Sleepiness & Recollecting Books

I had to see the doctor recently, who’s told me I can’t drive anymore. I kind of knew this was coming, as I keep falling asleep, but it’s still a bit of a blow as I’ve always just had a license you know? I’ve always been able to do things, so I could set up a stall and sell some artwork at a market, or I could drive to a park and walk the dog, or drive to see a friend, or drive away from a situation I didn’t want to be in, and so on and so forth. You suddenly feel much less independent when as a lifelong driver you get told you can’t get in the car, although I think this is as much psychological as real honestly.

I’m on an American experimental treatment for the migraines, never completely sure of side effects, and been falling asleep a lot. I get fatigue, so put it down to a mix of things. Not getting sleepy like, seriously a lot. Falling asleep driving, cooking, standing, walking the dog. Doing anything. So yes, I’m going in for Narcolepsy testing. I’ve been asked a few times how you fall asleep walking the dog. It’s surprisingly easy. In my case, I apparently took a sleep walk to the nearest bench. Luckily the dog was playing in the woods near the bench when I came round, and strolled back to the whistle for a snack. So once more, I’ve had to find something to do inside the house.

I already have a huge digital book collection. I made a point of being more environmentally and space friendly, and buying ebooks and audiobooks from a variety of suppliers rather than paper books wherever possible over the last few years. I therefore set myself a real librarian’s challenge of trying to hunt down all the books I remember reading from my childhood. As I’m in my 40s, many of these are available free from locations such as the Gutenberg Project, but others I’ve struggled to even track down. Many I can only remember from brief descriptors and plot points. Believe it or not, I’m on the last few, and my book collection has increased by several hundred, including a couple of rare paper copies for the shelf that I just cannot get any other way. It turned out to be a brilliant self challenge, just for sheer interest and entertainment, and I’ve spent many happy hours researching and rediscovering forgotten authors and books that I had long forgotten by researching plot lines and quotes. I cannot recommend this one highly enough if you have never had a go!