Historically, it was normal for people to read standing up. If you look at old photos of 19th century offices, or engravings like the one above (from A Christmas Carol, depicting Bob Cratchett’s workspace), you’ll see that it was quite usual for workers to stand up to work – a sloping desk enabled them to bend over their work more easily. An 1858 self-help book pointed out that standing desks supported “nearly half” of all business writing.
Go further back, and it was still normal practice to read standing up. Look in an old chapel and you’ll see the priest’s lectern, a hangover from that era. Famous men of history – Dickens, Churchill, Jefferson, Rilke, and Da Vinci – also used standing desks for writing, proofing, reading, and designing. Indeed,…
