10/15/2021
By Kate Stone Lombardi
I imagine my brain as crisscrossed with storylines and word patterns. Words are my work, my pleasure and my play things.
First, there is the book I’m currently reading. I just finished Girl A by Abigail Dean, which I loved. (The title of the NY Times review gives you the plot summary: “What Happens to Siblings Who Survive a House of Horror.”) It’s less about horror and more about sibling dynamics, though both are strongly in play.
Second, it is Audie judging season. That means that from October to January I have little white
earbuds in place, as I listen to roughly two dozen audio books, judging the narrators’ performances. This drives my husband bananas, because he keeps trying to talk to me as I cook dinner or fold laundry, and I have to lift my hair back and point to my ear. He rolls his eyes, and then once I pause the book and take out the earphone and ask, “What?” he says, “Oh, never mind.”
Third, I’m usually in the middle of writing an article, and that means either the idea is dancing around in some other part of my brain, or I’ve commenced the actual writing, so that story line is also ongoing.
Fourth, the daily reading of several newspapers (not all of them in entirely, of course – I pick and choose my articles), ditto the New Yorker, Medium and a variety of other sources.
Finally, there are the online word games. Oh so many word games. Of course the NYT crossword, and – my personal favorite – the NYT Spelling Bee. I play several people in “Words with Friends.” I play my son, along with several strangers, in Boggle. Also, I’m sorry to say, I still play “Wordscapes,” despite coming incredibly close to – finger hovering – deleting the app. But I couldn’t/didn’t do it, and I’m not going to tell you how many hours I spend playing weekend tournaments. If I don’t place in the top five players, I feel defeated, and that makes for long days and late nights.
They say that to ward off dementia, you should challenge your brain to think differently and learn new tasks. Logic would then suggest that I play math games instead of word games. Or in addition to word games. Nah. Let’s not get crazy.