Read much?

We are not a nation of readers. I forget that sometimes, with the friends I have, but 25% of USian adults read not a single book last year. The median number was four books; if the non-readers weren't included, it rose to... seven, though gender made a difference, since women read more (nine books) and men less (five).

There are other ways of chopping up the data to see that Southerners read more, as do liberals, and whites, and non-church-attending people. The big genres were religious works, popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries, while all other genres were named by less than 5% of readers. Hrm.

I'm even more atypical than I'd thought. I understand being to exhausted to read, choosing only short writings, or having uncompensated-for dyslexia, and so on, but I've found such joy in reading books that it's hard to wrap my brain around not reading anything of length at all. Other people's minds are so fascinating! And really, that's what reading can be, seeing what the author chooses to write as a distorted yet interesting view into zir mind, in what ze creates from thought.

Farm share, week 10

Lots of stuff :-)

• six ears of corn
  
• a bunch of chard (I chose red)
  
• a pound and a half of carrots
  
• a head of celery (narrower stalks than commercial)
  
• three peppers (I nabbed two red ones and a purple one)
  
• three pounds of tomatoes (I got a bunch of different kinds and colors)
  
• a head of garlic
  
• two leeks
  
• an eggplant (there were long Asian kinds, but a cute little regular one caught my eye first)
  
• two pounds of pickling cucumbers/zucchini/summer squash (there were golden zukes as well as green, and the summer squash were different shapes, also the two-toned kind; I got a bunch of little zukes and squash of different colors, but all the regular shape)

So far, I put some tomatoes in with an Israeli-style couscous mix (with baby chickpeas, orzo, and red quinoa), along with some feta, black pepper, and black olive spread (I'd intended to put in some of the corn, but forgot). I sauteed the leeks with a carrot, a red pepper, four cloves of garlic, and the chard. I think there will have to be a tray of roasted ratatouille, and more corn and tomato salads. Possibly soup stock with the celery, though that will require getting onions, since I'm completely out (horrors!).

Porch update: When I got home from the Institute, I harvested 3 sungolds and 11 grape tomatoes. Monday night, I picked some chives, two marigold flowers, 4 sungolds, and 6 grape tomatoes, for a season total of 24 sungolds and 50 grape tomatoes.

And this morning I saw the turkey by Kendall Square again. I hadn't seen it for weeks, and had wondered whether it found greener pastures. But it was there, and I got to hear it gobble a couple of times (a first). Yay. I also noticed where on the side of the bird the teacher got her wild turkey feathers, the brown and white striped ones.