Reading & Knitting

I'm trying to figure out how to knit and read. The only way I've found to manage it is if the book is a hardcover, with a hairbrush or the like spread across the pages to hold the book open flat on the table as I knit. This method, though it works decently for The Wheel of Time series, does not, in fact, work at all for the typical sci-fi/fantasy paperback.

As for recorded books, however much I appreciate a good storytelling, I don't like having 700 page novels read to me. It takes too long for the reader to get through the words; when I read, I seem to just absorb the meanings of the sequence of symbols rather than read each word. (Admittedly, this does lead to thinking I've read some interesting things, only to reread and find it wasn't what I was supposed to comprehend.)
Plus, the genius of knitting is the meditative state I can easily reach when working. This rather easily leaves me to my thoughts, and I will tune out the world around me. I get that same trance when reading, and the only reason they work together is because I pay attention to what my hands and eyes are doing: one pair knits, the other reads. Through reading I learned early to tune out my ears--rather, to get lost in the sounds, so that came easily with knitting. The easier it is to meditate while knitting, the more danger that spells for my grades, since I stop listening to what is around, i.e. lectures. That does not bode well for next year, since the number of classes I knit in has increased over my years knitting...