I loved reading ever since I was a young child. I asked my husband for my books during the third week when I was in hospital. I was determined to progress with reading once more.  I decided to try "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy.  It was the second time I had read the book; the first time was when I was doing my undergraduate studies in the UK, during my free time.  I liked it but the ending was a bit of a let-down, I seemed to recall. This time it was translated from Russian into English by a new translator, Anthony Briggs.  It was much better than before, if not so poetic.  Each word came out slowly for me but I had the greatest difficulty with “the”, “ít”, “it’s”, “they”, “theirs”, “and”, ‘’she’’, “her”, “he”, or “his”.  Words like “extenuated” or “dilapidated” were easy, but I had great hardships with “the” etc.  I could only read a paragraph or at the most half a page per day (I was exhausted after that).   By December, I had read the book from cover to cover. It was getting less hard to read and by the end of it, I took great pleasure in reading this fictional masterpiece. I have carried on reading since then, and my reading is getting faster and more encompassing.