Remember when you were a kid and couldn’t read, so you had to be content with looking at the pictures in a book?

Yeah, I don’t remember that either. I started reading pretty early on and have never stopped. But I do remember that, at some point, I started to get the message that there was something wrong with “just looking at the pictures.”

Serious readers, the conventional wisdom told me, devoted their time to books without pictures. The written word became so central to my life and consumed so much of each day that such books were the only ones that lined my shelves and cluttered my bedside table.

Not anymore. I’ve rediscovered the simple joy of just looking at the pictures. Some days, my brain is just too tired to read another word. Or I can’t make myself sit in front of the computer for another minute. And TV? It’s been years since that held much interest for me.

Enter the picture books. Here are a couple of my current favorites, the ones I keep lying around for those times when my brain needs a break and my eyes are ready for something lovely, or something compelling, or both.

This Annie Leibovitz book was a special Christmas gift from my sons just a few years ago.

Her portraits are not only intriguing, but also inspiring. Just studying her work has given me lots of simple ideas for getting better shots of the people in my life.

This next book, “King Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb” is particularly special to me. It reminds me of the day I myself stepped down into Tutankhamun’s tomb, escaping for a little while the blinding white sand and heat in the Valley of the Kings.

This book was done by Zahi Hawass, the foremost Egyptian archaeologist and controversial former minister of antiquities in that nation.

While there’s also plenty of text in Hawass’ book, there are more than enough photos that this one qualifies as eye candy.

And just look. It has centerfolds. Quite a few of them.

And then there’s this book, “A Day in the Life of America.” This made a big splash when it was first published in 1986. The idea was that photojournalists fanned out across the nation, all on the same day, and just shot cool things going on in their communities.

I picked up this one at the Hanover YWCA’s used-book sale a couple years ago. I paid a dollar or two for it and it was worth every penny.

A word of warning, though. I drive my husband nuts when I page through “A Day…” because I’m constantly saying, “Oh, wow, look at this one.” So, some photo books might be best saved for when you’re all alone. Either that, or convince him in advance to browse in tandem. Sure beats TV.

So, be sure to keep a couple of photo books lying around. And don’t listen to all those serious literary folks. There’s nothing at all wrong with “just looking at the pictures.”