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What do you read when you’re sick in bed? I had some long illnesses as a child, and since I started reading very early, reading while confined to bed was always part of the day. My mother could chart my fever by how fast I read, whether I put the book down and closed my eyes, etc. (She preferred a thermometer, though, having trained as a nurse.) Among the signs I learned to watch for in myself was reading the same page over and over.
As a younger child, I preferred stories about horses or dogs, and if they had human characters, I preferred children of the more lively type. Timidity and squeamishness and a preference for playing indoors instead of outdoors–not my type. By 9 and 10, I was reading both horse stories (and dog stories) and my mother’s books, dipping into them to see if there were any horses, dogs, or interesting children. Mysteries–my mother had a stack of paperback mysteries–did much better than historicals for someone with a fever. Trying to outwit Agatha Christie and figure out whodunnit before the end occupied the mind, but not deeply.
As an adult, I found that mysteries and light thrillers (if I can make up a subcategory) still worked well. I could follow the story, even with a moderate fever, and it would distract me. Some nonfiction books also worked, mildly instructing me about something interesting but not too challenging. Best, as fever went up, were mysteries I’d already read, but–with the fever going–I couldn’t quite remember in detail.
But to have the right books on hand when the illness strikes, to know where they are and lay a hand on them before retreating to the bed…that’s the trick. In a house overcrowded with books, I had neglected to keep a handy shelf of “sickness-reading” books when this latest crud hit. There’d been a lot of reorganization of books (moving from living room floor to the then-empty shelves in the room that had been our son’s–inadequate for what was on the floor, so they’re double-stacked.) I was thus left with flotsam on the surface of a turbulent book-ocean.
And that is how I ended up reading H. Rider Haggard’s Beatrice through one almost-sleepless night of coughing and coughing. I had started this illness with an Elizabeth George that happened to be out being re-read. I moved on to the only other mystery I could find at 2 or 3 am, one of Charlotte MacLeod’s Professor Shandy series. After that, it was Booth Tarkington’s The Gentleman from Indiana, during the worst of the fever, and finally Haggard’s Beatrice, which I hadn’t re-read in years, probably well over ten years, and had a vague memory of as somewhat overwrought, but not taxing.
It’s tricky being a writer reading other writers. We know the short-cuts; we know the temptations. Most of us aren’t good enough at spotting the infelicities in our own work (I’m certainly not) but we can certainly find the mote in the other guy’s eye (and book.) I’ve often read bad books for the fun of feeling superior (it doesn’t hurt the writer…I bought his/her book and I’m not going to publicize the badness and ruin more sales.)
But fun of that sort is best enjoyed when not running a high fever or coughing your lungs out. Fever and pain make writers grumpy, and grumpy writers no longer enjoy bad writing. And H. Rider Haggard is safely dead, where his feelings can’t be hurt. What made Haggard fun to read, when I wasn’t sick, is what made him mentally painful to read, when I was. And I was too sick to get up in the middle of the night and search for something else. (Two of my own were on the floor by the bed, but another truth of being a writer reading in bed while sick, is that if you read your own books then, you will spot every single flaw, now too late to fix, and raise your fever another half-degree fretting about it and calling yourself stupid, incompetent, undeserving, etc.)
Tranquility is not characteristic of Haggard’s work. Steady, calm, sensible, the kind of story that eases the sick brain along, gives it a focus but not wild emotion…that’s not Haggard. And so I was plunged into what, in modern days, would be written online in all-caps and studded with multiple exclamation points. I’m used to late 19th c. styles of writing–I can usually discount anything that, today, we’d find Too Much. I’m not upset by the ignorance of that period–what they didn’t know about, for instance, about modern emergency medicine. I’m not upset by more telling and less showing, by long (to us) descriptive passages. Their readers didn’t have television–even colored photographs were in the future, let alone movies and video–so they needed word-pictures. And I remembered having enjoyed what I could of Haggard and snickering at the rest. But that was in halcyon days of yore, when fever’s burning hand had not yet been laid on my suffering forehead….you see what I mean.
C.S. Lewis argued that when bad books sell, and especially if they become popular, it’s because they have some literary virtues as well as literary faults. That they wouldn’t work at all, with any readers, if they didn’t offer the reader some pleasure. So I must admit that Haggard has literary virtues. The characters are unforgettable (so, alas, is Haggard’s long moralistic lecturing about them. He’s clearly fascinated with Beatrice herself, has created this superwoman, superb in every way…except she’s not a Christian and she’s too headstrong and had he/she/they but known….) Haggard’s ability to set mood with description was excellent (not so his insistence on pounding home the portents with a sledgehammer…he can’t let you see that the sun setting in a storm cloud might be a metaphor for the whole book, he has to tell you that it would’ve been better if Beatrice and Geoffrey had never met.)
