Eyeballing books

[This was supposed to be posted last night, but my internet connection died right before I hit 'publish.' So I went to bed instead.]

I think I have pinkeye, more properly called conjunctivitis. Sunday morning I woke up with my right eye gummy and bloodshot, and all day long it burned and wept. Monday it wasn't any better, so I bought some Visine eyedrops, which helped. I figured I'd give it a few days and if it didn't get any better, I'd go to the doctor. Then I remembered that I have access to The Internet!, so I looked up pinkeye and discovered that yes, that's probably what I've got, and that it has two basic causes. The more common cause is a virus, and there's basically no treatment except time; it's very contagious and people with viral pinkeye shouldn't go to work or school. The other cause is bacterial, which can be treated with antibiotics; that type is also very contagious although once treatment starts, people with it can safely go to work or school a day later.

I went to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today I ran errands and bought books. I feel like typhoid Mary. Anyway, my eye feels much better today--I haven't even needed to use the Visine. That matches up with what I learned online too. Whatever the cause, pinkeye usually clears up even without treatment within a week to ten days.

I bought books today because my to-be-read shelves are getting really thin. I'm burning up the reading lately; I think the last time I was reading so much was in ninth grade, when we had half an hour free reading time a day at school which I augmented by reading during all my classes. I burned through the library. These days I buy most of my books, doing my part to keep the publishing industry going.

Of course, part of the reason my TBR shelves are thinned out is because I have actually thinned them. I do this periodically, going through and reading the first few pages or chapters of books that have been there a long time, and pulling the ones I don't like. I didn't count how many books I culled and took to the used book store today, but it was probably 15. I brought home 10, most of them bought used. And then I read one.

Despite all the reading, I've found some time to write. I've finished Bloodhound at long last, and--quite to my surprise--finished my aborted NaNoWriMo attempt from last year, the little kid's book with talking animals. It turned out just 20,000 words and I think it's pretty good. It has no market, of course, but I'm just glad I've finished one of the books in my WIP file.