A Cold in the head

I have a cold in the head. Or is it a dose of Covid? To test or not to test is the question and to be honest, given the mildness of my symptoms it hardly matters. There is one caveat, however, tomorrow, I am supposed to be having lunch with the reading group and one of our members is scheduled to go into hospital for an op. So the responsible thing is to get the nose swabs and test tubes out and go through the once very familiar procedure to make absolutely sure I won’t be giving anyone anything.

That’s tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m concentrating on getting well again.

A day and a half of feeling not so good is enough and now I’m bored. The sun is shining and it would be great to get outside in the garden or at least go for a walk, but the sensible side of me is saying that one more day and I’ll be back to normal.

So today is a day for taking things easy. For getting up late, watching things on catch up and reading.

Yesterday, when my head was at its most fuzzy, I read a whole thriller, skimming through the story, which did hold my attention, until I found out who committed the crime and why. I know I didn’t give the book justice, which is why I’m not giving writer or title, but it did exactly what I needed it to do which was to keep my mind off being ill.

It was also good to read in a different genre and add variety to my reading diet. From psychological thriller I’m now moving on to historical crime and then I hope I’ll be ready to tackle the non-fiction book I’ve lined up for my next read.

If this somewhat rambling blog has any theme it’s that books fulfil different functions and different times. And as a writer it’s good practise to sample as many different types of writing as you can. Just as you wouldn’t want to eat cake non-stop or nothing but rice and vegetables sticking with the same genre can limit creativity. It sparks ideas, shows different ways of tackling subjects and by seeing how other writers approach their material can help hone you own skills.  

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