I have new reading glasses, plain over-the-counter commercial glasses one can get at a local pharmacy. They're approximately twice as strong as my previous pair. I've spent the approximately 24 hours since I got them feasting on reading, something that had become increasingly difficult when any aspect of a document... page color, type color, typeface, type size, kerning... was even a little bit challenging. I struggled with probably 10- to 15-year-old glasses, with an occasional assist from a hand magnifier when a word was just beyond my ability to scan. Even reading... an old guy's most pleasurable activity... was no fun under those conditions.
So I've been catching up on reading, mostly from dead trees: a Lilian Jackson Braun book I'm rereading; The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (a superb collection of short stories and novellas from the past three decades, all written by well-known mystery authors); a quirky book titled "expletive deleted" which explores social, cultural and linguistic aspects of cursing; and last but not least... I'm especially glad I have the glasses for this one... A People's History of the United States, by the late great Howard Zinn.
In most respects, life kinda sucks: my health is iffy and President Obama keeps hinting that he'd like to kick the props from under Social Security just before I start to collect. But damn, it's good to be reading again!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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Great! Amazing what a little low tech can do.
ReplyDeleteKnow the glasses routine! After years of either sitting on, breaking, or losing the expensive glasses, I now go to the dollar store every three months or so, buy ten pairs and read like a maniac until the above aforementioned activities make it time to renew the optical adventure.
ReplyDelete