Perfect ! ( and I like how you used my actual nickname , Bon ! )

The best time to read is whenever I have enough spare minutes to do so!! Always when I lounge in the bathtub and often in prelude to a nap when I can snatch one of those. I try to carve out some time in the afternoons if not pressed with business appointments. And last night after a nasty windstorm cut power for 9 hours - no TV, no Internet, not enough light to do any other work so curled up on couch surrounded by candles and one big LED lantern!! And my latest book :-))

Most any time one is handy, but I'm fond of long rainy afternoons when one couldn't possibly be expected to do anything else.

It depends on the book. I read a new one during the day, sitting in an oversized armchair with my feet on a stool, and a loved one at night in bed to get myself settled for sleep.

It is fatal to start a new one then as I will read until I finish it in the small hours and wake up grumpy!

I can read any time, but particularly idyllic times are:

--in the rare sunny winter day, I like reading in the car, while parked by the lake or the sound, looking now and then at the water and the mountains.

--in summer, I put a folding chair in the trunk, go to the ship canal, and sit under the trees, reading, while the boats, yachts and barges go by.

Carolyn,

If we couldn't possible be expected to do anything else on long rainy afternoons, we wouldn't do much for 9 or 10 months of the year here in the PNW!

Reader, I looked up your area and saw what you meant, very beautiful but also referred to as the "wet green pocket"! I am not able to sit outdoors where I live as I am an insect magnet and would be attacked within minutes if I were a sitting target!

Ann,

If you lived here, you could sit outside: there are no mosquitoes, even if summer. At least not in the metro area.

Yes, "wet green pocket" indeed.

For me the best time to read is on an all to infrequent sunny Summer's afternoon when I sit on a 'swing seat' in the corner of the garden and pretend I can't see DH giving me 'looks' as he goes down the drive with the mower/spade/hoe etc.

Last thing at night is also good. Just a couple of chapters but nothing too page-turning or the story invades my dreams.

Annpan, insects also love me, especially ants and small black unidentified bugs. Their bites are so painful I am kept awake at night. No cream helps and anti-histamine tablets just make me feel 'out of it'.

Vee, have you tried Vicks Vapour rub or something similarly warming? I have huge trouble with bites as they cause a big swelling.

I wash the area, put on a small chilled eye gel pack (always a couple kept in my fridge!) to stop the itch and then dab on my arthritis cream. I found this solution accidentally when in the darkness I sleepily put on Vicks instead of a soothing cream and found it worked better!

Just a suggestion. The heat seems to draw out the poison. I have to be very careful of bites, especially mosquitoes. They can actually make me ill.

Vee.......I also have a "swing seat" which is a small hammock swing in the garden where I love to read on a sunny day. To eliminate the bugs attacking me I bring along a portable bug zapper ! It looks like a small tennis racket and has a battery-powered screen. When I wave it in the air any bugs that come in contact with the screen are instantly fried ! It makes the most gratifying "snap ! snap !" as they meet their maker.

Do you have citronella in the UK or Aus? Citronella candles are often used in FL to keep the bugs at bay at night.

Donna

I love reading in bed. Sometimes I purposely go to bed early so I will have more reading time before I fall asleep.

I too am an insect magnet. I have found that a "Benadryl Itch Relief Stick" (or a similar anti-itch roll-on stick) works really well to calm the intense itching that follows immediately upon being bitten. Don't know what I'd do without those things.

Avon's Skin So Soft seems to keep those tiny invisible gnats away very nicely. We call them " no see ums ". ( and no, I am not an Avon salesperson !!! )

I read in bed every night, sometimes going there early so I'll have more time with my book!

Yoyo, Would you believe that Avon is ceasing trading in Australia and New Zealand soon? The sales ladies are devastated, finding out per social media. Customers will be stocking up their favourite items, no doubt.

Donna, We do have citronella candles in Australia, in fact candle shops like Dusk are very popular and usually there is one in each mall as well as being able to buy candles from other outlets like L'Occitane.

They are popularly sold as gifts. I have quite a collection from family members with a problem of what to get me for Christmas etc.!

Here in the deep south. we have been using Avon "Skin so soft" for decades to keep away insects. I have discovered that most insects are attracted to perfumes, scented lotions, etc. so if I am outdoors, I avoid those.

I read in bed every night, but my ideal spot would be on a garden bench, on a sunny cool day, scented by wistaria, gardenia, and magnolia around me. It would be early morning, with my cup of coffee beside me. A second choice -- late afternoon, with a glass of wine, surrounded by birdsong.

Ann I am surprised that Vicks can successfully ease bites, I would have thought they would have made the swelling even more 'angry'.

Over here we are not so much bothered by flying insects . . . no need for screens on the windows etc it is the creepy crawlies that do the harm!

I have heard that some Avon products are good bug off-put-ers and have inquired of a couple of sales ladies but they have never come up with the goods. Very unusual as they mostly wont leave you alone (the Avon people . . . and the insects)

Kathy, I never notice on first being bitten. It usually takes a few hours before it 'comes up' and the second and third days are the worst.

The nastiest bugs I have found to be the minute creatures that live in the hen coop. So small they are almost invisible. .. Red Chicken Mite. They resemble a teeny red/orange spider and even the briefest visit to collect eggs during the Summer can result in many pin-pricks of burning agony, yet DD and youngest son have no trouble and are always bite-free.

