Nibble & Read: Snacks to Munch on While Reading a Good Book

Does this sound familiar?

You’re a kid and read all the books all the time — the Scholastic book fair was the highlight of the school year. 📚

Then you get to middle school and high school and you still read, but maybe a bit less as you're busy hanging out with friends, learning how to drive, and definitely not making out at the movie theater.

Then you go to post-secondary (or maybe you go straight into the workforce) and you don’t have any time to read anymore because you already have a lot of coursework to do and all the textbooks need to be read (or your job has burnt you out) and if you have free time you should probably be spending it reading and getting ahead in class and who has time to read and there’s somehow always laundry that needs to be done and… 😩

Same. We here at Mediocre Chef were extremely avid readers when we were kids, but college really beat that out of us. It took until 2020 for us to really get back into reading for fun. (Gee, what could possibly have been happening then for us to have the necessary free time?)

We always love an opportunity to combine our love of food with one of our hobbies (like that one time where we wrote about what your D&D snack says about you) so we decided to share our favorite book snacks (and some book recommendations) with you!

Our criteria for what makes a good books snack is:

  1. It must be easy to make or obtain

  2. It won’t leave a mess (you don’t want to get greasy fingerprints all over your pages)

  3. It won’t go bad if it’s left out for a long period of time while you’re reading

Obligatory Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that help us earn a small commission from your purchase (at no extra cost to you). Each purchase supports the blog so we can continue to make content! If you use these links, we really appreciate it!

Salty & Savory Book Snacks

Pretzels 🥨

To kick things off, we’re starting with pretzels. For the record, we are referring to the hard pretzel sticks that you would buy in a grocery store, not a soft pretzel.

Pretzels hit all the criteria: they’re simple, they don’t leave a mess on your fingers, and you can leave them out for decades and nothing will happen. They also are really good when it comes to satisfying that salt craving. The downside is that they sometimes taste like stale space rations.

Pair it with a good sci-fi book such as We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor.

Shoutout to Trevor’s mom for teaching him the ways of dipping pretzel in honey. Be careful with the honey though, it has a high potential for disaster, so it almost didn’t make the list. We recommend only when you’re taking a reading break or if you’re reading on an e-reader like a Kindle.

Veggies & Hummus 🥕

Why? Veggies are good for you, so they’re a good choice for when you’re doing some mindlessly snacking while reading. 

Hummus is thicker and less likely to drip on your precious book vs salad dressing. It’s also healthier for you and doesn’t taste like ranch. (What exactly is ranch anyways?)

Pair it with an auto-biography or non-fiction book, because you take your books like your health — very seriously. For non-fiction we recommend So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo.

Nuts & Dried Fruit (AKA Trail Mix) 🥜

Generally speaking nuts and dried fruit are fairly clean. They also have an added bonus of providing a bit of an energy boost and making you feel super full if you eat too many. They’re also good to be kept out for the 16 hours you spend reading on a Saturday instead of doing chores.

Pair with a good travelog, like, say, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan or The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein, because you’re in it for the long haul.

Popcorn 🍿

Popcorn is super easy to make. Throw a bag of it in the microwave for 2 minutes or so, and wait until the popping stops. Super handy when you need to make a snack, but don’t want to put down the book! 

Pair with any Brandon Sanderson book, because when the Sanderlanche hits, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, and won’t have time for anything else. Brittany recommends Mistborn and Trevor recommends Warbreaker. (It’s free to read!)

Book Snacks for When You Have a Sweet Tooth

Apples & Grapes 🍎🍇

Really this heading should probably be called “a fruit platter”, but we’re calling it apples and grapes. Why? Because they are the safest fruits you can eat while reading a book. 

Most berries have juices that will stain your fingers and oranges can squirt juice when bitten into. Worst case scenario if you choose these fruits is you get some colorful fingerprints or orange juice splatters on your book.

