Saturday 10 January 2015

Bad day, no market and a lot of reading



10 January

Yesterday was not a good day for me right now folks. I had to get and pee-pee at just before 6am, then spent the next hour and a half lying awake. I eventually gave up just after 7.30 and got up and dressed. I had a headache come on later, too a couple of paracetamol which I hoped would sort it out; it did, eventually but it did last for some time.  Enough, today is a new day!

Today should be a market day but it has been cancelled for this week because of high winds and heavy rain. Pity that, I was looking forward to get down there and doing some people shots, ah well. I also wanted to look in Smudges, Waterstones and The Works for a few books I’d like to get hold of. Of course I could always go down town and do that anyway, but I’m sat here watching a lamp post swaying in the wind. It’s a sign of how rough it is out there so maybe not eh. The books are ‘wants’, not ‘needs’.

And speaking of books … We went off to Majorca last year as I’m sure you may remember. I borrowed a guide book from Dorktown library to takes with us. Of course, we didn’t even look at it while we were there. But guess what; I still have it here! The overdue fine must be quite high now; maybe I should see about getting it back on Monday. Moving on again …

As writers we are advised to read, read, read and read even more. When we’ve finished, read again. I’ve always loved reading from when I first started to read seriously at age 16, so such advice was music to my ears. However, I have become aware that we can actually do too much reading, so much so that it prevents from writing. I’d come to that conclusion  some time ago, so it was a great pleasure to read Steve Chapman saying the same thing in the new issue of Writing Magazine. He writes, ‘-one of the hardest bits of advice you will ever receive – stop reading,’ (Gluttony; Writing Magazine; February 2015; p93). This leads me on to …

How many forms of reading are there? That is not as daft a question as it sounds. We all read, of course we do, but why do we read? We read for pleasure, like the above magazine, and again we read to learn, same magazine. How much can the magazine teach us? Well, that depends entirely on how we read it. If we speed read it I suggest we don’t get as much out of it as someone who takes their time reading it, with note book and pen in hand. So we read for pleasure, to learn, and to find information we need or would like to have. As I said above about the books I’d like to have, they are for just for general information, not really for use. So is the question really as daft as sounds?
Did you know that Rod Stewart is 70 today? Well you do know now, and to add to your general knowledge to help you sleep safely tonight, 112,000 letters were posted on this day in 1840, the day that the penny post was begun by Sir Rowland Hill.

Today’s photo … 

I take all sorts of photos and this is a lump of metal thrown up on the beach at Titchwell.

And today’s funny, from today’s Dorktown Telegraph

‘What did you get Christmas?’ ‘
A mouth organ, best present I’ve had.’
‘Why?’ ‘Mum give me extra pocket money not to play it.’

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