OMG! Ok, now my sins are going to come out............

I have 35 books on my night stand right now, I won't list them all, just the ones that I actually intend to read, some of them are books people have given me that they liked but don't really appeal to me, others are books that I frequently reference, like several books about Buddhism, some are books that I know I SHOULD read, but here is what I will read....

PORTUGUESE IRREGULAR VERBS, Alexander McCall Smith
THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB, Alexander McCall Smith
LOVE WALKED IN, Marisa De Los Santos
CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER, Gregory Maquire
WE"RE JUST LIKE YOU ONLY PRETTIER, Celia Rivenbank
SARUM, Edward Rutherford
FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, Umberto Eco
WAITING, Ha Jin
WINTERDANCE, Paulsen

Well, I thought I had a lot with 19 books on my bedside table. Ten of them are textbooks and the rest are novels.

The Sparks Fly Upward by Diana Norman (finished)
Persuasion by Jane Austen (about 20 pages in)
The King of Lies by John Hart (about 40 pages in)

You mean besides a lamp, a telephone, a box of tissues, and a clock?

Magazines - American Bungalow, Threads, Rosa Mundi
Books - The Age of Couture, A Passion for Roses, The Home Orchard

my bedside table tells you that I don't dust enough.
As far as what there is to read:
there are 13 books-most of which I read, and just didn't put away.

I'm currently reading:
Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt
besides that book, there is the collected works of
Jane Austen, an Angela Thirkell, two Ngaio Marsh mysteries, Matriarch by Anne Edwards, and other varied paperback mysteries.

My bedside table says that I love my cats, coz they like to sleep up there. So theres only a lamp and a kleenex box. Now if your talking about my reading table, well - that says that I am an optimist, for I really belive I will read all of these books in my life time...

yoyo- Sure am glad you asked what is ON the bedside table and not "What are you keeping in all those bags you have on the floor NEXT to the bedside table?"
On the table:
Gift From The Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Christ Commission - Og Mandino
Normal Kingdom Business - Andree Seu ( someone mentioned this on RP)
Daily Light - Billy Graham
The Message - Eugene Peterson
A journal in which I put quotes I like from books/articles/lectures, etc.

I actually just cleared off my beside table in the last few weeks, and it hasn't had time to build back up just yet. But here's what I found:

The Darwin Awards - a gimmick book
The Egyptologist - which I decided not to give away
"The Authors Guild Fall 2007 Bulletin" - which I haven't finished reading :(
Happiness Is an Inside Job by Sylvia Boorstein

A flickering bedside lamp (loose connection) several partly used anti-aging creams ( if they don't work miracles after a few days I try something else that might! Ever hopeful!) Current book, usually a murder mystery. Daily diary which I fill in every day so that I can remind myself what I did the previous week, or day sometimes, due to short term memory, or a lot of similar days! Pen for the diary and list of needs for next shopping trip. My TBRs are on the floor now after a scary landslide one night.

Hmmmm......let's see....

Books by James Thurber, Roald Dahl, PG Wodehouse, William Manchester, Robert Asprin, and Hermann Hesse. Oh, and two dream dictionaries. There's also a landline phone and my cell phone. A wristwatch, a notebook computer, a mechanical pencil, some chocolate covered almonds, a can of spicy peas (wasabi peas), and four remotes (TV, DVD player, Bose wave radio, and a fan). And a bottle of water.

Wait, there are also two mini Lego kits. And a whole whack of Harper's magazines. And a Swiss Army pocket knife.

The inventory covers not just the bedside table but what's NEXT to the table and under the table.

I don't know what it tells people. Well, I guess it says that my house is cluttered as heck! ;-)

>The Darwin Awards

This is one of my guilty pleasures. I have read each volume, and really like them. I have been chided for taking someones death lightly, but oh my some of these stories are just amazing.

dyno, I think it says you have a very very big bedside table!

I'll preface by saying I don't have a tv in my bedroom and am glad the distraction isn't there. On the nightstand are an alarm clock, halogen desk lamp, tissues, a glass of water (always have to have that), and stacks of books. On my nightstand's bottom shelf are stacks of TBRs, four columns at least 10 to 12 books high. My youngest daughter loves to put "surprises" in my nightstand drawer. I never know what I'll find in there, usually little things the girls have squirreled away.

What I like about reading in bed is the view outside. Warmth radiates from my lamp, and I can read and occasionally look up to view the woods and birds in the trees. It is very peaceful. Only downside, is that reading in bed inevitably makes me a little too cozy and sleepy. I read, I nod off, I wake myself up to read a few more pages, I nod off... you know the pattern.