Pair it with a young adult title such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, because sometimes you just want to read about the chosen one teenage girl locked in a love corner (not triangle) with two indistinguishable hot dudes. (Plus it’s easy to read, just like how apples and grapes are easy to eat.)

Bonus: Shoutout to our friend Linnée who introduced us to frozen grapes. Freezing grapes makes them taste 10x better, try it! She recommends pairing apples and grapes with Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, because the book starts in the Garden of Eden (apples) and Aziraphale and Crowley are basically Greek gods (grapes).

Two-Bite Brownies 😋

Eating these reminds us of going to school — it was a classic lunch-time snack as a kid. It also makes a great book snack.

Pair this snack with a book series you read in elementary or Jr. high. For us, that’s Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda or Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. 

Sweet Sixteen Candy Mix 🍬

Yes, these candies are coated in sugary-sour goodness. But yes, we still recommend them as a book snack. It’s pretty easy to avoid getting it on the precious pages of your book, and if you accidentally get a bit of sugar on it it’s easy to brush it off. 

Pair the sugary sweets with a horror like It or Pet Sematary by Stephen King to recapture that watching-a-horror-movie-at-a-sleepover-with-your-friends nostalgia.

Alterative: Smart Sweets! They are super expensive, but can provide you with guilt free candy snacking. #NotAnAd #NotSponsored #Although…👀

Pocky 🇯🇵

The bottom quarter of these biscuit sticks aren’t coated in chocolate, making it the perfect book-reading snack. (Unless you hold the Pocky from the chocolate part like a heathen.) 

Pair it with your favorite manga series. (Death Note, anyone?)

Chocolate Covered Whatever 🍫

Everything is better covered in chocolate. Here are some of our favorite things:

  • Kirkland Chocolate Covered Almonds

  • Kirkland Chocolate Covered Raisins

  • Kirkland Dark Chocolate Covered Mango (deadly)

  • Brookside Dark Chocolate Açaí & Blueberry

  • Chocxo Dark Chocolate Coconut Cups

We uh… we like chocolate.

Life Pro Tip: After you get up from your comfortable chair, check that you didn’t leave any melted chocolate bits behind. Oops. 🤭

Pair chocolate covered anything with a good contemporary romance like Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston or a fantasy romance such as Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Cookies & Tea 🍪🍵

Another classic book snack that has to be on our list. Here are some cookies for your consideration:

Pair it with a regency romance series like Bridgerton by Julia Quinn.

Chocolate Puffed Wheat Square 🍫

Better than a rice krispie square, this dessert does not get enough love. It’s super easy to make, and if you upgrade it with a fancier cocoa powder (we recommend Valrhona) it’ll taste A++. 

Pair it with a self-help or psychology book, because you deserve a comforting food while trying to better yourself! (Brittany recommends Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown.)

Snacks You Should NOT Eat While Reading 🚫

You definitely could eat these things, but you probably shouldn’t or else you risk sticky fingers or crumbs all over your books. (But if you’re one of those people who crack the spine on your books, go for it.)

  • Fruit to Go bars

  • Pizza

  • Doritos

  • Cheetos

  • NATURE VALLEY CRUNCHY BARS (all my homies hate Nature Valley Crunch Bars)

A Friendly Hydration Reminder 💧

Make sure to stay hydrated when reading! We’ve already recommended tea, but make sure you’re drinking water. Keep a water bottle handy. (If your water bottle is boring, get this sticker.)

We recommend pairing water with Dune by Frank Herbert. 😉

You made it to the end of the post! 🥳

If physical books aren’t your jam, or maybe you want to try another reading format so you don’t get crumbs all over your favorite books, check out Audible!

You get 1 credit a month to buy an audiobook of your choice, plus access to The Plus Catalogue where you can listen all you want to thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts, and audiobooks. Try Audible for free for 3 months!

Have a A++ book snack? Let us know in the comments below!

Food CultureMediocre ChefComment