Curling up with a good book is a pleasure that few of us get to enjoy in this hectic, always-on, perpetually-connected, 24-hour-news-cycle world. Readers rarely can take the time to savor the words of great minds, or even just enjoy the mental saccharine of popular brain candy books; be they trashy romance or outrageous thrillers. Worse, even when we get to finally sit and relax with our favorite tome, too often discomfort can spoil the experience, leaving us happy with the literature, but suffering from the tortuous pain of a bad reading chair.If you’re one of the bibliomaniacs out there who is developing bad posture from the wrong sitting apparatus, perhaps we can be of assistance with the 18 best reading chairs.Minimal Expense: Seeing is believing when it comes to the POÄNG series of furniture from IKEA. Deceptively cheap, it’s easy to dismiss these pieces, but once you try out the bentwood frames in your choice of rocker or standard, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the comfort, and downright shocked at how elegant they look in person.
Made in your choice of fabric or leather, there’s no downside to be had. [Amazing setup by Katy at TheCleverBunny]Dauntless: Don’t think, just sit. This chair virtually calls out to passers-by to come and relax. Sock arms, wedged legs, and a semi-attached pillow; it comes in sleeper varieties if you expect company, or you can simply enjoy the standard flavor in your choice of customizable colors.At the Abbey: Perfect for John Bates to rest his weary leg, the Chesterfield armchair harkens back to 18th century England, but it’s far from archaic. Rolled arms and deep button tufting add style to any home, and the feather and deep foam cushions will give any rump a pliant rest for reading.Just Like Mom’s: A little more rigid than most of our favorite reading chairs, this has a relaxed yet ready feel. The ‘50’s cut might make it seem a little dated, but once you throw your legs over the side and dig into a volume, it’ll feel like home in moments.Dorm Dreams: Wrapped in velvet or phur, you can get multiple covers for every occasion, then mold The BigOne into whatever shape suits your home and your reading style.
At 8 feet in diameter and sitting 3 feet off the floor, this is the throne of beanbag chairs.Post-Modern: Behind the sharp angularity of the Oculus is a deep seat with very gently sloped arms that puts you in a comfortable power pose, cradling your back and neck. From Hans J. Wegner, the Oculus is good for minimalists who prize plenty of padding.American Custom: There’s few things more American than a recliner, but they’re not typically good for browsing through a book. Using a leverless fabric body with walnut legs, the Dalton’s clean lines can go anywhere, taking the option to lay back or go bolt upright along with it.The Professor: Slung low and deep, the Churchill feels more like sitting in a cigar and whiskey bar than in your house, but once you’re enveloped in the plush leather and the plump cushioning, you’ll be eager to stay for as long as it takes to finish all of Narnia’s Chronicles.Flower Child: Capturing the essence of the summer of love, the Sling uses suspended webbing to give you a sense of sitting on air with just enough structure from the
hardwood lines to add in a feeling of solidity and security.Traditional: Crafted in the same way for 30 years, the Rocker is made out of hand-stretched saddle leather that has been vegetable tanned to perfection. When seated, the chair draws around the reader thanks to mortise and tenon joints. The result is a perfect fit for every person.Body Sculpture: The curves of the LC4 are meant to mimic that of the human body so as you rest on it, you are smoothly and naturally supported. The only challenge is not falling asleep while you dig through Proust’s dense prose.Throwback: Vintage 60’s style in plenty of eye-popping colors, the yasmin is low and deep, putting your back and shoulders at the right angle for reading without straining your neck or ruining your décor. The teacup shape can be tiring, so add in an ottoman, or just get up and move on occasion.A Little English: Inspired by the English club chair, Ray and Charles Eames use molded plywood to create a frame that is comfortable and rustic, but also soft and supple.
Like a favorite baseball mitt, it’s heaven for long sitting sessions.Privacy Perch: When you plant your backside into the Majestic, you’ll feel like peasants should bow and scrape before you. Volute scrollwork lines the exterior while the wings and immense back prevent anyone from reading over your shoulder.Matched Set: An homage to the 1970’s, you’ll find yourself flopping onto these again and again merely because they beg for you to do so. Use one alone or combine them to create your own little book nook, the brown leather and tight stitching might be the only good thing to come from the Disco Decade.Patio Perusing: Part of Harry Bertoia’s 1952 wire collection, this Chaise is intended for reading by the pool or out on your terrace. With a few adjustments you can sit comfortably on the odd shape in a wide array of positions to save your spine from distress and alleviate aches.Nest Egg: Hand-crafted by the people of New Zealand, the bowl shape is for those who take their curling very seriously.
