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I have this Churchwarden. I have no idea who the maker is; the only thing I know about it is the nomenclature says 'Television' and it was made in Italy. As far as Churchwardens go, it definitely wouldn't win anything in a beauty pageant, but it is my go-to smoker when I am lounging at home and partaking in my favorite past time: reading.
Reading is one of those activities that is enjoyable in any weather, but it's especially so, to me, in the winter time. There's nothing better than letting the house settle down at night, picking a good tobacco, and burying yourself in a good book. I have been packing my Churchwarden with Sutliff's Peach Pie and diving into The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson. I find the Peach Pie an apt choice for the season, since it instantly puts me in the holiday mood. With the blend's light, peachy notes wafting through the air, it serves as a lovely reminder that the 25th is just around the corner and yes, there will be pie in abundance!
My Churchwarden also makes a splendid reading pipe, letting me dive into the mysterious crime novel without letting smoke come between me and the page. After all, isn't that what Churchwardens are for? Although I prefer the long-stemmed shape for my reading and smoking activites, others around here have different preferences. Since many of us here at Smokingpipes are avid book readers, I thought it would be a fun idea to see what we here are currently reading and smoking.
Adam O'Neill
I'm smoking the SPC Limited Squadron Leader with Perique, now that the weather's finally turning, and I am currently reading The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, the first English translation of the original 1812 edition Children's and Household Tales translated by Zack Snipes. I usually match the pipe to a tobacco, not an activity, but I do like a bent pipe for reading, so I've been smoking a little unnamed bent Tomato I picked up a few years back.
Joshua Burgess
I'm currently reading In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton. It's a history of the trials that contextualizes the witchcraft accusations in the violence that erupted between the English and Native Americans during King Phillip's War. As far as tobacco goes, I usually reach for anything that burns slowly and doesn't require a whole lot of attention. I've found that plugs and cakes work especially well. Lately, I've been partial to Triple Play by G.L. Pease. What makes a good reading pipe? It has to be a comfortable clencher and have a generous enough chamber that I don't need to get up mid-chapter to find another pipe. My current reading pipe of choice is a sandblasted Claudio Cavicchi Bent Egg.
Rachel Dubose
I just started reading Wolf in White Van by a local musician/writer named John Darnielle. It's about a disfigured man as he goes through his life finding escape and camaraderie in a time before the internet (think play-by-mail RPGs, pen pals, and comic books). I'm still testing tobacco, but so far I've really enjoyed plain old Stokkebye's Virginia longcut in my Savinelli Smooth Petite.
Calvin Miller
My pipe of choice when reading, during the chilly evenings as of late, has been a dark sandblasted bent Egg from PS Studio. This pipe, perfect for clenching and packed with the very aromatic and maple noted Autumn Evening, provides an excellent atmosphere of reflection for me. The buttery notes the blend releases, combined with the cool white smoke that begins to encircle me as I read, really put me in the mood to re-discover one of my favorite pieces of childhood literature, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. This book, though I have read it many times, is dear to me, and as I puff and reminisce my early adolescent years of mowing lawns for my grandfather in hopes of buying a Redbone Coonhound of my own to love, I drift away.
What are you folks currently reading and smoking? Let us know in the comments!
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Comments
Working through a Mark Twain book containing 4 books. Finished Tom Sawyer and Life on the Mississippi. Got Huckfin and pudding head Wilson to go.
Lately been smoking Coniston Cut Plug at night, but am out while I await the rest of your Gwaith Hogarth to come in. HINT... HINT... HURRY UP LOL.
Smoking instead about 2/3rd GH dark birds eye 1/3rd GH Black and Brown
Currently rereading Last of the Mohicans after finding a lovely antique leatherbound copy recently. Alternately smoking Black Frigate and Bothy Flake in my collection of commissioned Bruce Weaver pieces.
Johnny Iii: I admire both your taste in tobacco and in fiction. Over the weekend, I was reading one of Christopher Hitchens's essays in which he neatly sums up Twain's influence. "Ernest Hemingway's much cited truism—to the effect that Huckleberry Finn hadn't been transcended by any subsequent American writer—understated, if anything, the extent to which Twain was not just a founding author but a founding American." Quite right.
