I think you’re wrong you know.
There’s a new Pit thread “LOCKED in my room crying my eyes out!”
IMO as long as the company is paying for my time, as they are with my room and board, I am still on the clock.
Part of the reason for business trips (in my profession) is socializing, on the theory that teamwork and morale are improved with face time. Therefore I feel an obligation to go to the social events they sometimes organize, spend time schmoozing when I would rather be reading, and so forth.
That may be one of the reasons I don’t like business trips very much. Because at home I don’t have that obligation - I can leave work at work and have dinner with the family, and keep my socializing with people I like.
I feel the same sort of obligation to go to the company [del]Christmas[/del] holiday party. Once in a while you have to suck it up and do stuff you’d rather skip.
YMMV, and I expect it would be equally rude to demonstrate that you preferred reading to polite chit-chat with an acquaintance from somewhere other than work.
When I was a child, I sometimes thought being a grown-up meant you didn’t always have to do things you didn’t want to do. Doesn’t seem to be working out that way. Maybe I am doing it wrong.
Regards,
Shodan
I was reading it earlier today, I’ll probably read it again later. Maybe I’ll take a bath. I’m on the SDMB, watching some videos on youtube and I have the tv on, but the sound down right now. I had planned on shooting hoops with someone here at the hotel, but I took a nap instead. In short, it is my day off.
If you’ve ever spent weeks and weeks in a hotel room, then you know that sometimes it’s nice to get out of the room and sit somewhere else. This room is especially dark, even during the day with all the lights on. I like to read at meals, especially at breakfast. I don’t like to talk to people in the morning, regardless of the person (especially before I have had coffee). Six days a week, I suck it up and participate in morning meetings at breakfast and engage in work talk and small talk. As far as I can tell, I don’t have particularly strong feelings one way or the other about the colleague. Basically, on my day off I want to spend my time my way.
I woke up late today, excited that I had slept in and I was looking forward to reading my book at breakfast (reading at a meal is one of my favorite things to do). I think my actions and behavior made it clear that I was engaged in an activity that I found engrossing. Having said that, I’m sorry if I gave the impression that I wanted to spend every waking moment of my day off reading my book. I wanted to read it at breakfast without making small talk with someone I don’t know very well and without talking about work.
As for the idea that one a business trip, I am always on the clock, that is not realisitic if you are spending months (in this instance) or years (my previous assignment) living in facilities paid for by my employer. By that logic, I haven’t been off the clock since Bush was in the WH.
I don’t think it was rude. I’ve wanted to say the same thing many times, but always feel compelled to look up from the book and make pleasantries when I’d really rather just keep reading.
It does seem that a lot of people just don’t get it that some people are reading at the table because they WANT to, and not because they’re biding time until someone sits down with them. I’m not reading while I eat, I’m eating while I read.
The idea Dio might be a throwback from childhood when it was rude to read at the table.
Nor mine, but … what’s HPCF? 
My vote: you politely told him you’d prefer to read. Because of that, I disagree with the posters who said you were being an ass. You stated your preference, and he chose to ignore it. That said, it’s water under the bridge and you already said you’ll probably never see him again, so … let it go.
I think it was a little rude (you knew he expected you to put the book away and start chatting), but there was no law stopping him from getting a paper or something. His need to chat at breakfast doesn’t trump your desire to read your book.
When you’re alone?
Ah Dio, how quickly we forget…when you’re a kid you’re never alone at the table.
Well, unless you’ve been told you can’t leave the table until you finish your plate of food so you’re still sitting there, by yourself, at 11:00 PM staring at the disgusting mess you’re mother has made that evening as it gets colder and more congealed.
Yeah, well, you’re asking this question on a board full of socially awkward introverts who wish they could spend all their time cuddled up with a book and exclude the rest of the world.
You were on a work trip. Talk with your co-worker, and read your book later.
Oh no alice - you weren’t alone. Evil Thoughts and Grit Determination were surely your company.
Not being socially awkward myself Ogre, I’d probably cuddle up with the co-worker and fuck the book, then fuck the co-worker and cuddle up with a book.
First, I lived in DC, and took the Metro every day. Totally different situation.
Second, yes, ignoring a co-worker who has sat down at your breakfast table, wanting to make conversation, is treating them like shit. There is little more dismissive than blatantly giving someone the cold shoulder and not responding to their conversation. If you want to read alone, stay in your room. If you’re on a work trip, and a co-worker wants to talk to you about work, it’s rude and unprofessional to refuse to speak to them.
Well, at least you aren’t making the guy feel like a schlub by holding a book in front of your face and pretending he isn’t there. So there’s that. Plus, hey, nookie.
I think the OP was rude.
Along with a good measure of Irish Bullheadedness.
And I can tell you, if I ever brought a book to the table, it would have been smacked out of my hands followed by a long lecture about respecting the food and respecting the table and for ‘God’s sake you weren’t born in a barn!!’ which may be colouring my view of the OP somewhat.
That being said, based on the fact that the OP has now said he has an entire day to bum around and do whatever the hell he feels like it makes his actions seem a bit more rude to me. Not because the man is a coworker and he’s on a work trip and he has an obligation to his company or whatever. More because the man is a human being and taking 15 minutes to be kind to a fellow human even though you would rather be doing something else just seems like a proper way to behave.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to staring at this plate of congealed shoe leather my mother calls a roast.
I think that in this scenario, the co-worker was rude, the OP was rude and the book was fucking rude. It didn’t even say “Good morning.”
It might have…
I’m from a family of nerds and bookworms. Everybody read at the table.