My bedside "table" is actually an antique desk with chair. Piled on the desk are dozens of programs, alumni bulletins, cuttings, in 3 piles. Apart from that, there is a small box with 3 x 5 file cards which are notes for my unfinished novel, scissors, pens, a ruler, 2 tiny clocks, a few reminder notes to myself. Underneath the desk, on the chair are some of the many TBR books: A biography of Alain-Fournier, "The Go-Between", "A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep" (Rumer Godden), a tiny book on chivalry and its origins,and a biography of Dylan Thomas.

"I really belive I will read all of these books in my life time..."

that's funny, besides the 35 books on my nightstand are about 20-30 more in various places around the living room that I keep telling myself I'm going to read. At this point I have made a vow that I not purchase anymore books until I have read all the ones I already have.

thyrkas: "A journal in which I put quotes I like from books/articles/lectures, etc"

I like this idea.

georgia_peach: I want your bedroom, sounds really comfy.

I'm sure you have all heard of the book, "When I'm old I'm going to wear purple." well, I have my own version of that, "When I'm old I'm going to live with my books."

Hmm, my nightstand indicates I have a cold (tissues, tissues) dry skin (basket of lotions,) an aversion to dusting and not enough room to store books. Crammed in the bookcase area are an 11 volume Bookshelf for Children, part of a bequeathed collection of Steinbeck books, five or six reference books for Depression glassware, Catholic reference books, various paperbacks which I didn't like and haven't been able to pass on or throw away, back issues of Reader's Digest and always an assortment of library books. Also an alarm clock, wrought iron table lamp with a linen shade and jewelry removed after I was in bed and too lazy to get up to put it away. Let's not look in the drawers, OK? Nothing salacious, just messy.

Lamp, tissues, chapstick, 2 alarm clocks, The Reformation, The Old Way, Annotated Andersen Fairy Tales, and about a dozen gardening books that are permanent residents.

I think my nightstand just says I'm hard to wake up. I used to put my alarm clock across the room to force myself to get out of bed to turn it off, but that didn't work either.

hmm, it sounds to me as if my nightstand isn't big enough compared to most of you....
LOL

On my nightstand I have a lamp, an herbal reference book, an herbal plant catalog (can you guess my other passion, besides reading?), two herbal magazines, a couple of Nancy Drew books (I brought home with me from a visit to my parents' house a few months ago and just haven't found a place for them yet), John Adams by David McCollough, and The Mark of Z (the original Zorro) by Johnston McCulley as well as my reading journal. There isn't room enough for anything else just now, or I'm sure there would be more books.

I was telling my son's girlfriend about our little conversation here and she said, "Ha! and did you tell them that your whole night stand is books?!" LOL

I no longer read in bed since I have my favorite-ever piece of furniture, a chaise longue. My night stand just has a good lamp, an alarm clock, a little cedar chest with keepsakes in it, and my Bible.

Now, the tray lamp beside my chaise and the bookcase beside it will tell you the true story of my life.

Georgia, I have a similar situation: the view outside my 'arizona room' (also called sun room in other states), looks right out onto my big yard, that is filled with trees and plants all year long. Hummingbirds and various cats make their presence known from time to time. Sometimes its distracting, but somehow knowing its there helps me focus on the book. So we had to buy me a new table, one that had a few shelves and a magazine rack, coz the old one was so packed that there was a danger the books would fall on the cats....

My bedside table happens to be a small, deep shelving unit, about the same height as the bed. The lower shelves hold about 2 dozen TBR books and a number of video tapes.
On top of it (the actual bedside "table") I have 15 partially read books in a variety of genres, ranging from a doorstopper-sized textbook on Shakespeare, to a short mystery by Cyril Hare. In addition there is the latest copy of "Book News", a publication of all the books published in Iceland in 2007, and 6 TBR books, all of them the next book in series I am reading in order of publication. Additionally, there is my radio alarm, a box of recordable CDs, a painted rock I am using as a bookend, and dust.

Had you asked be about a month ago, there would also have been a small book press.

definitely dust, a book of psalms, also a book of gardening stories and one of dog stories, a small lamp, picture of my mom, myself, 2 daughters and granddaughter, daily devotional that comes out every 3 months from church, a tiny, plaster buddha, a tiny wood cross from the Holy Land, a mexican cross, celtic cross, small plaster angel and usually whatever book/magazine I bring in to read before bed. It is really a very small antique three drawer chest. It may also hold a rotating picture of my granddaughter.

On my bedside table, I have the following:

a reading lamp, the remote control for the overhead fan, a small collection of bookmarks, jewelry that I wear everyday but take off to work out for, and these books:

* POSH and other language myths - Michael Quinion
* Love Poems - a collection from Barnes and Noble imprint
* The New Kings of Non-Fiction - Ira Glass (ed)
* Straight Man - Richard Russo

and at the top of the pile, whatever book I am currently reading which, in this case, is Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster.

