Two, actually, almost. I won't go into detail about yesterday.

Today I read a book. That's not news. But I needed a day to myself to sit and read uninterrupted. I also have to review the book by the weekend. I signed up for a book from the National Post readers' club. I received it just before I went to Boston and decided I wouldn't read it in bits and pieces while I was away, I'd just sit down and read it in one sitting when I got home, so I did. Now I have to catch up with the rest of my work, including my blog.

I don't skim. I gulp. I'm almost dizzy when I return to earth. I am capable of enormous concentration. When my babies were tiny I didn't allow myself to read because I feared I wouldn't hear them or I would forget them. I was not to be trusted. When they were older I could afford to read without that fear. My son John developed a way of attracting my attention and pulling me out of a book. He would start softly, saying "Mummummummmmmummmumm" gradually getting louder and higher until the sound was like a bee attacking me. It penetrated until I would come out of my trance and shout "What???"

Isn't reading a miracle? Really. We are so blessed. Words leap from the printed page (or e-reader) into your head and mind's eye. The movie in your mind is so vivid. I find that I have to choose carefully whether I want to see the movie if I've read the book.

Back to reality.

Here I am again. I bet you never even missed me.

Yesterday was a long day and today I have to do my Icelandic homework so I can't stay long. (I started classes again last week, just before I left.)

It was wonderful to have a long, non-stop conversation about life and literature as I drove with a brilliant friend (he's a good driver, too), although he swears at other drivers on the road, quite colourfully. There's always more to learn and more to check on. - not the swear words, I know most of them - but the subjects of our wide-ranging conversation. And I give as good as I get - not the swear words, but ideas. Today I have to look up things and check on information given and received. What did we do before Google and Wikipedia? Perpetuated errors, I suppose. We're still pretty good at it - spawning mistakes, I mean. We should be very vigilant.

Once a "fact" is in print, people find it hard to refute, as if paper knows more than they do. (Is this why it's called hard copy?) I think there's a certain danger to an excessive reliance on the information online. I try to check the source or find corroborating evidence, especially when a "facf" seems too good to be true. It usually is.

I've been putting quotation marks around the word "fact" to suggest that I question its validity. Better to call it a factoid. "A factoid is a questionable or spurious (unverified, false, or fabricated) statement presented as a fact , but without supporting evidence, although the term can have conflicting meanings." (Wikipedia) The frightening thing is, if it's repeated often enough, a factoid can become a fact. You have to be careful.

As if you didn't have enough to do.

The fact is, I'm back.