It is not a book to read on a nearly-sleepless night when you’re sick. I went back to The Gentleman from Indiana the next night.
Comment by Daniel Glover — March 5, 2011 @ 10:44 am
Well, Truth be told, Elizabeth Moon would be my sleepless night reading. Particularly OoG, DA not so much. C.S. Lewis, Asimov, Heinlein and McCaffrey would be others. Get well soon.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — March 5, 2011 @ 5:30 pm
I have to watch what I read when I have a fever, since the fever messes with my memory. If it’s something I need to remember later–or remember accurately–best to wait till the temp drops. That’s why I hardly ever read anything remotely work-related when I’m more than mildly ill.
The last time it looked like I was going to be laid up long enough to make a good sickbed reading choice important from the start, the Vatta’s War series came off the shelf again. It was perfect for what my fevered brain could handle.
Speaking of Tarkington, my father used to read me the Penrod and Sam stories when I was sick. Rereading them as an adult, with the difference all those years and no fever made, it was almost like new material.
Comment by elizabeth — March 5, 2011 @ 5:46 pm
I once tried to read the Penrod and Sam stories and just couldn’t. Maybe I should try again.
My mother used to read me Bible stories from an illustrated book (Hurlbut’s Stories from the Bible) when I was a 5 or 6 and sick. Very old book even then. Earlier she’d read my favorite Little Golden Book (“The Pokey Little Puppy”) and a beautiful book of verse of which my favorite (for a long time) started out “The dinky bird was singing in the amphaloola tree…” and “Wynken and Blinken and Nod one night went asail in a silver spoon…”(that’s my memory–don’t trust the spelling.) She read them over and over and had to buy new copies because they wore out.
E.
Comment by Mike D — March 5, 2011 @ 7:06 pm
EM’s “books packed away” comment let’s me add another to the list of things that come “free” with an ebook reader, such as optional large print.
I’ve got 420 books on my Kindle, including many “comfort reads” from my childhood like Three Men In a Boat (and Three Men on the Bummel) and The Second and First Jungle Books.
For course, besides out of copyright books, I have been buying ebooks since 1999.
If I had a fever I would probably read Komarr or Surrender None.
Comment by Genko — March 5, 2011 @ 7:39 pm
Wynken and Blynken and Nod — someone (PP&M?) recorded a song with those lyrics. I learned it (complete with a guitar part), and it’s one of my favorite songs. Your memory seems good, though the way I sing it is “W&B&N one night, sailed off in a wooden shoe, sailed on a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew …” Lovely!
Comment by Nay — March 5, 2011 @ 11:31 pm
Sounds like me. Whenever I’m sick, I go for a book. Last time it was Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy. I’ve also got the omnibus of the deed right next to it.
I’ve got a kindle, but I really like books I can touch and feel and turn the pages on, you know? The kindle, while it has over 100 great books on it, is not something for me to grab when I’m sick.
Comment by Alaska Fan — March 6, 2011 @ 1:09 am
I read Jack Vance’s superb Lyonesse Trilogy (Suldrun’s Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc) with a high fever and kind of fell into the story. In my feverish head, I sort of lost track of what was the story and what was real. It certainly made the stories memorable.
But it had the unhappy effect of making the real world, as I finished the stories and the fever finally let up, seem dim, pale and vaguely disappointing compared to The Elder Isles.
Get well soon, Ms. Moon.
Comment by Dave Ring — March 6, 2011 @ 1:19 pm
I was out for a week with pneumonitis in first grade and spent it reading Dr. Doolittle books my mom brought from the library. Fever probably enhanced some scenes I still remember vividly, like the trip to the moon on a giant moth.
Comment by Margaret — March 6, 2011 @ 3:30 pm
I remember Winken, Blinken and Nod… a song from the Mamas and Papas album Creeque Alley, altho it was actually performed by “The Big Three”, of which Cass Elliot was a member. Looking this up took me on one of those Wikipedia walk abouts where I learned much about the poem of the same name and the various artists who covered it.
My fave sick book reads are MZB’s Renunciates books/stories and EM’s Serrano Series. I like the comfort of familiar material and these have been read many times. As a child, Walter Farley was the best bed reading.
