I always do. Not that I don’t like eating alone- I do, especially when things are crazy busy at work- but I get bored if I don’t have something to do.
If I’m going to be eating alone, I bring it back to our break room and read while I eat. I’d be terribly bored eating without something to read.
Invariably. And as I almost always eat alone, I usually keep emergency reading material in the car.
I bring my Japanese homework (I alsways have a workbook in my car). I don’t eat out by myself all that often unless I’m travelling or I’ve temporarily fled my office to avoid frostbite. But I can’t imagine just sitting there and staring off into space with out a distraction.
I prefer to watch TV or a movie while I eat if I’m eating alone, since I don’t like taking the chance of getting food on the pages. But if that’s not an option, then yeah, I read.
Also known as “emergency backup books.”
Yes, if I’m eating alone, I always bring something to read. Even if I’m eating alone at home.
What a silly question. 
Eating and reading go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Yep! Usually the newspaper.
Always. Like the others, there are always several half-read books in the truck. In an emergency, I’ve been known to go to the bookstore before going to lunch, just to be sure I have something to read! 
I travel quite a bit for work and, as a result, eat a lot of dinners out by myself. I always bring something to read. There isn’t much worse than sitting alone at the counter in a greasy spoon in the middle of nowhere (usually where I’m working), reading the back of the ketchup bottle and waiting for your food while the blue-haired waitress blows smoke rings in the air and the ex-con in kitchen builds your pattymelt.
Yeah, I always bring something to read.
I also have something in the car. If I eat alone, I bring a book, or a crossword magazine (which I always have in the car for just such a reason).
I don’t like to just sit and eat. When I’m with people, especially family but really anyone, we can have a conversation over the meal. On my own, I’m looking for something to occupy my mind.
Yep, I often do.
Count me in as another ‘always’. I used to work at a place that gave us hour long lunches (boy, do I miss that) that was right downtown. I would walk to one of several restaurants and escape into a good book.
I’m a compulsive reader, if it has words on it, I have to read it.
Always! Also when I eat in alone.
Absolutely. Just did it for lunch today (not to mention during the metro rides around the city). Typically, I have one preferred book, usually something I can really enjoy, and one or two alternates, for a specific mood. Right now the preferred book is Neal Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicon” and the alternates are Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Shakespeare “Othello.”
I sometimes bring stuff to read with me when I go out to eat. I once brought a copy of “Weekly World News” to a restuarant–I think it was the one that claimed Hilary Clinton had adopted a baby space alien. A bus boy said that his mother in law swore by that magazine.
I feel so special. I never read while I eat. It’s too cumbersome and messy (and no, I don’t eat with my hands). The book doesn’t stay open by itself, I might spill something on it and there isn’t room for everything on the table in front of me. So no, I don’t read, even when eating alone.
I usally have a book with me, because I need something do while waiting, but it’s hard for me to read while eating, for no other reason then that I don’t want to ruin the book by dropping food on it. Holding the book open and eating doesn’t work so well.
On the other hand, I always eat while reading the paper in the morning.
Absolutely!
I don’t eat alone at restaraunts all that often, but I also have emergency books in my car. And my backpack.
I recently started reading books while walking, since my car broke down and I have to walk part of the way to work. (Don’t worry, I’m always careful!)
I never go out to eat alone. I just can’t do it. It makes me depressed, and I feel like a loser. I eat lunch in my office alone every day, but that doesn’t bother me. I usually eat dinner at home alone, and that doesn’t even faze me… usually I eat in front of the TV, or standing up over the sink, though. But I never read while I eat, mostly so I don’t make a mess.
I never do. It just seems to get in the way. I love eating out alone, and I don’t get to do it often enough, especially at nicer restaurants. I enjoy the quiet time all for me. I enjoy people watching, and I enjoy my meal. I tried bringing a book with me once, I opened it, read a paragraph, and closed it. I guess I just much prefer using the time to sort things out in my own head.