to read a book in a relaxed way

[alpacinou]

Hello,

Is there an idiom / verb which means to read a book in a relaxed way while you are lying for example in the park?

She was lying on the grass in the park, reading a book in a relaxed way.

What can I use instead of the underlined part in the above sentence?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello.

Is there an idiom/verb which means to read a book in a relaxed way while you are lying, for example, in the park?

She was lying on the grass in the park, reading a book in a relaxed way.

What can I use instead of the underlined part in the above sentence?

We don't read in a relaxed way so there isn't a way of describing it. She's just lying on the grass in the park, reading. She might look relaxed but that has nothing to do with the reading.

 

[alpacinou]

I see. But sometimes we read something serious and boring for an exam or our job, and sometimes we read for fun and enjoy it.

Can I say something like "she was calmly turning the pages of a book"?

 

[emsr2d2]

You can but that doesn't necessarily mean she was reading the book.

 

[alpacinou]

You can but that doesn't necessarily mean she was reading the book.

Maybe not in a meticulous way.

 

[emsr2d2]

We don't read in a meticulous way any more than we read in a relaxed way.

 

[tedmc]

I think there is such a thing as leisure reading.

 

[probus]

I think there is such a thing as leisure reading.

Yes, and we also speak of reading for pleasure. For years I thought that peruse meant to read lightly rather than seriously. Eventually I learned that the opposite is true: peruse means read carefully.

 

[emsr2d2]

Both true, but reading for leisure/pleasure don't describe someone "lying on their back in a park, reading a book in a relaxed way". You would not be able to tell, by looking at someone reading in a park, whether they were reading for pleasure or reading a long, dry academic tome that was necessary for their studies.

 

[teechar]

Is there an idiom/verb which means to read a book in a relaxed way while you are lying for example in the park?

I don't think such a specific idiom/verb exists in any language!

Try:
She was relaxed, lying on the grass in the park and reading a book.

 

[Tdol]

Laid back and reading a book?
Chilling out with a book?

 

[alpacinou]

Laid back and reading a book?
Chilling out with a book?

She was lying in the park, chilling out with a book?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

If she's lying on the grass and she's not crying or screaming or kicking or laughing hysterically, the reader will assume she's relaxed. You don't need to clutter the page with relaxed or calmly or any other modifier.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

She was lying in the park, chilling out with a book?

Chilling out is fine in dialogue but not good as narrative.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Laid back and reading a book?
Chilling out with a book?

I'd avoid both.

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER


Alpacinoutd, I found a sentence in the "Books" section of Google that may interest you: "[L]ieutenant Pavel Marganin relaxed on a park bench, casually reading a book of poems."

Source: Clive Cussler, Raise the Titanic (2004).

 

[alpacinou]

NOT A TEACHER


Alpacinoutd, I found a sentence in the "Books" section of Google that may interest you: "[L]ieutenant Pavel Marganin relaxed on a park bench, casually reading a book of poems."

Source: Clive Cussler, Raise the Titanic (2004).

Yes. It's very useful. I checked and the author is a native.