Comment by OtterB — March 6, 2011 @ 6:37 pm
When I’m not feeling well, I tend to like series books where I enjoy hanging out with the characters. I find the J. D. Robb books good for that; I’m no longer reading to find out what happened, like I was the first time through, so I can read along for a while enjoying the interactions of the usual gang, but put it down at any point without being unhappy. Old kids books are good too: Anne of Green Gables and the sequels, some of Louisa May Alcott, Swallows and Amazons, even Five Little Peppers.
Light nonfiction is good too. I got through a long bad night of a stomach bug once with a book on debunking psychics.
Comment by Jill — March 6, 2011 @ 6:45 pm
In my current sickened state i am downing Gypsy Cold Care tea and working my way through Earth Logic by Laurie Marks, simply because it needs to go back to the library soon. But many times i like to read old favorites from my childhood – something from The Chronicles of Narnia, Madeline L’Engle’s Time series or Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. Those books are like familiar old friends and are perfect for when i’m feeling pitiful.
Comment by Linda — March 6, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
Eugene Field wrote Wynken, Blynken and Nod as well as The Dinkey Bird. I first encountered these poems in my Child Craft set … an anthology of poetry, fiction, folk and fairy tales, as well as information on non-fiction topics. I wish my mother hadn’t given them away because i loved the illustrations as well as the poems etc. They were favorites of mine because they were mine … they were always there. The unfashionable orange covers would not have gone with the color scheme the folks used when they redid my room. Luckily I have found vol. 1 &2 in an edition from the 50’s which has most of the same poetry, but color illustrations (by many of the best illustrators of the period, but not the same.) Mine would have been earlier, with black and white illustrations, and there are some changes in the contents.
Over the years I’ve met quite a few people of “our age” who remember those books fondly. I’m going to have to see what I can find out about how they were marketed … the series actually has educational advisors and notes to parents.
One of the unfinished projects in my craft closet is an art quilt based on Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Maybe it should move higher on the to do list. Thanks for the memory.
As a high schooler moving away from most horse books I adopted Dick Francis as good reading for feverish days. It was at the start of his career, but we had a few as Reader’s Digest books. I still grab his books when I want to be entertained and distracted in less than salubrious conditions. ALA conventions in New Orleans and Dallas in mid summer come to mind.
Comment by elizabeth — March 6, 2011 @ 9:37 pm
Long before it was a song, it was a poem by Eugene Field published back in the 19th c….I wonder if the words are even the same.
I found a whole collection of his poems, including The Dinky Bird: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-dinkey-bird/
Comment by elizabeth — March 6, 2011 @ 11:18 pm
Overlapping comments…sorry, Linda, I didn’t see yours when I posted mine.
The book my mother had was a tall, skinny book–not part of a set–but I know I’ve seen that set. I found a set that’s probably related (green covers, color & B&W illustrations) at a library sale and bought them for our son. It had “Over In the Meadow” which I don’t remember from childhood, but our son loved it.
Comment by Pam L — March 7, 2011 @ 9:42 am
Happy Birthday, Elizabeth. How annoying to be sick on your birthday. Sounds like you are coming out of it though, so that’s good.
Mysteries are my choice when I am sick too. Especially Dell Shannon. Following the little tidbits of story about the members of the squad through the years is comforting somehow. Dick Francis is a favorite too, and for some reason Roberta Gellis’ Roselynde medieval romaces.
Comment by OtterB — March 7, 2011 @ 10:45 am
Oh, I remember the Child Craft set! We had one of those too. I think I must be remembering mid-60s. The covers I remember were beige. I thought of it as going along with our World Book encyclopedia, which may or may not be true.
And I agree with Linda, Dick Francis is another good one for when I’m not feeling well.
Comment by Maureen — March 7, 2011 @ 8:54 pm
Man, and I thought _I_ was an Iron Reader. I’ve never been able to read books in a high fever, because the first thing I was commanded to do was lie down and rest my eyes. I was permitted to watch educational television while lying on the family room couch (so my mom could keep an eye on me while working), but that was about it. (Although occasionally in adult life, I have posted on the Internet with a fever. Not recommended, although it does greatly increase your posting speed.)
Audiobooks are pretty good, though. You can rest your eyes and nod off to sleep while still getting the story!
Comment by Daniel Glover — March 8, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
All this talk about old children’s book sets gets me to wondering what my mother ever did with all my father’s old Uncle Wiggly books. Reread those over and over and over as I was growing up too.
Comment by arthur — March 14, 2011 @ 10:06 am
The Hobbit is what I read when I’m sick. The Alan Lee 1997 Illustrated version is utterly beautiful. Just out of curiousity, are there any official “Deed of Paksenarrion” songs? I LOVE filk music, and there doesn’t seem ot be any of yours.