I didn't do enough today. I got too tired with what I did get done, so I didn't do any more. Oh, that reads like a whine, doesn't it? I guess this entire blog is going to be a record of my slow (I hope it's slow) decline. I'll keep resisting. I've started pedalling again (stationary bicycle in the gym) and added a new exercise in the pool, to strengthen my legs.

That's enough of that. I'm also adding stimulus for my brain, that is, more words. I'm reading a few disparate things so the words may not seem related because they're not. I read mysteries, thrillers, procedurals, whatever, while I pedal. Just finished a Linwood Barclay (The Twenty-Three) and started on an early Ruth Rendell (From Doon With Death). The residents' library in my building is well stocked with this genre. At the breakfast table I'm reading another book too big to sit in a chair and read: the new book on Enlightenment by Steven Pinker. It's very comforting. And then I had to stop and read 30 short stories - that's what I got backed up on today. I'm one of the first round readers for the Writers' Union fiction contest. It took more time than I expected. (I'm very conscientious about mv volunteer work.)

immiserate: immiseration noun [ mass noun] economic impoverishment. "rapid modernisation had an impact on the level of urban immiseration." DERIVATIVES: immiserate verb: ORIGIN 1940s: translating German Verelendung .

epistemic adjectiver: relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation. DERIVATIVES: epistemically. adverb: ORIGIN 1920s: from Greek epistēmē ‘knowledge’

theodicy [ mass noun ] the vindication of divine providence in view of the existence of evil. "the question of theodicy: those seeking a theodic.y." DERIVATIVES: theodicean adjective: ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from French Théodicée, the title of a work by Leibniz, from Greek theos ‘god’ + dikē ‘justice’.

heuristic ejective: enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves. a ‘hands-on’ or interactive heuristic approach to learning.• Computing proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined.nouna heuristic process or method.• (heuristics) [ usu. treated as sing. ] the study and use of heuristic techniques. DERIVATIVES heuristically adverb: ORIGIN early 19th cent.: formed irregularly from Greek heuriskein ‘find’.

erogene |noun [ mass noun ] Geology: a process in which a section of the earth's crust is folded and deformed by lateral compression to form a mountain range. present rates of denudation and orogeny. the Hercynian and Alpine orogenies. DERIVATIVES orogenesis noun: orogenic adjective

kwashiorkor |noun [ mass noun ] a form of malnutrition caused by protein deficiency in the diet, typically affecting young children in the tropics. ORIGIN 1930s: a local word in Ghana.

irredentist [ usu. as modifier ] a person advocating the restoration to their country of any territory formerly belonging to it.• historical (in 19th-century Italian politics) an advocate of the return to Italy of all Italian-speaking districts subject to other countries .DERIVATIVES irredentism noun ORIGIN from Italian irredentista, from (Italia) irredenta ‘unredeemed (Italy)’.

macrophage noun: Physiology: a large phagocytic cell found in stationary form in the tissues or as a mobile white blood cell, especially at sites of infection.

squamous adjective: covered with or characterised by scales: a squamous black hide.• Anatomy relating to, consisting of, or denoting a layer of epithelium that consists of very thin flattened cells: squamous cell carcinoma.• [ attrib. ] Anatomy denoting the flat portion of the temporal bone which forms part of the side of the skull. ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin squamosus, from squama ‘scale’.

That's enough for now. I'll work harder tomorrow.

I received the last catalogue from Hampstead House Books today, bidding farewell after 40 years of selling remaindered and retired books, new but unsold (plus a few CDs, DVDs, and VIDEOs). I used to buy quite a few books from them, mainly women's diaries for my collection, but there haven't been many of those for a while. More recently, very large, hard cover (but still obscure) women's diaries are being published - and sold, I guess - by big publishing houses, So Hampstead House Books have not ushered them into obscurity. HHB once offered a couple of my books, to my surprise, because my publisher hadn't let me know. (It's standard in a contract that the writer gets first dibs when the publisher decides to remainder the book.) When I brought this to the accountant's attention, he just said , "Sorry about that." It's a form of abuse. Anyway, I bought some of my books, cheaper than my author's discount.

It's very sad for a writer to look over remainder tables and even worse to read a whole catalogue of books that didn't make it on the retail market. Makes you wonder if perhaps there are too many books being published, or, as is increasingly the case, that there aren't enough readers. Then you take a look at some of the titles and you wonder how on earth some of them ever got published in the first place. They don't now, actually, get published, not in print; they appear as e-books.

I found a title that amazed me: How To Iron a Shirt: "A collection of 500 useful tips and tricks." For a shirt?? 265 pages, with illustrations. ONLY $2,99.

I'm gob-smacked.*

*ORIGIN 1980s: from gob3 + smack1, with reference to being shocked by a blow to the mouth, or to clapping a hand to one's mouth in astonishment.