I found Stronger After Stroke very helpful, but I don’t remember much help on dysarthria. I think I would specifically look for books addressing that. Speaking was non existent for me for awhile, as was swallowing. I had exercises much like music scales…E was the hardest of all to finally get. Took about a year. I have some “breathing” tools I have shared in the past that were helpful in strengthening my ‘throat’ muscles (larynx, vocal cords, esophagus).
Like @Rups, I prefer to read neurology updates over anything else at this point, as the physical is now OK. Could be better, but I would like some of the executive functions to catch up as well as the pain and fatigue to get a bit better.
I have never been one much for fiction. I do read some for fun, but even it must teach me something… Usually science, geography, or history.
Fiction can exercise the mind more than factual based reading though as it requires a lot more creativity of the mind and imagination. Your brain works harder!
I can see that. I had pictured the Harry Potter series in my mind before the movies, which were much more vivid for me. (My daughter made me read them with her, as well as go to the midnight book sales, and midnight movie openings, and even dress up).
I am not much for fantasy or sci-fi, romance is blah to me, no war stuff, so that leaves me with Steinbeck, Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Poe and 2 minute mysteries, poetry or other fictions that bring up social or cultural issues, or philosophies. Animal Farm is a favorite. I actually did enjoy Brave New World and The Giver (sci-fi, but really sociology models).
What do you like to read, or Who? Any suggestions? I will read it if you suggest it. My genres are more of a guide than a rule. I watch romance, mostly romantic comedy, and I watch fantasy or sci fi occasionally. A good mystery is fantastic, but finding a good one is hard since Agatha Christie.
I’m into crime fiction myself and have a lovely recommendation if you’re interested called The Thursday Murder Club by by Richard Osman. It’s a series of 4 books to dated. It’s a group of pensioners who run a club in their retirement village, try to solve cold cases. It both taxes the mind keeping track of the details with a level of humour in it too.
Or ‘The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared’. And yes, that is the title, by Jason Jonasson … basically an old man gives staff the slip at his care home and goes off on his adventure, another humourus one.
But my current top favourite crime fiction writers are M.W Craven, Steve Cavanagh and T.M. Payne.
But none of my recommendations are any to do with strokes
I might indeed, I have read Steppenwolf, a long time ago. At the moment I am chewing my way through The Memoirs of Casanova; In London and Moscow, it is a 600 page plus waffle, and my privy paperback is Rob Grant’s Red Dwarf novel, Backwards. I read all sorts of stuff, I tend to choose my reading matter by way of my mood at that particular given point of time.
Might be psychosomatic, but they do say, report any side-effects you might feel you have after such things like jabs &c. Tom Sharpe is included in my privy selection too. I prefer light reads when it comes to the throne room. I hope this weird feeling you are having, subsides. Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Were you anxious about the jab, and then became anxious about the anxiety, causing your head to feel weird?
Those actually sound right up my alley. I have seen netflix movies or series with basically the same premises, that I have thoroughly enjoyed. That I can read. I will be looking for library books, hopefully in print, rather than online. My head has trouble with being online too long. Thank you for some great suggestions. Fun fiction!
I suspect this is a great list as well, having read 4 of them, but not recently. Gormenghast, The Illusionist and The Shadow Line, I have not heard of. But the Illusionist sounds great just by name…Thank you for the suggestions. I don’t go to library. Looking online is hades for me. Way too much for my eyes just in the search, or looking at pictures, even. Short spurts, but the library will kick me out for inactivity, and most shopping spots as well. I may as well throw a dart and get the closest book to where it lands. Fiction is hard to look for by topic, easier by author, but I mostly prefer changing around to read something truly different. Something funny is more funny if I am only reading it every so often. Ditto for a tear jerker. If I read one of those often, I may become disaffected, or apathetic…
Gosh, I hope you enjoy it. Interestingly enough, the final edit was done while I was having TIAs, so I haven’t revisited it. I’m currently sitting on the first paragraph of another book, that is essentially written in my mind, but I’m struggling with fatigue versus output at the moment.
My library is excellent, and I can sit there all day if I like, and there is free coffee It’s also got a retro gaming hub where I am to be found playing classics like Golden Axe on the Sega Mega System. I’m sure I look out of place in that room, with my grey hair and cane, while all the yoofs hang-out, watching this wobbly old fella balance on his stool, anchored only by a wired joy con.
I wish we had something like that! Here there are hardly any books anymore, although many online choices. Magazines and music are also online now. No cozy nooks or couches anymore. Here is the city they are very stark places, it’s about the cheap architecture of the building more than anything else. In the county just south, where I moved here from, there are so many different things to do…a real community center atmosphere, with cushy couches and fireplaces, very quiet spots with plants, kid areas, youth areas, adult areas, and plenty of room for classes of all kinds, and room for team work. Not just books, but also computers, sewing machines, art rooms…a paradise to me. I want to go play again…
Wonder what it would cost to get a Lyft or Uber to there? Now I want to find out. Your fault I now feel like I am missing out @Rups, but thank you for the fond memories.
Go look, find out, your daughter or grandkids can find out for you if need be. Make it happen! Just don’t make yourself a prisoner in your own home for the want of wheels
@Rups you’re reminding me of 50 years back when I had an exam in school part of which was a thesis on the Works of Charles Dickens. Unfortunately I didn’t get round to reading any of them until the night before. Try that . Needless to say I had to revert to my childhood at exam time and ended up in desperation doing a piece on the Works of Enid Blyton . @IanM
In secondary school, our English teacher requested we write a synopsis for each chapter of the book that was currently part of the curriculum, To Kill a Mockingbird. I asked my teacher if I could choose my own book and she said yes. I chose Mervyn Peake’s The Gormenghast Trilogy. I handed in my assignment, a synopsis for each chapter, all one hundred and twenty-two of them. She let me sleep for most of the English lessons after that , I would say, “Miss, do you mind if I doze today?” and she would answer in the affirmative. I liked Ms Smith, she was a writer for Mills and Boon, but if you met her, you wouldn’t pick it.
I joined the HG Wells society as I’m a big fan of War of the worlds. The society do a few good zoom meetings, which are quite in depth and like being in a lecture on literature critiques.
Dear old Agatha Christie is also a favourite for me when I just want an easy read. I wonder if she looked at her friends and acquaintances and considered what method she could use to bump them off.
A friend of my gran’s looked just like the Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple and lived in a thatched cottage too in a small village. My great aunt sounded just like her.
I’ve known a few Belgians like M. Poirot, who hated to be thought of as French. They didn’t dress like him thankfully, but like him, did not think much of English food!!
Re-read the books you liked in your youth, to help build up concentration, e.g. Tolkein. I find reading a hardback easier as it can be be done with one hand and a page holder.
Of course there’s always a magazine. That helped me. Smaller volume of text to read with pictures.
It’s also got a retro gaming hub where I am to be found playing classics like Golden Axe on the Sega Mega System. I’m sure I look out of place in that room, with my grey hair and cane, while all the yoofs hang-out, watching this wobbly old fella balance on his stool, anchored only by a wired joy con.
