I gave up on a book last week. I have set aside other books in my day, but those occasions have been rare and usually because I felt the story did not justify the sheer volume of pages; Joyce’s “Ulysses” and Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” come to mind. But in the case of “Light in August” by William Faulkner, I just plain old could not follow the storyline.
Much of this I attribute to the aging process, as I have always been a bedtime reader but over the decades the time spent in words has lessened to the point where I may only make it 20 or 30 minutes before the next thing I know the book is lying open next to me, my glasses are askew and it is three hours later than I last remember. This of course makes it harder to suss out words by their use in context if one doesn’t know what the heck the context is about. Words like suspirations, recapitulant and importunate (in the same sentence), meretricious and chiaroscuro. If curious, look them up.
But just because one book put me off my feed, so to speak, it was just one in a long line of books I have read since, well, since I could read. In the past three months or so, I have made my way through “We Band of Angels, the Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese” by Elizabeth M. Norman, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” (again), two by Steinbeck: “The Short Reign of Pippin the IV” and “In Dubious Battle,” and at present I am two chapters into “Murdering McKinley, The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America” by Eric Rauchway.
I will put Mr. Rauchway aside long enough to read “Hamlet” by You-Know-Who because that story will be helpful to me later this week; and if I can get my hands on a certain stage play script, I’ll read that too. My next read will possibly be either our local scribe’s “The Winter of our Discontent” (for the third or fourth time) or “Raising the Hundley, The Remarkable History and Recovery of the Lost Confederate Submarine” by Brian Hicks and Schuyler Kropf.
There are many theories addressing reading retention, but the one I remember most was reading in bed at the end of the day is not the best way to get to sleep nor an efficient way to retain what you have read. Studies show reading stimulates the brain rather than quiets the mental activities gained throughout the day. Accordingly, reading in the morning better prepares the brain for what lies ahead until it is time to shut down again and regenerate. Basically, it is machine maintenance to ensure proper operation.
There was a time, a long stretch of time, when I read for far longer periods than I now do with the aid of a book holder. It was of simple design, small and all metal but for rubber tips that would not tear the pages as it held the book open; the only drawback was slower page turning but I don’t recall that ever bothered me. I used that holder with almost every meal until eventually giving in to TV sets and laptop screens where films and documentaries took the place of books. To this day I think it was a poor tradeoff.
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On the subject of books and words, for without words there are no books, it can be demonstrated the more one reads the more one adds to one’s vocabulary. As we progress through the years, we increase the words in our personal lexicons when we read increasingly difficult books. And if we read less, or little at all, after our academic years then obviously we no longer increase our vocabularies; and in America the statistics are appalling for adults who no longer read for pleasure or information. Well, appalling for a single senior citizen reader; the generation under me doesn’t have the time to read as in time past.
But we can all add to our vocabularies; here’s two you can’t use often enough:
- Epistemorphiliac (n.) I. One who strives for knowledge, or has an obsessive preoccupation with learning.
- Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (n.) Word used by psychologists to describe (wait for it) a fear of long words.
Or we can entertain ourselves with weird word facts, such as: There is no English word that rhymes perfectly with “month,” “orange,” “silver” or “purple.” The word “facetious” contains all the vowels in order. From high school typing I did know “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses all the alphabet. Last two: “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends with “mt”; and Q: What word in the English language has three consecutive double letters? (Answer below.)
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Sometimes life is all in the timing. When I started this column, early on a Monday morning, I had it in my mind to express the benefits of reading books; ergo the list seen above. So here it is now Wednesday afternoon, one week away from the column I am now writing, and I must either scrap much of it or just go with what is written. And it was, appropriately, words that triggered this dilemma; these words: “She was cool and shimmery in her slim golden gown like a bygone Hollywood actress ….” That was Lucy Jensen penning her thoughts on the moon in today’s issues (July 22, 2026); and I sincerely hope I am not violating any rules by using them here. I hope all of you read that column; for me it was a breath of fresh air after my last two diatribes. Then after consuming the remainder of her words, I decided to put all the reading material mentioned above on hold until after I find out all I can about Winston; that as soon as the book arrives at the King City Library. (A: Bookkeeper)
Take care. Peace.
Steve Wilson may be reached at sc**********@***oo.com.