Yoyo, sorry to detract from the title!

It is the no-see-um bites that itch so intensely at first and they are prolific in my area.

Kathy, Scotland is the place to go for flying insects. Trillions of midges swarm in the Highlands and the Western Isles. We used to visit the Shetlands, luckily too far North to be attacked!

Vee - Aye yi yi! I've never been to Scotland.

Vee, the insect problem relates to many of our favorite reading spots !

And I have to add that Avon salespersons are a lot like waiters/waitresses....they are all over you when you don't want them but the minute you need them for something they completely disappear.

RIT, maybe I should move to the PNW, as if I don't make enough time for reading wherever I am. Mosquitoes like me, too. I order from Amazon a product called Skeeter Screen Patio Egg that is effective in some square footage area that is bigger than my patio. It's been a real boon to me. Wild turkeys have made a resurgence in Kentucky, and the turkey mites are terrible in grassland and wooded areas. Similar to what you describe, Vee. Not being a hunter, I haven't experienced them; but picking wild blackberries has pretty much gone by the wayside, and they are so much nicer than the tame ones that have huge seeds in them.

I spent the rest of my Christmas Barnes & Noble gift cards today and bought the new Charles Todd book, The Gatekeeper. I started it while indulging in a cappuccino at the bookstore and will get back to it shortly. It is an Ian Rutledge book, which I like better than the Bess series.

There are plenty of mosquitoes in the PNW - according to the WA state Department of Health we are home to 40 different species, many of which are vectors of some very serious diseases. Anywhere there is standing water there is a potential for mosquitoes to breed and lay eggs - mud puddles (during the warmer months), bird baths, garden ponds or water bowls, even kid's wading pools that may be left out for several weeks.

Vee, you would suppose that a warming product like Vicks wouldn't help with bites but I have tried using proper insect bite soothing creams and gels and find that my arthritis cream works best even if somewhat smelly!

I was lucky when I stayed in Scotland as there weren't any midges around although the owner of the place where I stayed said they usually get them.

Of course I have screened windows and doors here but still an occasional mozzie sneaks in to get me!

Woodnymph, I have the lovely perfume of a nearby frangipani tree to enjoy at present, it is so strong that it also can be smelled indoors if I have the windows open.

I love to go to bed early in the winter and take a book to read for a couple of hours before I turn out the light. During the late spring through mid autumn, when the weather cooperates, I like to sit in my hammock swing in the back yard with a book and a beverage of choice (depending on the temperature).

Unfortunately, I am a bug magnet too. Here in upstate New York we not only have mosquitoes, but we also have black flies (similar to no-see-ums). I find the mosquito bites annoying but bearable, on the other hand, I have a worse reaction to the black flies.. Not bad enough to need medical attention but the swelling and itchiness at the bite site are not fun. Perhaps I will try the Vicks on them this year and see if it helps.

Another insect magnet here.

I have Type O blood, which is said to make one more attractive to biting insects. I have to time my garden work carefully as the midges (same as no-see-ums, I believe) are most active here in late afternoon and early evening. We don't have a lot of mosquitoes due to the drought, but we do have some, and they love me, too. But the worst are the yellow jackets, vicious hornets that get more aggressive as the summer wears on, and by September will sting with no provocation. If there is any food or even a beverage around, they will swarm.

We once gave an outdoor party in September. I set up over a dozen hornet traps at the far end of the garden away from the gathering, and in the field beyond set out a dozen small bowls baited with honey and raw ground beef. Not one hornet showed up at the party! And the next day when I gathered up the bowls they were licked clean, most likely by the local coyotes.

Rosefolly

Best time to read a good book? Anytime, anytime, anytime. In my whole life--and I'll be 73 in a few days--nothing has ever beat the excitement of a new book just waiting to be read.

Big gardener too--and not much bothered by insect bites. Probably shouldn't say this--tempting fate--but I don't get poison ivy either.

Lacey.....I absolutely agree that there is an excitement to having a great book awaiting you !

Rosefolly - I'd never heard that type O blood attracts insects. I do have type O. By the way, my insect attraction extends to fleas. I once visited a friend's house whose shag carpet (this was some years ago) was infested with fleas and I was the only one at the gathering who got bit. Everyone else was surprised and apparently immune to the little critters. They believed me though because we could see the fleas hop up from the carpet onto my bare legs. What a miserable day that was!

Kathy....O,,,,M,,,,G .

as we say here "Cover the butter ! " I'm itchy just imagining it all .

Rouan, I would be interested to know if the Vicks works on your particular black fly bites. This morning I found a cluster of bites on my chest and no idea what made them. I did try rubbing on a Dettol cream but that did no good for the painful itch so went back to my arthritis heat cream Dencorub and that has taken away the itch.

WARNING .....Don't read this next part if you get queasy.....I find that heat cream raises a blister containing the poison so I pop it and then put on an anti-septic cream so the open sore doesn't get infected. This speeds up the healing from a mozzie bite by a couple of days I have found.

Back to books! I have a couple I have started but can't get into them. They were both library requests of authors I like but I have failed to get interested in the plots. I blame this unseasonal weather. It is supposed to be summer but days go from humid to cool and back again. My daughter had a storm in her suburb which has ripped off roofs! The winds were rated at a Category 2 cyclone strength.