Don't you think every weekend should be a three day weekend? If only. I plan on spending as much of it relaxing and reading as I can. I'm nearing the end in a few books, so I hope to finish those and already have new books lined up to fill their places. That doesn't always happen, but there are a few I've been itching to start and am trying to be good and not just dive right in and add yet more books to my reading pile.
I've started pulling short story collections for my RIP reading and will be thumbing through them looking for a suitable ghost story or story of suspense to spend time with. One thing I love about short stories is the instant gratification they bring when you read one. One (hopefully) perfect little world or occurrence all in a very few pages. When done well it can be as satisfying as reading a novel.
No Name now travels with me to work every day. I forgot how much I love a good Victorian novel. Nice and sprawling with lots of detail and little secrets that keep me moving from chapter to chapter. Wilkie Collins is especially talented at grabbing a reader and telling a really good story. I'll be writing more about this one as I make my through the story.
This past week I received a copy of Martine McDonagh's I Have Waited, and You Have Come from a small publisher called Myriad Editions. They are new to me, but it looks as though they have some interesting titles on their backlist. I suppose you might call the novel dystopian, though it deals with climate change mostly. I'm not very far into the story, but it feels a little disorienting as I try and get a feel for what this odd society is like. Some creature comforts still exist, but life is not very normal for Rachel who is narrating the story in first person. What's disorienting is that she assumes you are already familiar with her environment and talks about it in a way that only vaguely reveals what life is like, so it's a matter of piecing things together, but I prefer it that way. This might actually be a good book to include in my challenge list as it is also a psychological tale as "Rachel finds herself in a murky territory somewhere between stalking and being stalked."
I'll probably take some breaks from reading and have finally gotten a copy of season five of MI-5 to watch. Last season ended in a cliffhanger (of course). I thought I would have no problem getting the first disc of the next season quickly to find out what happens--that's one of the main reasons I joined Netflix once again, only there has been a "very long wait" for the first disc, so I have truly been left hanging! I finally broke down and requested it from the library (there was a line for season four, hence my turning to Netflix in the first place and now here I am back at the library...go figure). I also have Shutter Island (tell me this is not too scary to watch on my own), and season one of Life on Mars (total impulse choice--please tell me it's good). By the way--many thanks for all the suggestions for movies--I've added them to my Netflix queue, so I should have plenty to choose from now.
Happy weekend everyone!