Library

Here is what I want in a room: Big windows and a comfortable chair to sit in.  The chair upholstered in some beautiful, colorful fabric.  Shelves and shelves of books.  A pot of oolong tea to pour steaming into my favorite clear glass mug (bought at HEMA in Amsterdam).  This is my perfect reading situation.

I have this now, sort of - I want to reupholster my chair (or at least sew a slip cover), I want more bookshelves (that will have to wait till I move somewhere bigger), and I want a couch that isn't godawful  ugly and covered in dog hair (and dogs).  But the dream library is not an impossible sort of dream.

With a good book, though, those things don't really matter.  A favorite reading experience: sitting on my mom's couch as a kid, reading 101 Dalmatians (the original novel, not a novelization of the Disney movie), eating piece after piece of buttered toast and drinking cup after cup of sugary black tea.  Another: sitting at a picnic table in a campsite for two hours, tearing through the last several hundred pages of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  Another: laying on a lounger in the sand by the North Sea in the Dutch city of Zandvoort, sipping Coke out of a glass, eating paprika-flavored potato chips, and reading Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros.

So while the library described above might be ideal, I truly only need an engaging book and a quiet space carved out for myself.  Snacks, clearly, don't hurt either.  Ingredients for a fantastic evening: a great book, no grading to do, and some paprika chips.