Plush as a gossamer cloud, there’s but one difficulty: Getting out of it.Conversation Piece: An oddly cute piece crafted by the Campanas, there’s only 25 of these in the world. The rarity makes them special, but sit on it for a few minutes and you’ll quickly find that the arrangement of stuffed toys has an allure that goes beyond mere collector’s bliss. Can a Smartphone Really Replace Your Camera? The Best Pens for Your EDC The Sexy, Mind-Bending Supercars of the '70s The 25 Best Places to Travel in 2017 Here’s the first fun, important (and pretty obvious) historical fact: people didn’t always sit on chairs. Stools, benches, other hard and backless surfaces, sure. Chairs, since their very earliest inception (they became popular in the 16th century), have always been a little special, what with their legs and their backs and all, and so were reserved mainly for kings and emperors and heads of state. Which leads us, then, to another fun, important (and possibly dubious) historical fact: since the common people got their hands on them, it’s been a steady race to make chairs as goddamn comfortable as possible.
Which is where the reading chair comes in. It’s a funny classification, not really official by any furniture standard. But when we talk of reading chairs, we’re talking about being relaxed, secure, and unfettered by the demands of world outside your book (including the harsh demands of gravity). You could say the reading chair is the evolutionary high point of sitting down. A good reading chair is one you can stay in for hours and hours and hours, poring through detective novels, newspapers or websites like this one. You could even watch TV in a reading chair — we’re really not sticklers about the term. It’s possible you have one already — one that’s worked in, that you’ve been carrying with you move after move after move. But if you don’t have one already, here are some more than worthy options. Best All-Around Reading Chair: Depending on whom you ask, the Eames lounge and its ottoman are played out. So ubiquitous in neo-modernist hipster homes that it’s barely worthy of comment.
To those people, we politely say: shut up. The Eames lounger is a classic, plain and simple. It’s been in continuous production since it was introduced in 1956 — and still there might not be a better looking, more comfortable chair on the market. If there’s such thing as a benchmark in reading chairs, this right here is it. Best Chameleon Reading Chair: The Callan chair is a masterclass in both comfort and design, with a light touch of the unassuming. Its seat cushion, made of eco-friendly, highly resilient foam that’s topped with an extra layer of padding, is made for blissful comfort yet melds perfectly with the chair’s kiln-dried hardwood frame. The chair is available in several different fabric colors and wooden finishes, so customizing it to match any room isn’t a problem. A matching ottoman can be purchased for those who like their feet elevated when devouring Hemingway. Best Family Values Reading Chair: This chair is already a family heirloom. It was designed by Randy Cochrane when his two sons, Keith and Dylan, were babies — the perfect chair, he thought, to rock them to sleep in his arms.
Some 30 years later, Randy’s still making the Lookout Mountain Rocker in his workshop in Payne, Alabama, only now he’s helped out by Keith and Dylan, who these days do most of the work at the family shop, Wood Studio. It’s everything a handmade chair should be: solid, well designed, timeless. And it works just as well for reading as it does for rocking babies to sleep. Best All-American Reading Chair: Thos. Moser is a good, old-fashioned Made in America company that prides itself on craftsmanship above all else. And is there a more genuinely American piece than this? It’s simple, made in the Craftsman style (though only vaguely, so as not to be too distractingly stylistic), made with solid cherry wood and rich brown leather. It’s the perfect cottage chair, the kind you could spend all day in if you had the time. Best Mid-Century Revival Reading Chair: This Hans Wegner reproduction is another mid-century classic, a product of Eames-era industrial design that’s still current more than 50 years after it was conceived.
While we could extol the CH445’s MoMA-worthy design, its comfort is actually a more convincing talking point. The chair is deep — a full 35.4 inches — and the back’s high, horn-like peaks make for great headrests, all the better to curl up against. Best Chair for Fireplace Reading: The Fogo Island Inn is the best place you’ve probably never been: a design-centric resort on a remote island off the northern coast of Newfoundland, Canada’s remotest province. Last year, the inn released a set of limited-edition furniture by some of the best designers working today in North America, Europe and Scandinavia. The Bertha chair is the undisputed standout of the bunch — at least where comfort and accessibility are concerned. Designed by Donna Wilson, the chair takes cues from the inherently comforting interior life of Newfoundland: plain, plank wood (yellow birch, in this case) and quilted cushions. The only thing missing is a roaring fire and some Screech (or, you know, better liquor).
Best Reading Chair for Leather Aficionados: The club chair emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century, right around the time gentlemen’s clubs were flourishing and unadulterated comfort was becoming en vogue. To this day, there is no more sumptuous or luxurious experience than sinking into a soft, low-slung lounge chair. It makes you want to light up a cigar, sip on good whiskey and fall unwittingly to sleep — not necessarily in that order. This version from Ethan Allen hits all the right marks, with a deep seat, big cushions and hand-tailored leather; still, it’s not as enormous as some of the true club chair hulks, which can make the difference in a less-than-luxuriously sized room. Best Reading Chair to Lean Back In: This might be the point in the list where you’d expect to find a La-Z-Boy or some other monstrous recliner. Instead, we endorse this rather elegant recliner from Room & Board. This chair has more in common with mid-century classics than it does with anything in the clearance section at American Furniture Warehouse.