The New York Times Book Review feature “By the Book” always begins with the same question: “What books are currently on your night stand?” I wish that just once an interviewee would reply, “What night stand? I don’t have a night stand. What’s with ‘night stand’? Why do you assume that that’s where everyone keeps their books?”
Reader, do you have a night stand? And is it made of two words, or one?
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
One or more night stands
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's complicated.
ReplyDelete"Night stand" brings to mind the euphemism "night stool," which is, of course, designed for the collection of "night soil" and other excreta.
ReplyDeleteThis chap did just that.
ReplyDeletehttp://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/books
/review/alan-moore-by-the-book.html
@Fresca: ?! :)
ReplyDelete@Chris: I just want to say that I have neither stand nor stool nor euphemism by my bed.
@Anon.: Thanks for that! I’d still like to see someone question, in a Larry David-like way, the assumption that reading involves books on a night stand. :)
I blogged a response---I have a stool (it's really a stool! "a seat without a back or arms, typically resting on four legs") for my lamp, a freestanding slidey-accordian book holder for books in wait, the floor for books currently being read, and I call anything next to a bed a "bedside table."
ReplyDelete"Night stands" are for medical care facilities.
Interesting books too!
ReplyDelete