Mind Blown

Fairly soon I am going to finish The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. So far I can tell you that parts of it have blown my mind. It is a book that covers everything from the universe to the smallest cell. My experience of it has been stretching. Some parts harder than others because I’m not all that interested in science so some parts are lost on me. But on the whole it is has opened my mind and I’ve thought about things I’ve never considered before. So unless something drastic happens in the next 80 pages I think it’s going to be a worthwhile read.

Five Times and Places You Shouldn't Read Agatha Christie Novels

1. Before going to bed – unless you don’t mind being up all night, because putting these books down once started isn’t an option.

2. Before you head off to work – at the very least you will be late, that is if you even show up at all. And remember work is essential to fund book buying.

3. Anywhere you may be interrupted – because you will hate that person, no matter how much you love them, if they distract you from getting to the next page.

4. Whilst trying to eat – eating and reading is good, but not if what you are reading is more interesting than the food and you thus stop eating. You need food to live and if you don’t live you don’t get to finish the book.

5. Anywhere with water – you get the book wet you will be upset, particularly if it washes away the words on the last page. 

What's on the Shelf?

Racing Through the Dark - The Fall and Rise of David Millar

A Life's Ambition - Alexandre Dumas

The Journal of Madame Giovanni - Alexandre Dumas

The Prince of Thieves - Alexandre Dumas

Le Tour - Geoffrey Wheatcroft

On Looking - Alexandra Horowitz

Time Warped - Claudia Hammond

The Neapolitan Lovers - Alexandre Dumas

How to find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric

Intuition Pumps and Other Thinking Tools - Daniel C. Dennett

Mastermind - Maria Konnikova

How Children Succeed - Paul Tough

Thinking - edited by John Brockman

Manage Your Day-to Day - edited by Jocelyn K. Glei

Give and Take - Adam Grant

The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel

They do it with Mirrors - Agatha Christie

Plain Tales from the Hills - Rudyard Kipling

Sofa Shelf - Tales from the Hills

Another week another new book:

Plain Tales from the Hills – Rudyard Kipling

I haven’t started this yet, but the bookmark is firmly placed on page one. What I have done is to have a little scout through to see what sort of story or tale might come from the hills. I discovered that there were about 41 stories across 336 pages so I’m guessing they follow their description and are in fact short. Like Kim they are set in India during the time of the British Raj, and I can’t help wondering what the first British readers of these stories would have thought of it. It must have been so different to Victorian England. 

Sofa Spotlight - Kim, Rudyard Kipling

The next of my Rudyard Kipling books finished and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I did enjoy the story, it’s just that it didn’t end how I thought it would and it didn’t answer the questions that I had. Part of the problem may have been that I didn’t realise what the story was actually about so my questions may not have been the questions that the book was answering.

Anyway, like I say I did enjoy it while I was reading it. Kim was first published in 1901 and it’s a story, set in India, about a boy named Kim (oddly enough). Kim is the son of an Irish soldier who dies leaving Kim in the care of an Indian woman. And I guess the whole story is set around Kim’s identity. There are a number of characters in the book, including Kim himself, who have a view about who Kim should be.

Early on in the book Kim finds himself a part of the Great Game, which is a British intelligence gathering operation. Even though he is just a child he proves that would make a good spy. The book covers him growing up, how he meets a Lama and becomes his disciple, how he ends up at school where they try to make him a Sahib and finally how he joins the Great Game.

Kim is a very likable character and the adventures that he has are exciting. Even though he wants to play the Great Game he also cares about his Lama and does a great deal to take care of him. Which I think is what sets him apart from the other players in the Great Game. Kim may be clever and cunning but he is also kind and I think he has a way of making people like him.

Poor Kim has a hard time working out who he is, Bazaar boy, Sahib or disciple of the Tibetan Lama. And I think most of the other characters, the Lama excluded, all have a similar quandary. They are all watching to see who Kim will become and I think they learn that they cannot control that.

Anyway it is a good story, lots of adventure and humour too. Would definitely recommend. It’s a good length, my Penguin copy is 383 pages long and it had no problem holding my interest to the end. Kipling writes India beautifully, and just for the descriptions, where you can see and smell everything, it is worth the read. It is very colourful and the humour and action make it a difficult one to put down. Another book that is disturbing my sleep pattern!

