Reading is a nice hobby too...

I'm sitting here very early in the morning with my second cup of coffee, but I'm really so thirsty that I'm looking forward to a glass of cold milk. I'm going to have that as soon as I finish the coffee. Like I said yesterday, coffee isn't doing so much for me anymore, so the joy of it is gone and I don't need it so much anymore to wake up with. I'm very much awake on my own when I get up out of bed. That's a much better state of affairs, of course, and I'm not complaining. It is good to be clearheaded when I wake up and to not sit here half comatose. 

Yesterday morning, after I had written my post here, I didn't go back to bed, but sat down in my armchair and finished reading 'The Girls' Guide To Hunting and Fishing.' It was thoroughly enjoyable and I finished it in one fell swoop. It was such a different book than I had anticipated. It was actually a very mature look at a woman's experience with the various men in her life before she possibly found the one that was the one that was her soul mate. I say possibly, because that's left uncertain. We assume so. 

The book is not without humor and lots of insights into a woman's way of thinking about love and longing, all the feelings we share as women and that we spend a lot of our time doing, especially when we are younger and looking for our potential partner. When we are in our prime.

After I finished reading it, I started reading 'Vinegar Hill' by A. Mansette Ansay which is a book that takes place in the early 1970's and that is a dark and somewhat disturbing novel. The men in it are especially disturbed, although a lot of the characters are and the only really sane one in it seems to be the wife who is trapped in her role before women's liberation has really made itself known to her. There but for the grace of god went many of us, except that we weren't married to very odd husbands, or so we may have assumed. Those husbands of that generation may have actually all had a screw loose. 

I'm almost done with it and am already looking forward to the next novel. I spent a lot of time reading yesterday and not having the computer or the television on. I think it's better that way. It's better to lose yourself in a book and to use your imagination and picture the scenes and the characters. It's also better not to be constantly exposed to the latest news like I was. I get enough of that watching the 8 o'clock news and listening to the radio at night when I go to bed.If I can keep this habit up of reading like I used to, I won't be watching television all the time.

I don't want to be hooked on the computer. I have the habit of turning it on several times a day when I get bored and I can't think of a better thing to do. It's really ridiculous because I expect something magic to happen when obviously there is not. Turning it on once a day (or at night) is more than enough. Nothing bad will happen if I don't check my emails more often. I'm weaning myself of the habit to want to turn it on more often and really, when you're caught up in a good book, you have no desire to. 

I have several novels that I've read before in a long ago past that I'm planning on reading again. It's been long enough since I read them that I've forgotten enough about them so that they will be like new again. 'The Joy Luck Club' is one of them. 'The Accidental Tourist' is another. First I have to read the novels that I've never read and I have enough of them. I have a bunch by Edna O'Brien that I never got around to reading. They are in small print and I had no reading glasses when I acquired them. I have novels that were on Oprah Winfrey's recommended books of reading and she does do that very well. Most of those books are worth reading. If you need exposure to English language literature, it's a good source. 

I've increased my anti-psychotics by one more milligram and now feel very comfortable. I feel normal again and not so haunted and stressed. I had a fairly normal day yesterday, although that may also have been because I spent my day differently. I have to take care to build in as many soothing moments as possible and to keep the stress to a minimum. The weather co-operated and it was a gray and overcast day which suited my mood. I like those kinds of days better right now. I don't like glaring sunlight in a blue sky. Not right now anyway. 

I'm going to take my medicines and sit down in my armchair and finish that book. Then comes the joy of picking out another one. 

Have a good day.

Ciao,

Nora