Reading

I’ve only been to Reading twice and never stayed very long, so this blog isn’t about the town in the middle of the Oxford, Windsor, Winchester triangle.  It is a blog about reading and how difficult it can be to read.

Words are confusing. We have so many of them. I suspect that it isn’t possible for one human to know them all. Even Susie Dent has to look them up in her dictionary corner. I like to have a new word a day but sometimes I get stuck on one. A new word, or sometimes phrase will stay and roll around my head inventing new meanings for itself and sometimes new spellings until it turns itself into a dream.

An example of this is a word I learnt from double glazing salesmen. We currently have Georgian style windows with four panes in one that are made to look like sash windows and we want our new windows to look the same. Apparently this is tricky in plastic and requires the use of astragal bars and decorative horns. Clearly these are the devil’s windows. Astragal was a new word for me. I had to look it up. It is a moulding or wooden strip of semicircular cross section or a bar separating panes of glass in cabinet making.  My mind rebelled. “That’s boring!” it said, “Such a beautiful word for a boring thing.” Every time a salesman or the Long Suffering Husband mentioned the astragal bar I imagined a place where my Dad is probably hanging out. It pleased me to think that the afterlife could be a huge pub called The Astragal Bar. Last night I dreamed of it. Dad and Ken Dodd were sitting at table next to the bar arguing about whether 'We are the Diddymen' or 'Happiness' was Doddy's best song and whose turn it was to wear the decorative horns.

I like to think that I’m good at reading but it is so easy to get confused. Sometimes words don’t stay in the right order. Yesterday morning I read a headline as, “Theresa May Talks To Chair.” It puzzled me. I knew the Brexit negotiations were taking their toll but talking to a chair wasn’t going to help. I worried about her mental health all morning until I had time to go back and read the full article. Oh!
“Theresa May To Chair Talks.” All the right words, just the wrong order.

Then there is context. It’s not enough to read the words correctly, know what they mean and get them in the right order. You have to understand how they apply to you. Local councils are using up their budgets and repairing bits of road before the end of the financial year and so there are roadworks and temporary traffic lights everywhere. Yesterday, I was walking down a hill next to some roadworks. Two young mums with snotty nosed toddlers in pushchairs were waiting at the bottom of the hill. I was a bit surprised because I thought there was room on the pavement for all of us. I wondered if they were alright and so asked. They pointed to the sign.

The traffic lights turned green and they continued up the hill.