Netla-you are the only other person I know who reads Hare-love him!
added this evening to bedside table-dark chocolates from DH...like the late Queen Mum, I like to sit up in bed reading and popping chocs in my mouth!

pam's post prompted me to add--a small Russian orthodox hinged icon.

Cece, I knew you were my kind of person. Not only reading and eating chocolates, but Hare as well!

OT, my husband and I went out playing in the snow to go to our local best candy shop a couple of days before Valentine Day. I picked out a selection, and then he made his selection. The clerk said, "You all are buying each other's valentine present, aren't you?" I said, "Yes, but he's paying for all of it," and everyone in the shop laughed.

My bedside table holds a lamp, a box of kleenex, a framed wedding photo, and way, way, way too many books (I counted 22, with 4 currently being read). I also have the latest copy of "Bookmarks" magazine and a spiral-bound gratitude journal. I'd love to have chocolates on my bedside table, but the dog would eat them *g*.

The bedside table is functional. It has a purpose. It is not storage nor clutter. Mine has my reading lamp (2 arms, where either lamp can be on or both can be on). My fish lamp (little colored fish lit up by x-mas type lights...the little kind). The fish lamp is for very special occasions and no, I can't tell you.
Then my 2 books: HMS Surprise by O'Brian and an unauthorized biography of Ronaldo the Brazilian soccer player, which was also written by an Englishman.

So that's it. I'm not sure what it tells about me. The books do change you know.

I am so glad there are others out there in this big old world whose nightstand sounds like mine!!! The piles of books on, under and beside the table (and the dust, too - lol) I can not - really and truly - sleep, if I haven't read at least a few pages for a few minutes. Unfourtunaely, those few pages often turn into a few hours. I've invested in a reading lamp that clips to the headboard so I have more room on the table for my books. And my DH, bless his heart, who hates to sleep with a light on, patiently and kindly allows me to read every night without a single complaint on his part. Some nights, however, I'll move to the couch because I feel so guilty and I know I'll be up reading for awhile - end result is that the end table next to the couch and the floor in front of it looks just like my nightstand. I'll have to have my DH read this thread so he knows I'm not the only one in the world with this affliction! lol Brenda

my mom has a timer on her reading light so if she falls asleep she won't wake herself up by reaching over to turn off the light!

A small clock and my grandmother's antique lamp (the one I remember in her living room beside the little rocker I'm sitting in now)... as for books, Michener's ALASKA (I went for a month last summer!), Cussler's TREASURE OF KHAN, and Patterson's DOUBLE CROSS. Nothing "deep" ever gets on the bedside table.

My alarm clock, tons of tissues, a lamp, and magazines. I do not often read in bed, as I find it uncomfortable and I find the time before I go to sleep is best used (by me) for day-dreaming. This may be due to the fact I was an only child and have a very active imagination, even now.

I'm someone who MUST read before bed. So my current novel, right now, Emperor of Ocean Park is always there and usually a non fiction as well. Now it's The Rough Guide to Switzerland because that's our next trip. I can't read magazines or newspapers before sleep, too much page turning. On the table are also my clock radio, a really good reading light that is easy to turn off from the bottom (I used to have a touch-off attachment on the old lamp), 2 kinds of hand lotion, cuticle softening cream, hard candy, 3 pens and 2 highlighters, about 6 bookmarks of various styles, including notes from friends, and 3 small framed photos of my grandchildren at their most adorable toddler stage. At a right angle to the table, and beside my bed, is my TBR bookcase. The current library books are on the 3rd shelf down, at the level of the bed for easy reach. The other books have no order. When I buy a new one I just stuff it in. And if I actually finish a non-library book it immediately goes to another room.

Okay, so I showed this thread to my husband and said, "SEE! I AM normal!" My bedside table holds the following:

chapstick
lamp with bright flourescent bulb for reading
eye drops
a box of tissues (since I am STILL getting over the flu)
cough drops (ditto)
some dust dinosaurs (they are really big and have been around forever)

and a few books:

The Return - Hakan Nesser
Life Class - Pat Barker
Coming up for Air - George Orwell - gotta read this so I can discuss it with Martin
The Book of Air and Shadows - Michael Gruber
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
Sarah Canary - Karen Joy Fowler - gotta read this to discuss with Vicki
Love in the Time of Cholera - GG Marquez
The Houses of Children - Coleman Dowell
The Portrait - Iain Pears
Never Go Back - Robert Goddard
Mademoiselle de Maupin - Theophile Gautier
The Book on the Bookshelf - Henry Petrosky
The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse
The Age of American Unreason - Susan Jacoby.

Yea, I know... my husband says he fears that one morning, he will wake up to find me squished under the bedside stacks.

PAM

" a few books...." LOL, PAM. ;-)