What are you reading this weekend?

For me it is always a joy and an indulgence to have a weekend devoid of work. It's a rare treat and I always need a good excuse! This weekend, it is the wedding of a dear old (as in years known not years of age) friend of mine, down at Port Arthur. Not only will it be a beautiful occasion, in a gorgeous setting, and a chance to catch up with my very best schoolfriends, but it will also involve seven to eight hours of car travel. Which, seeing as I am not the driver of the family, will mean ... reading! Hurrah!

I intend to finish reading a "grown-up" book (one of only a handful I have read over the past year - children's and YA books being so much more fun), the glorious newie from Joanna Trollope. She is one of the few "adult" authors I will turn to the dark side for! Then, once I've finished that I will be re-reading a favourite of mine, Claudia Gray's Stargazer, in preparation for reading the next book in this really fantastic vampire series.

I asked the rest of the CBCA executive what they will be reading over the weekend. Carol, like me, is having a rare foray into grown-up fiction. Penny said, "It's a long time since I've read a book 'over a weekend' ... but ... I've just picked up Lian Tanner's 'The Keepers'. The cover design is one of the most original I've ever seen and I can't wait to delve into the pages and lose myself in another world!"


CBCA Awards Judge told me that she's having a sneaky weekend off from her "job" reading children's books. "I’m a Judge; I only read children’s books!" she said. "However, I am allowing myself to indulge every so often in John Banville’s The Untouchable"

As for our President, Patsy Jones? This is what she had to say about her weekend reading plans: "This weekend I am planning to indulge myself with reading Margo Lanagan – I’m in the middle of her latest collection of short stories, ‘Yellowcake’, and found a copy of a 1998 publication of hers, ‘Walking Through Albert’, in the State Library the other day – written for a younger age group, this one.  Comparing the two will be really interesting!  I also have a copy of ‘Zombies vs. Unicorns’ from the library, but as my thirteen-year-old grandson swooped on that the other day while he was having a sleepover and took it home with him, I’ll have to wait to read Margo’s story ‘A Thousand Flowers’ in that book .

Margo’s work is amazing –she can be so chillingly creepy.  I first read ‘Singing My Sister Down’ (from ‘Black Juice’) years ago but it can still send shivers up my spine when I think of it.  What sort of nurture and nature can combine to produce such an original and imaginative mind?


I wonder if three lots of Margo in a few days will be too much for me in one hit?"


Patsy, in my opinion, too much Margo is never enough. Ditto reading in general, and I can't wait to indulge in much of it this weekend!


What are you reading this weekend?