Not Dead Yet !: I read a lot of books

I read a lot of books. At least, it seems to me like a lot of books. I have read, rated and reviewed more than 720 books since April 2009.

I was tired of wondering if I had read a book before. Or whether I had enjoyed a book by an author with a familiar -- or unfamiliar -- name. So I started tracking them. It became my first blog :-)

Okay, so I read a book every four-and-a-half days. Where is this going?!

For Christmas I was given three books. (Given? I bought them, gave them to Deb, told her that I wanted those three books for Christmas.) Since then I have read plenty of books. (Quite a few books I have been *re*reading. I find that I enjoy the "comfort" of the familiar.)

Of my three "Christmas" books, I have read two... The third book is, as yet, unopened. Okay, I don't like to rush the reading. I like to draw out the pleasure. I've been reading library books and re-reading old favourites from my home bookshelf.

After two months -- why have I not yet read the final Christmas book?!

One of the Christmas books is part of a series. I expected it to fill in a gap in the overarching storyline. Instead, it filled only a third of the gap... So I have two more books to buy... and then a few more books which continue the saga. And there are other series, by other authors, which I would like to read more of.

But...

Do I want to commit to reading books which complete these series? It will take time -- to find the books then to read them. Will I have that time?!

Next week I will have MRI and PET scans. If they are clear, I will have three months till the next scans. Three months of, So far so good. If the scans show more cancer then I will have -- perhaps -- less time. Will I want to spend that time reading?? Well, yes, probably -- but I'm not yet ready to commit that time.

Funny, really. I'm still quite cheerful. But with an undertone of, What will the scans show? And an uncertainty -- an unwillingness to commit -- until the scan results are in.

I expect that it will be the same every three months: uncertainty until the scans are analysed. Still... every set of scans is another three months passed... And -- each time it happens -- that's something to be glad about :-)

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Here's another story but it's really the same story:

The family will tell you, I don't buy new clothes. While clothing still hangs on and offers adequate protection, I keep on wearing it. Right now, I'm wearing an ever-decreasing number of items of clothing. Even I have to throw out some rags.

Worse yet, I put on weight. Pants that demanded a belt now stay up by themselves. Any more stomach and I will not be able to close them at all.

And I am more reluctant than ever, to buy new clothes. It's the same story as with books: is it worth it to buy new clothes? I'm waiting on the next set of scans... and trying to not put on any more weight.

If the scans are clear -- I'm off to the bookshop :-)

But don't expect to see me in a new set of clothes... After all, I can still do up my pants. Just. So who cares how old they are... Unless the family tell me how wrong I am :-)

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Here's something different about books & other stories:

There are plenty of websites telling me how to cure cancer. Lots of them are written by "cancer survivors" -- who generally have (or had) a completely different sort of cancer. The worst are scam websites promoted by people who had conventional medical treatment then went to wacko "treatments" which are untested, untried and certainly unproven. These scam sites gloss over the medical treatments and claim a miracle cure by one or more of the treatments that they used.

A far better book -- also by a cancer survivor -- accepts that the author's life was saved by medical science. She then describes ways in which a cancer survivor can get her life back on track.

You may be cured -- or in remission -- but the disease and the treatment do knock you round. (I'm lucky, the worst *continuing* effect has been that I have totally lost all fitness.) This "better" book is for people who have "survived" cancer and who now have a more normal life expectancy.

Deb has ordered a library book which was written by a cancer patient who then died of his cancer. He had "my" form of cancer. He had brain surgery five times. (I have only had one bit of brain surgery. So far.) He had radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Wrote a book about his cancer. Then died, a couple of years after the initial diagnosis.

I wonder how close to death he was when he stopped writing? Because that's the bit that interests me. Not that I'm fascinated by dying... but that is the bit that is missing, in stories by "survivors".

Could be an interesting book. Though I already disagree with its title. More later, when I see the book, after Deb has read it.

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And now for something completely different:

I'm onto a new brand of the same anti-epileptic-fit tablets that I take twice each day. My drug dealer -- Deb -- reads on this new packet, that the drug may make me drowsy. Drowsy!? And I take two each day! No wonder I'm irritable... Or... No wonder another side-effect of this drug is irritability -- I'm annoyed that I am always drowsy!

btw: Most of the last paragraph is intended to be tongue in cheek. In case you can't see me smiling.

Anyway... I go for a run on Monday but am too tired to run on Wednesday. Too tired? Must be the drug! Can't just be that I'm lazy & unfit... Then Deb goes for a run on Thursday and so I also go for a run. That's how my training goes: I run because Deb runs.

My own run is a bit faster than my last few runs. I am worried that I have not told Deb when she should worry if I am not back, so I worry that Deb will worry too soon. As a result I push a bit harder and run a bit faster. Still slow but not as slow :-)

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Today we go for a walk in the bush.

Deb wants to walk a there-and-back of 12km, 6km each way. I say, let's walk to an unmissable feature at 3km and then decide whether or not to walk any further.

Strangely enough, this makes me feel a lot better about the walk...

Twelve km will, I feel, be a hard slog. Six km will be easy. Six km with the option of up to six km more -- just feels okay. Doable because there is the option of turning back.

The mind works in mysterious ways!

The weather is fine, warm and pleasant. The bush is beautiful, peaceful, we see just half a dozen other people on our walk.

We turn back after five km -- just one km short of our furthest aim. A total of ten km in several hours of very pleasant walking. I'm tired but okay at the end -- with a ten km target distance for next week's rogaine.

And more: The walk is quite flat, just some long but gentle rises. I find that I really do need to do some *hill* training... When I can be bothered. Or when Deb sets the example :-)

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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