Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Things to Eat and Drink Whilst Reading

Posted on by The Book Lover's Sanctuary

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This is a tricky one… What do you eat whilst reading? There are certain requirements: one-handed treats, non-drip, no grease. Soup? Ha, no!

Drinks are more reasonable so let’s address those first and, as a near tee-totaller, I’m going to jump in with probably the most obvious top two. Tea and coffee. Usually, however, it must be said that I tend to settle down with a nice warm cuppa sat beside me, which I promptly tend to ignore and forget about. By the time I remember I’ve got one, it’s generally too cold to drink!

And, if Tom Hiddleston was thrown in as well, so much the better!

Throw in a wet and stormy day outside and a warm reading nook…. Not a fan of hot chocolate: chocolate should be cold, solid and eaten, not warm and liquid.

As for foods, let’s consider that chocolate… For me, Christmas is time for new books and an inevitable Terry’s Chocolate Orange. When the kids are in bed and the business and busyness is all over, these both come out together.

And thinking about Christmas, how can I ignore the mince pie? Mmmmm. Again, those quiet moments with a book and a mince pie and a cup of tea amidst all the bustle. Bliss. For me, homemade mince pies, always. With a dusting of icing sugar.

Outside Christmas treats, a good biscuit (I am a Brit) or cookie works too. I’m not convinced that the addition of oats combats the chocolate in this image, though! Also, the risk of chocolate drips on the book from this particular cookie seems high.

So far, this has seemed wonderfully indulgent and delicious, but terribly unhealthy. Being on a bit of a health kick – losing 15 kilos since May, yay! – let’s consider some other options. I do love dried fruit and a bowl of raisins, sultanas, banana chips, apricots, cranberries beside me as I read sounds lovely.

And, without the need for drying, just head straight for the original grapes!

And, personally, just bread – crusty and fresh, possibly homemade – and butter with perhaps cheese. Chutney is adventurous.

I am a man of simple tastes. And I’ll drive a good long way for a decent Ploughman’s Lunch, whilst holding forth that it was a recipe promoted by the Milk Marketing Board for venal reasons. It’s not ideal alongside reading because it can requires the use of that book-holding hand and sometimes eyes briefly, but it is a patient companion. Want to wait until the end of that chapter, the bread and cheese will still be there.

And if we are being careful, a bowl of cereal, idly spooned whilst reading. Cornflakes. Muesli.

And finally…. I have on occasion had a go at making some of the food stuffs mentioned in the books I was reading and, I think it was when reading The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, that she mentioned I did like the sound of honey cakes. So I made a honey cake – I think it should have been several little cakes rather than one big one, but hey ho! – to eat as I finished the book. Doubt it was at all authentic but is was delicious!

Published by The Book Lover's Sanctuary

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20 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Things to Eat and Drink Whilst Reading”

  4. Nice list! I really like grapes as a snack as well. Chocolate is a favorite too! Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.

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  7. Oh my blood sugar is going off the charts just looking at all the delicious food you’ve shown pictures of.

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  9. I love it!
    As a child I used to line up my sweets (often skittles) in colour order ready for eating before I started my book. I was also a lover of hard boiled sweeties while reading because you could just suck and suck them and they might last for an entire chapter when you got so Involved that you forgot to crunch them!

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  10. Ooh, very cool that you made a honey cake after reading Bear and the Nightingale! So many books make me hungry and most of the time I’m left craving things that I can’t find here or can’t get my hands on 😅 Need to start being more adventurous and trying to make foods too! Great TTT!

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    1. The other book that had great food stuff in was The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton! Lots of sugar and marzipan! A little beyond my capacity to make though!

      Oh and on the other side of the coin, See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt – an imagining of the Lizzie Borden murders – has a vile pot of mutton stew boiling away on the stove throughout…. ewww…..

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      1. Hahaha oh euuuww… That pot of mutton stew sounds absolutely vile 🤢🤢🤢 But … that book sounds interesting? I’ll definitely check out The Miniaturist though! But I’m definitely a junior baker if that so that’d probably be out of my reach too LOL

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