Reading By Candle light Blog

Reading by candle light the story The castle of Otranto was a very enjoyable experience. I found myself being submerged in the story with every page i read. The room where i decided to perform this experiment was my bedroom. In my bedroom i only have one window which is covered with a long pink stripped curtain. The only light that comes in through the door is the hallway light but the room was still dark. While i was reading i decided to lay down on the floor , the paper was very close to the candles just to make it easier to see the words. The way i set up the candles were close together, in total i used 6 candles, one was a cinnamon yankee candle that i had before and the other 5 were small candles that come in a package. The 5 small candles i purchased for this experiment.

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The 6 candles that i used although 5 of them were small emitted enough light for me to read the story comfortably. The social class that I aimed for was the Aristocracy. The more candles i used the more effectively  i could read the words in the story. I decided to start reading at 8:00 pm just because it would be darker outside therefore less natural light would come through the window. I finished reading at 8:30pm. The reading material was 2 centimeters away from the candles but i only two of the small candles were closer to the paper , the other ones were further away from the paper. The candles did not emit any smoke but the flares of the lights did create a relaxing ambience. I also found that the candles did not interfere with my reading instead they actually increased my concentration. As i mentioned before the story was positioned on the floor just because its more relaxing to read on the floor in my opinion and i wanted to get as close to the candles as i could without burning anything. I was laying down with my face towards the candle with my face facing the floor, the paper was under my face. I did change my position two times just to get more comfortable and feel more relaxed while reading the story. The pace in which i read the story was a bit slower than what i usually read with the lights on. I found myself taking my time on each page and really engaging in the story. Also the shadows  the lights of the candles emitted caused some parts of the paper to look darker therefore i had to bring the paper up more as i got to the end of the page. For each page it took me about 50-60 seconds. I managed to read 4 pages of Otranto in 30 minutes. My attention span was much longer than what it usually is. I was very engaged in the story i even imagined the scenes with the characters in the story !. My eyes were 2 centimeters away from the paper. Reading from a digital device does not compare with reading by candle light. Electronic devices emit their own brightness which causes strain on the eyes. But the light of a candle does not cause strain to the human eye just because a person does not have to focus so much. Candlelighting also creates a relaxing ambience which can only be gained by candle lights not by electronic devices. I am definitely going to try reading by candle light again sometime in the future.