On Reading

During the past few weeks, I’ve gotten back into the habit of reading regularly, at least an hour each afternoon sitting outside in the shade.

Back in the day, reading trashy horror novels and contemporary Cold War spy and war stories were a regular part of my routine. Then I got interested in other stuff and reading took a back seat.

Recently, however, I’ve been seriously chopping into my dusty collection of unread paperbacks, as well as hard covers that I’ve bought at huge discounts over the past couple of years. I still haven’t cracked open my Tolkien Lord of the Rings Trilogy to re-read yet, but I’m working up to it.

I’ve discovered something. It gets more and more difficult to concentrate on the story when there are distractions – like the wife jabbering away about something obviously important to her that she wants to get off her chest, but which is absolutely of no interest to me.

Also, I’ve noticed that many times I’ll read a paragraph with no clear understanding of what I just read. My scholarly observation about this is: You know you’re getting old when your reading is too fast for your remembering.

Laugh of the Day

Regis Philbin hit the “On” switch of my giggle box this morning when he asked his guest co-host Jayde Donovan, “Do you have a text machine?”

Hey Regis, it’s called a “mobile phone.”