I vividly remember that day. It was back in September of 2014. I was relaxing in a recliner watching the boob tube and trying to decide what to do with the rest of my day. Since I had been retired for over fourteen years at that time, deciding what to do with my day had become my major profession. I turned my head from the TV and looked over at the bookcase and toyed with the idea of reading a book, Years ago I was an avid reader, but now it seems that for some reason a TV “remote” ends up in my hand and I’m sure you know what happens next, all reading thoughts are put aside for some other day. But this time I looked at the books a little longer and spotted two Stephen King novels my King follower daughter lent me months ago. Why hadn’t I read them?
They were too damn big. Each one was over 1000 pages. I can handle that size novel, but I like to read in bed before sleep and the thought of holding them up in bed kept putting me off. Suddenly I remembered an occasion during a trip to Nova Scotia when we saw a woman sitting on a stone wall holding some sort of tablet which she appeared to be reading. Curiosity brought my wife and I over to her to find out what she was reading. She told us all about the “Kindle and its merits. We were impressed, but continued on with our vacation tour. Never gave that meeting a thought until I stared again at the giant King novels in the bookcase. I thought I should give that ‘Kindle” thing a try.
Ordered one from Amazon which was zipped over to me in a couple of days. I downloaded novel number one. I think it was “It” and could not believe that in a few minute 1,100 pages had somehow jumped into that little slim black tablet and were available to me. How the hell do they do that? Well I think you know the rest of my story. All my book reading since then has been on the kindle. My reading has probably been a little excessive, having since then consumed over a thousand books, an average of over two books a week. I’ve really enjoyed this new habit. It really helped to take the remote out my hand once in a while.
Reading seems to have caught up with then entire family. To the extent that we’ve formed a Family Book Club with a membership of about 10. The Club has now read and discussed eight books. This past Sunday we discussed Black Cake a first novel by Charmaine Wilkerson. The Cake itself was baked in the Island nations like Jamaica for special occasions and was significant in the novel. In support of our meeting our Granddaughter, Erica baked one using a recipe from the book we all thought it was quite delicious and might become a new item on our Christmas
Our usual Blog recipe:
Classic Greek Bean Soup / Fasolada
1 pound medium-sized white dried beans
2/3 cup extra-virgin Greek olive oil
3 large onions peeled and chopped
3 medium-sized carrots
3 celery stalks or 1-1/2 cups chopped wild celery with leaves
6-8 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoon vinegar or balsamic vinegar to taste
Soak beans overnight. Rinse and drain them. Heat 1/3 cup of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat and cook the onions, carrots and celery together until softened, about 10 minutes.
Add the beans and toss to coat in the oil. Pour in the water. Raise the heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let the beans simmer, skimming the foam off the top, for about two hours, or until the soup is thick and creamy and the beans and vegetables are very soft.
About 10 minutes before removing from heat, add the salt and pepper. Stir in vinegar to taste. As soon as the Fasolada comes off the stove, pour in the remaining olive oil. Serve hot. Serves 6
