Saturday couldn't come soon enough for me this week. I've been battling a horrendous chesty cough for two weeks that disappears during the daytime but returns with a vengeance as soon as the sun goes down. Consequently, I don't think I've had a proper nights sleep in a fortnight, and I'm as grumpy as hell during the day from lack of sleep.
I was very much looking forward to just slobbing around the house this weekend, catching up on sleep and doing a lot of reading. But I had to get up early this morning to collect a parcel from my local Royal Mail depot (the postman had tried to deliver it mid-week when no one was home), so there went the lie-in.
However, I was looking forward to getting my poor arthritic hands on the package, because I thought it was going to be full of lovely books I'd ordered from Amazon for our Not The TV Book Group. Sadly, it wasn't my Amazon parcel, which means my plans to start reading Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel in time for next Sunday's discussion (to be hosted by Lynne at Dovegreyreader) have been put on hold.
So... what to read today, then?
I'm 280 pages into Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos, which I'm reading for Riverside Readers, but I'm finding it hard work. Call me a philistine, but I never seem to enjoy reading anything written prior to the 20th century (which might explain why I only review modern and contemporary literature on this blog). I can appreciate the storyline in Dangerous Liaisons but, honestly, it goes on forever, and is full of really horrible characters whom I don't particularly like spending time with...
So, perhaps I'll finish reading A Very Scotch Affair by Robin Jenkins, which I started on Thursday evening and am enjoying enormously. It's set in Glasgow in the 1960s, and despite the depressing subject matter -- a man leaves his wife of 25 years when she's diagnosed with cancer -- it is filled with dark comic moments that make it a joy to read.
What are your reading plans this weekend?
