Multiple Bed Partners

 

For many, bedtime is the best time of the day.  Not for the sleeping, but for all that happens before sleep comes.  Exciting things can happen at the end of a long day in a comfortable bed.

Sometimes, it all depends on how many bed partners you keep.  I’ve always been one for multiple bed partners. They, after all, can make or break the final hours before sleep arrives, can be the difference between excitement and boredom, infatuation and indifference.  And when one begins to shed its allure, you can always put your hands on another.

I’m talking, of course, about books.

Books are always stacked on my bedside nightstand, although none of them remain permanent residents.  Some readers prefer to focus on one story at a time, but I tend to keep multiple books beside me.  With three or four novels in progress at any given time, I know there will always be something to interest me, regardless of my mood.

At the moment, I’m sharing my bed with Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue, and George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: in which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life.

Who have you been sharing your bed with?