I am currently Reading Richard Adams wonderful tale of rabbits "Watership Down" a really great book. Currently I've been smoking Corneel and Diehls Bayou Morning, along with Some Captain Earls Nightwatch, and a bit of Peterson's Holiday 2015 all go well with Rabbits.
On these cold winter nights, I like reading H. P. Lovecraft's spooky stories with an old Savinelli filled with Butera's Royal Vintage Latakia #1.
Nice, Thank you
Reading & pipe smoking go hand in hand. I like to grab whatever is closes to my chair, thinking only about the book I am about to read and hope I don't have to relight too many times as I loose track of how much tobac I have placed in the bowl and make a mental note to look for my tamper. Using my finger to tamp smudges the page of my book ... but then who cares?
Slade House by David Mitchell and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro while smoking peacehaven by esoterica. Two wonderful storytellers and one great tobacco.
@Duane C Ooh, now that's a pairing!
@Mike Troiber I love Watership Down, it was one of the first books I remember actually spending my own money on buying. Great choice.
@Tim Powers A man after my own heart. Have you checked out any of the Penguin Horror collection? Del Toro did a pretty good job curating, especially in "American Supernatural Tales".
@John Flanagan I guess that depends on whether you've contained said smudges to the pages or if you've spread it to the upholstery as well ;)
@Dave I'm gonna make a confession here. I've never actually heard of Slade House before today. Rest assured it is now on THE LIST. Thanks for the great suggestions!
I still like reading and re-reading E.R Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros whilst smoking a good Latakia blend such as Star of the East. It just seems to go well together.
@Bruce P Hey Bruce, the Zimiamvian series is wonderful, hope you're enjoying it, again.
This thread is a revelation of the fine taste of pipe smokers in literature. At the moment I am smoking the G. L. Pease "Maltese Falcon" as Mr. Pease has not yet named a tobacco for anything by Raymond Chandler, in an old Dr Grabow 'Starfire' that was left to me: and reading a book on Ukiyo E by James Michener. But venturing a recomendation to Hadassah, I'd say check out Tim Powers' great horror novel "The Stress of Her Regard," maybe with some of the intense Perique soaked in rum that Alistair Crowley doted upon.
@Jon DeCles Sounds a bit like Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (who also wrote an alt-history Sherlock book called "The Hound of the D'Urbervilles"). We'll have to check it out.
@Adam O'Neill Anything Tim Powers writes is ok by me, and bound to be fun -- after all, he is credited with being one of the two writers who invented Steampunk. But "Stress" is remarkable: About Shelly and that crowd. I understand there is a sequel (hard to imagine) but I don't have it yet. --And I'm going to try the Butera that he mentions above.
@Jon DeCles You sold me, I've already thrown it on my Goodreads list ;)
Currently reading Doug Brinkley's Rightful Heritage. It details FDR's impact on creating public parks and spaces in America, very insightful and interesting. I'm pairing it with various Soren free hands packed with HH Dark Fired Kentucky?
General question here, for all of you who know more than me: Raymond Chandler was seldom photographed without a pipe in his mouth. The famous photo of him with no background features a particularly intriguing pipe. Can anybody tell me what style it is? And does anybody know what he preferred to smoke in it?
@Jon Dles Not sure on the tobacco, and there's little information out there on it to be had. As for the pipe, if you're referring to the photo of him lighting up with a match, it's some sort of straight Apple, though I can't see any stem markings.
@Adam O'Neill The one where he has a match is similar, though I am not sure I have ever seen an apple with that long a stem. The pipe in the photo to which I am referring has a similar pipe, but the stem seems to indent where it joins. It's also got a long stem. Of course, it might just be that Chandler was smaller than one thinks a literary giant ought to be. The photo to which I am referring has him looking off to the side, as usual, but the background has been faded out, as has the lower part of Chandler himself. Looks like the kind of pic you might have on the back of a book at that period.
I pefer Canadian shaped pipes 6 to 7 inches long with a decent size bowl and usually pcked with either a Balkan or as of late, Lane's Dark Red. As of five years ago I gave up books for an E/reader which has a stand leaving both hands free. I am addicted to victorian era mysteries such as written by Conan Doyle or Anne Perry. For a change of pace I also read W.E.B. Griffin military novels with my favorite being the Corps series.
Smoking a blend called Yachtsman from a tobacconist in New Orleans in a Molina pipe. I'm reading "The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War" by Steven Kinzer.