.I have bookcases of old friends just whispering to me ... read me again... read me again.

and when my doctor asked if I ever had insomnia, I told her no, if I wake in the night I take it as an opportunity to read- it's a benefit!

[Rowdyboy]

34. Sometimes for only 5 minutes, but I always read....I'll finish rereading "The Plague"

by Camus tonight. Tomorrow I'll be continueing with Robert Heinlein's classic "Time Enough for Love".

Thats just how I relax and calm down.

[yellowdogintexas]

35. oh yes even just a catalog or a cookbook will do

I also never go anywhere without a book, just in case I get caught with a few free minutes to read.

[LWolf]

36. I read every night before bed,

and I keep a book handy for when I wake up in the middle of the night. It helps.

Entering someone else's world for awhile is one way to cut off the constant chatter our brain keeps up about our own lives that keeps us awake.