My hill has slow lifts.    To get from the base to the top of the mountain can take anywhere from 30min to an hour (depending on stop/slow times)...    needless to say, we spend a lot of time on the chair during a day.
the main chair we lap takes 17 minutes I believe?   We pass the time by talking about current events, who's hit what on the mountain, talking about happenings around town...     oh yea, and we can crack a beer, smoke a joint, smoke a cigg, all in relaxed fashion.     On normal snow years I'll be lapping the chair and not give a fuck if I ride alone or not.    but this year we haven't had shit for snow, so there's been days where I've sat at the bottom of the mountain for up to an hour waiting for someone I know to come by for me to ride the chair with.
I like the reading a book idea though, I might do that this week.