The narrator in "A Tale for the Time Being" expresses a sense of discomfort and intrigue as she begins to read a novel. She describes this feeling as prurient, comparing herself to an eavesdropper or a peeping tom, indicating a moral ambiguity about her curiosity towards others' lives. This highlights how reading fiction can often feel like intruding into someone else's intimate experiences.

Ruth acknowledges that novelists often delve into the private lives of others, raising questions about the ethics of such exploration. Her familiarity with these feelings suggests a reflective understanding of the boundaries between personal narratives and public consumption. This interplay between the reader's voyeurism and the writer's storytelling evokes a complex relationship with the act of reading and writing.