Nige I’ve always read. All three books of the Lord of the Rings were consumed on the London Underground when I was a student. These days reading happens mostly in bed and then, when I have read the same sentence three times, or if the book falls, it’s time to kip. This works really well for me, even though such behaviour is deprecated by some as counter-productive to sleep. Immediately after the stroke, I found reading to be enormously difficult - in hospital I used a Terry Pratchett that I knew well and would be entertaining, but my cognition was shot to sheds for some time. It took quite a few days just to get to page 2, but at least it was something. It was a little better when I left hospital some six weeks later. These days (18 months in) reading is very much better but I concentrate on practical books so that the effects of the stroke may be overcome. I have learnt a lot. But it is still a little difficult reading a new-for-me book that isn’t to do with strokes. In hospital it was just that book and some exercises - no phone, no laptop, no email, just a slow recovery. I couldn’t even listen to music for it was just a cacophony, but somehow I was happy. Even the ten items on the menu confused me, and I kept on forgetting things I had just read. A book that I knew well worked for me, though.