# When you eat out alone, do you take something to read?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 8, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482 "2005-06-08T18:29:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/1 "2005-06-08T18:29:25Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/2 "2005-06-08T18:32:25Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/3 "2005-06-08T18:38:48Z")
Invariably. And as I almost always eat alone, I usually keep emergency reading material in the car.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/4 "2005-06-08T18:48:05Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/5 "2005-06-08T18:50:52Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/6 "2005-06-08T18:51:24Z")
> [@Finagle](#):
>
> … I usually keep emergency reading material in the car.
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.
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### Author:  [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/7 "2005-06-08T18:52:57Z")
Yep! Usually the newspaper.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/8 "2005-06-08T18:53:19Z")
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! 😃
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### Author:  [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/9 "2005-06-08T18:53:35Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@NE\_Texan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NE_Texan)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/10 "2005-06-08T18:59:26Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/11 "2005-06-08T19:00:18Z")
Yep, I often do.
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### Author:  [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/12 "2005-06-08T19:03:20Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/13 "2005-06-08T19:05:57Z")
Always! Also when I eat in alone.
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### Author:  [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/14 "2005-06-08T19:17:03Z")
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.”
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### Author:  [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/15 "2005-06-08T19:26:38Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/16 "2005-06-08T19:26:55Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/17 "2005-06-08T19:27:13Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/18 "2005-06-08T19:27:39Z")
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!)
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/19 "2005-06-08T19:31:34Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-eat-out-alone-do-you-take-something-to-read/307482/20 "2005-06-08T19:34:08Z")
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.
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