My little old lady and books..........

See? I did tell you that I had been playing with a little old metal lady in a rocking chair. Isn't she cute? Just so you know, she is one of two, and there will be much  more playing with the camera  going on. 

I do love the way small things give me so much delight.

I can't think of anything more PERFECT for my header soon. Diana?? Be warned. There is serious work to be done. 

Another stunning day of sun and blue skies here - these days are worth relishing and storing up in the memory banks for those dark dreary ones sure to show up soon. 

In the meantime, today's NaBloPoMo prompt is about opening my favourite book. Now, I don't know if you are like me, but, although I have definite favourites, I don't re-read them often. I think I am so wary of finding something lost, if you know what I mean. I turn the memories of the joy I found in the book over in my mind, as I hold it in my hands, The all time favourite was A Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton-Porter. It was written in 1909, can you believe. My copy belonged to my mother. I just see the picnic basket in my mind. Oh, how I loved reading that book as a teenager. 

I read voraciously back then. And at all times since. Little Women - another favourite. So, so many. 

Every book I attempt to read now, has my undivided attention for a few minutes. I think I have expounded on the reading debacle many times. I can't remember. I have lost the ability to focus. To remember plot lines. So fiction is a real problem. Hence the pile opened at Chapter 3 in my room. Chapters 1  and 2 have disappeared into the ether in my mind, and there seemed no point in starting over. Maybe one day. 

Non-fiction, on the other hand, I can manage, and I have delighted in the reading of so many wonderful books  - a great many Christian books, as well as those on Mindfulness, pain management, and brain training. In fact, my brain should be well and truly rewired by now. 

Maybe I need to re-read those ones. I may have forgotten vital parts. 

Right now, I am in the middle of the second month of reading the new John Ortberg book - "Who is this man?"  This is a book which you need to read, sitting upright on a hard chair, highlighter in hand. There is SO much in it which has fascinated me, and it is totally different from his usual books. Uniquely wonderful. Everyone should read it and learn. He has invested a great deal of time in the research, and it is superb. 

I say the middle of the second month, because I can only manage a page or 2 ( in the bath) (in the middle of the night) before the brain sort of shuts down. The time has nothing to do with it. It is uninterrupted time, and that is why it works for me. The time is to mull over what I have read, training the brain to remember. Hopefully. 

So don't take the ability to motor through 10 books a week for granted like I used to do. Life happens and stuff changes things in the blink of an eye. 

Still, I will take what I can, and this is good, and I am thankful. 

Ironically, I can remember the stories once read. Names, not so much, but the stories, yes. Weird, isn't it?Good grief - I sound as if I have senile dementia, and I do not. Just another type of neurological hiccup.

So, I can pick up those wonderful books jammed into my bookcases - the ones which have crossed oceans with me. The ones I have cherished, whose covers I gently rub my hand over, releasing those long ago scents, and dreams and words and stories.

My books. I love them all. For so many different reasons too. The imparting of knowledge, the tales of fascinating times and places. The sagas, the bravery, the intrepid adventures. 

My mother once told me that I would never be bored if I had a book to read. She was right. One day, I will finally get a Kindle. By then, they will be on their 2,387,836,383th version, I suspect. And maybe then I will find out if what the doctors in Bath suggest, that reading on a Kindle may be a great deal more easy for me, with different light and the absence of a multitude of pages to remind me of how far I still have to go. We will see. I am in no hurry at the moment.

 In the meantime, I have a pile of real books which I can't wait to get to. 

I wonder how many of them will become all time favourites too......