One of my favorite things is to be in the middle of a great book and really feel a part of it, and then set it down to go make dinner or answer the phone or some other present-day distraction. The book sits there, waiting for me to come back. All the events have just been paused, ready for whenever I have time to become entranced again. When I was younger and had to leave my book to join the family for an activity, I pictured all the characters in the book frozen until my return. Which also reminds me of a Friends episode where Joey reads Little Women and puts it in the freezer when it starts to get sad so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. The story was frozen and couldn't progress as long as it was safely tucked away in the freezer!