When I started to write this post, discovered that I hadn’t published the last one. Sigh…
It is almost August already, usual where did the summer go stuff. Three of the five surviving sunflowers have grown taller than the fence. Their buds are still closed, so they may grow even higher. I picked the first plum tomato yesterday and there are three others starting to color. The zinnias are coming into their own and the first batchelor button flower was open this morning. Had one more raccoon visit with two plants uprooted. Unfortunately the geranium’s clay pot was broken. It has been hot and humid. The grass has greened again and the dead grass from the drought seems to be nourishing a variety of mushrooms that pop up. That too makes it seem like fall is close.
My reason for the binge reading is that a novel keeps me off my feet for most of a day. I still have the inclination to pace which makes my legs and feet hurt and probably increases the amount of permanent muscle wasting. I used to check out several novels and read them over a weekend while I was still working. Now I check out one or two and read them in a day or two.
Recently while rolling through a Phillipa Gregory novel and now The World According to Garp it reminded me that many writers seem to repeat material. I had long thought that this was accidental, like the occasional misprint. For John Irving, publishing parts of Garp separately in periodicals before it became a novel may have been a factor. Now I am wondering if it is a device some writers use to make sure their readers don’t miss something important? Maybe I notice things like that more because I read the book over a short time period.
