Serious reading, even when sick

I was allowed out of bed only four hours each day [when I had tuberculosis]. Lally used to come into my room after school every afternoon in her little green jumper, the Madeira School uniform, and have a snack while we visited. One day early in my forced hibernation, she found me reading a mystery, promptly removed it from my hands, and substituted Swann’s Way, the first volume of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. She was right that I shouldn’t waste this valuable time in bed reading trash or light, amusing books. All I needed was her gentle push and I finished all seven volumes.

Katharine Graham, Personal History (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), p.284.