One of my favourite places in the world is Clacton Leisure Centre. It is a council-run gym, and for £30 a month you get the weights, a sauna, a steam room, and a building full of people who want to talk to you.
It is a humble place. Something is almost always broken, and nobody would call it plush. What it lacks in finish, it makes up for in company. Everyone chats to everyone. I have made friends there I expect to keep for the rest of my life, and I have met a few characters I would struggle to explain to anyone who hasn't been. It is also where I do a lot of reading, in the sauna and the steam room.
People are bemused the first time they see someone reading in a sauna. I was, the morning I walked in and found Carrie on the top bench with a paperback and a towel over her knees. I have her to thank for the habit.
The questions from the other guests are always the same. Doesn't the book get ruined, and can you concentrate? Yes, and yes. The pages go wavy and the spine gives up within a week, but I have always thought a book is there to be used up. I write so many notes in mine that they are no use to anyone else anyway. They survive, just about.
So carry a book. Read when you are travelling, queuing, walking, stretching, lying down, or sitting in a room that is hotter than is sensible. Carl Sagan said that to read is to voyage through time, and if you always have a book on you, you can leave whenever you like.
What I did not expect is that reading everywhere starts conversations. Some of the best conversations I have had, and a few of my friendships, began with someone asking what I was reading.
Thank you for reading. Take care of yourself and others.
Much love,
Benjamin
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