I can't read at home

[alzheimer]

Hi.

Literature has always been my passion, but I recently found a job, and it leaves me with very little free time. Basically, I can only read now during weekends.

The problem is: I live with two other people (in order to share a rent fee) and they wind me up. They CONSTANTLY make noise, bang things together, yammer on and on about unimportant things. I just can't concentrate in such an environment.

All the libraries are closed during weekends.

Is there any place I could go read?

I realize this might sound silly, but my situation really depresses me.

Do you have any suggestions for me? Does anybody have the same problem?
How did you solve it? How can I escape this nonsense?

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Your depressed friend

P.S.: I'm not a native speaker, so pardon my imperfect English :)

[ladderandbucket]

Get some earplugs. I also find myself easily distracted and have suffered from noisy neighbours. Earplugs saved me from going insane.

Your English is perfect, by the way.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Find a nice quiet pub or cafe. Or take a flask of tea and head out somewhere quiet. Move house?

[cafolini]

Find a large bookstore. Most have reading areas.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

More suggestions;
If you have access to a park or similar setting and the weather is nice, grab a blanket or lawn chair and soak up the sun and reading.
If you use/ have a car and the weather is bad, drive to a park and read in the car.
Neely's cafe suggestion is a good one. Often times, I'll take my lunch at a diner and ask for a booth away from the main dining area and read there.
You can use the knife to hold the pages down while you eat or use an e-reader.

[Emil Miller]

Find a nice quiet pub or cafe. Or take a flask of tea and head out somewhere quiet. Move house?

Now now Neely, this is England don't forget. Quiet pubs are few and far between and coffee houses are full of chattering women with the ubiquitous baby buggies. The constant noise from sound systems in pubs makes concentration impossible unless, as I do, you take a 30 minute train journey to the one pub that has a small bar which, unlike the other bars, doesn't have speakers.
Weatherspoons pubs generally don't have 'music' but they allow children in and are often full of noisy plonkers trying to outdo each other in raising the decibel level. As far as heading out somewhere quiet, don't forget to wrap up warmly and definitely take an umbrella: preferably one of strong construction to withstand the wind. I fully sympathise with those who have to share a premises with noisy individuals all of whom should, in my view, be shot.

This would be my ideal were I wealthy and influential enough to be a member except that draught beer would definitely not be an option.:nonod:

http://imageshack.us/a/img89/2624/thegentlemensclubsoflon.jpg

[LitNetIsGreat]

Ha, ha I know I wasn't thinking about heading outside here as it's still too cold for that, even getting better slightly. I've taken to biking out to some decent country pubs:
http://www.pubs.com/main_site/top_ten/best_pubs_in_the_peak_district.php

I was at the Queen Anne the other day and a couple of the others I've been in several times. I fancy trying out the Barely Mow next. It comes to something when apart from the odd pub, I have to bike out 30 miles for a quiet pint.

[Emil Miller]

Ha, ha I know I wasn't thinking about heading outside here as it's still too cold for that, even getting better slightly. I've taken to biking out to some decent country pubs:
http://www.pubs.com/main_site/top_ten/best_pubs_in_the_peak_district.php

I was at the Queen Anne the other day and a couple of the others I've been in several times. I fancy trying out the Barely Mow next. It comes to something when apart from the odd pub, I have to bike out 30 miles for a quiet pint.

There are some good watering holes there by the look of them but, as you say, it's necessary to travel to get to them. London has masses of pubs but most of them are unusable because of annoying speaker noise. The few that are free from it, apart from Weatherspoons, are usually crowded precisely because there are some people who don't like excessive noise. Years ago, before the intrusion of trash music into everyone's life, pubs usually had two bars, one for the noisy crowd, known as the public bar and another for the more responsible person, the saloon bar. Some places had another bar called the lounge and the drinks were correspondingly expensive according to the type of bar used. It meant that everyone had a choice of atmosphere in which they wanted to drink, but then came the time when there should be no distinction and everyone was classed as the same. So out went the dividing walls and in came the speakers, and a bit more of the quality of life was destroyed in the name of a spurious inclusiveness. At least, that's what happened in the cities, and London is now a drinking zone for the lowest common denominator only, with the exception of gentlemen's clubs which still maintain their civilised exclusivity.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes the picture of the gentleman's club looks the stuff. Certainly a very relaxing and civilized set up. I'd have to sport my only suit to get in though. by the looks of it, a cheap new thing bought at the last minute as my Burton's number no longer fits with me having shed a few pounds last summer. I'm probably more at home in the 16/17th century rustic country inns with a pint of Cumberland Ale, but the Gentleman's club would hit the spot for the midday coffee and game of chess/reading, or glass of wine at night if I was in the mood for that sort of thing. Are there many of them left in London then? Gentleman's clubs.

[kev67]

I do a fair bit of reading in coffee shops, although that is an expensive way to read a book.

[hawthorns]

Hi.

Literature has always been my passion, but I recently found a job, and it leaves me with very little free time. Basically, I can only read now during weekends.

The problem is: I live with two other people (in order to share a rent fee) and they wind me up. They CONSTANTLY make noise, bang things together, yammer on and on about unimportant things. I just can't concentrate in such an environment.

All the libraries are closed during weekends.

Is there any place I could go read?

I realize this might sound silly, but my situation really depresses me.

Do you have any suggestions for me? Does anybody have the same problem?
How did you solve it? How can I escape this nonsense?

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Your depressed friend

P.S.: I'm not a native speaker, so pardon my imperfect English :)




This is one of the few things I really miss about college: private reading rooms in some remote area of a gigantic library. Dead silence. If there's a public library in your area, I'd try it. Unfortunately, ours is frequented by ghetto hoods, drunks, and derelicts. It's anything but quiet. I've seen two arrests inside...

[*Classic*Charm*]

Find more compatible roommates :(

It sounds as though this is about differences in lifestyle, not just you being prevented from reading a book.

[chrisvia]

White-noise-generating headphones.

[Emil Miller]

Yes the picture of the gentleman's club looks the stuff. Certainly a very relaxing and civilized set up. I'd have to sport my only suit to get in though. by the looks of it, a cheap new thing bought at the last minute as my Burton's number no longer fits with me having shed a few pounds last summer. I'm probably more at home in the 16/17th century rustic country inns with a pint of Cumberland Ale, but the Gentleman's club would hit the spot for the midday coffee and game of chess/reading, or glass of wine at night if I was in the mood for that sort of thing. Are there many of them left in London then? Gentleman's clubs.

There are quite a few although the most eminent such as the Reform and Athenaeum are beyond the reach of most people because they require not only money and status but sponsorship which is rigorously controlled. You may recall that in Pro Bono Publico Roger Percival is almost blackballed when sponsored for the Reform Club and Gerald Welford has to wait until he becomes a High Court judge before he is accepted for the Athenaeum. I also feature the Garrick Club in A Tangled Web as the place where membership is largely confined to the literati.

[ennison]

Buy thermals and get outside. If still too cold get audio books, plug in and walk. If your job is sedentary then you'll be killing two birds with one stone