I have found out that eating an apple assists the book reading experience. I am allowing as many apples as I want to or that I can find room for, whichever arrives first, whilst reading the book. Munching one apple after another, if necessary, until the book is finished.
This is a compromise situation. Any compromise is acceptable to break the mental triumvirate of books, cigarettes and indulgent foods.
Even if a mental pairing of books and indulgent foods occurs, that is still a win. Without cigarettes some chocolate ripes and barbecue crisps would enhance the reading experience, I suspect it, I just intuitively know it. However, so far I have managed to resist this sort of partial and less acceptable compromise which would certainly contribute to weight gain.
Learning to read a book all by itself would be some task set at some stage in the future. Imaginable? Just. For now, for this month I am aiming for a book and apple-eating duarchy.
So…back to reading my book: and to eating apples!