I started reading The Heart of Darkness again. It is a re-read for me. I read it about 20 years ago when I was at a music festival, which is probably not the best place to read it. Towards the end I was thinking this reminds me a bit of Apocalypse Now, not realising that Apocalypse Now was based on this book, just updated to the Vietnam War. It is not very long, but it is dense. Since reading it, I have felt that I must have missed things. Such as what the reason was for Marlow's steamboat having been sabotaged and why the delivery of rivets needed to fix it was delayed for so long. I gather it's because the manager of the river wanted to stop Kurtz from being promoted over him, and is maybe hoping he would die. I do not often re-read books, but I am also currently reading The Dawn Watch by Maya Jasanoff, which is a biography of Conrad. Joseph Conrad himself once went up the Congo River, and was appalled by what he saw. In addition, I saw a copy with a very pretty cover in a bookshop, and being shallow, I often judge books by their covers. And it's short, so should not disrupt my reading schedule too much.