What I read during my holidays

I can't do a lot more than read at the moment, so I have been doing a lot of re-reading.   And I have re-read the two books about J.D. Salinger - "Dream Catcher" by his daughter Margaret Salinger, and "At Home in the World" by Joyce Maynard, who had a affair with the much older Salinger when she was a young student.  And I have also read about some of the furore those books caused.

It makes me wonder if anyone has ever read "Catcher in The Rye"?  I know its sold in its millions, but don't people actually read it?   Surely its all there in the book anyway?

Not that i have read it for many years.

That Catcher watching the children play seemed a bit sinister to me.   Perhaps because I was a child in post war England - and all us children of the post war baby boom years used to play out all the time in the fields and the bomb sites - and so often there were men in grey raincoats lurking about watching us play.  Margaret Salinger says in her book that what worried her about the image was why these children were being allowed to run and play near such a dangerous drop.  Where were their parents.

But then it seems she was a very uncaught child - literally and figuratively.

Reading about J.D.Salinger, I did wonder if he was on the Aspegers's spectrum (on the basis of it takes one to know one.)

And it all goes to show that every time we - the imperfect, dying children of Adam - put ourselves or any one of our siblings on pedestals,  feet of clay are going to be revealed.  Same same for every one of us. We are all fatally flawed.

Yesterday I got some loving phone calls from my sisters Audrey and Maggie, concerned about my arthritis. Maggie wanted to tell me not to worry about the Assembly on Saturday - she would find another ride so that I could leave it till the day itself and decide then whether or not I was up to it.  I also got a lovely email from a Sri Lankan friend Eddie. I had emailed to thank him for sending me the Ginger tea, and to say how sorry I was I wasn't well enough to see him when he was visiting his family in London.  He says he will send me more ginger tea asap!   And I wasn't hinting in my email, just thanking him.  Ginger is, I believe, a natural anti-inflammatory, so could help my arthritis.  I had made us - El Capitano - a sort of veggie stew thingy for lunch, with lots of fresh ginger in it.  He spent the day at Rewell wood - see The Captain's Log.

I would love to have gone, but can't stand up for more than about 10 minutes at a time.  Its real Bank Holiday weather - grey and cold, so butterflies will be in short supply.  The world outside looks so beautiful though, the grey intensifying the greens of our Green, and the Channel is gleaming away like a blue-grey jewel. But enough of the poetic stuff - I must away and make another ginger tea...  I hope to get to the meeting at the Hall this afternoon, but it depends on if my knees will let me.