My attention span and short term memory were hijacked by chemo many moons ago. The scientific term for this is "chemo-brain." (No, not really, but it should be.) Its quite unnerving to be an avid reader who suddenly can't get through a sentence. To find that once you could read four books at once but seemingly overnight you wouldn't be able to keep track of the antics of Dick and Jane. Luckily my Dickens book club is on summer break anyway, and I am not quite ready for non-fiction, which I typically love. But I have eased back into fiction and have fallen in love with reading again. Not only that, but I have fallen in love with libraries and with turn-the-pages-smelling-of-musty-linen real-life books!
Since I bought a Kindle I haven't read any other way unless it was on my iPad. But just in case I was actually unable to finish a book, I decided to hit the library instead. (Side note: I've never been a fan of libraries. I know - sounds weird for a reader but a bibliophile such as me likes to own, collect, possess, reread at a moment's notice. You want to see it on your shelf, touch it...and then you run out of room! So the Kindle then comes in quite handy because you still get to own it, refer back to it, and even zoom in on your favorite highlights.) But since this was experimental I hit the library instead and fell head over heels. I rediscovered some old flames like Wally Lamb, Pat Conroy, and John Irving, and my current love is Khaled Hosseini. I am enjoying turning every page and so grateful that I want to. I look for evidence of the "old me" wherever I can, and it feels so good to have this part of me back again!
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“I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them--with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.”
-Eudora Welty
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