For my next Kipling read I’m going back to some of his short stories, Plain Tales from the Hills.

What's on the Shelf?

Racing Through the Dark - The Fall and Rise of David Millar

A Life's Ambition - Alexandre Dumas

The Journal of Madame Giovanni - Alexandre Dumas

The Prince of Thieves - Alexandre Dumas

Le Tour - Geoffrey Wheatcroft

On Looking - Alexandra Horowitz

Time Warped - Claudia Hammond

The Neapolitan Lovers - Alexandre Dumas

How to find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric

Intuition Pumps and Other Thinking Tools - Daniel C. Dennett

Mastermind - Maria Konnikova

How Children Succeed - Paul Tough

Thinking - edited by John Brockman

Manage Your Day-to Day - edited by Jocelyn K. Glei

Give and Take - Adam Grant

The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

Kim - Rudyard Kipling

The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel

They do it with Mirrors - Agatha Christie

Sofa Shelf - Mirrors?

So the newbie on the shelf this week is:

They do it with Mirrors – Agatha Christie

I actually couldn’t help myself with this book I started it and now I’m about half way through! In fairness it isn’t the world’s longest book. Anyway a murder has happened and I have no idea how it was done with mirrors. I guess I will just have to finish it to find out. Don’t think it will take me long somehow! I’m also trying to work out if there will be another murder. Once again Miss Marple has put herself in the danger zone, she knows too much. The tension is high. 

Sofa Spotlight - A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie

This is the fourth or fifth book (it’s hard to tell and depends who you ask) in which Miss Marple features as the detective and was first published in 1950. I sometimes think that Miss Marple is my favourite of the detectives, but I think that I equally like Poirot and Holmes, so it’s hard to tell.

Anyway A Murder is Announced is certainly a book I had problems putting down. The more I read of Agatha Christie the more I like her and she is great at keeping me intrigued. She’s one of those writers where you have to drag yourself away from the book by force, because there’s always time for one more page!  

The plot follows the story of the attempted murder of a Miss Blacklock. It all begins rather eerily when a murder is announced as going to take place at Miss Blacklock’s home. An ad in the local paper serves to bring half the village to Miss Blacklock’s door at the advertised time for the murder, each with a different reason to be there. An attempt is made on Miss Blacklock’s life and of course Miss Marple is there to begin unravelling the mystery.

As with any good murder mystery there are a number of murders, and at one point I was concerned that Miss Marple might make it to the list of victims. But at the heart of this mystery is a tale of stolen identity. In fact, there were a lot of identities borrowed or stolen. Once you start working out who everyone really is then the pieces of the puzzle start falling into place.

One thing I am grateful for is that there has been some distance between me watching Joan Hickson as Miss Marple in the dramatisations of these novels. And for books that are so popular I think I have done well to be able to read these as if for the first time, with no idea of how it is going to turn out. Which I must say annoys me, just a little, because I do like to be able to predict the outcome of a book. But these are so good I don’t mind at all.

If you’ve never read one of Agatha Christie’s novels you need to give it a go and find out why they are so popular. I was worried that I would be disappointed, but they have more than exceeded my expectations. There have been a few nights where I should definitely have gone to bed earlier but I just needed to know what was going to happen next. Really I should make sure that I have enough time to read the whole thing in one go!

Next stop on the Agatha Christie binge is They do it with Mirrors. I’m guessing that I shouldn’t start reading it just before bed!

What's on the Shelf?

Racing Through the Dark - The Fall and Rise of David Millar

A Life's Ambition - Alexandre Dumas

The Journal of Madame Giovanni - Alexandre Dumas

The Prince of Thieves - Alexandre Dumas

Le Tour - Geoffrey Wheatcroft

On Looking - Alexandra Horowitz

Time Warped - Claudia Hammond

The Neapolitan Lovers - Alexandre Dumas

How to find Fulfilling Work - Roman Krznaric

Intuition Pumps and Other Thinking Tools - Daniel C. Dennett

Mastermind - Maria Konnikova

How Children Succeed - Paul Tough

Thinking - edited by John Brockman

Manage Your Day-to Day - edited by Jocelyn K. Glei

Give and Take - Adam Grant

The Examined Life - Stephen Grosz

Kim - Rudyard Kipling

A Murder is Announced - Agatha Christie

The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel