When Fictional Worlds Collide

Have you ever been reading more than one book and thought about what would happen if the characters from all those books met? So for instance what if Poirot found himself in the world of The Phantom of the Opera? Because that is what I have been thinking about as I've been reading my through The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Phantom of the Opera.

I can't imagine that Poirot would feel out of place in the famous Paris Opera House. Once he had adjusted to having gone back in time that is. I also feel that he wouldn't have any problem working out what was going on behind the scenes. What I would love to see is if the Phantom would let Poirot reveal his secrets, and if Poirot would be able to avoid becoming the Phantom's next victim.

You can guarantee that the one person who would be lost would be Arthur Hastings - I am assuming that he made the journey across worlds with Poirot. When the chandelier comes crashing down in the Opera House he would be thinking that it was just an accident or that the Phantom was in fact just a phantom. In fact I think it would be very entertaining to see what Hastings makes of the whole thing.

Anyway I shall dream on.

Sofa Shelf - Phantoms and Secrets

Three books on the shelf this week:

The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux

This book is in my top ten, maybe even in my top five, so it's one that I'm looking forward to reading again. First time round I know that I caught myself reading it when I should have been doing other things - but I had to know what was going to happen! Hoping for similar enjoyment this time!

Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret - Dr & Mrs Howard Taylor

Bit different to The Phantom of the Opera. I don't much about Hudson Taylor so I thought it was about time I found out about him. His is one of those names that I hear quite often but don't know who they are or what their significance is. Maybe I will find out!


The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

First ever Poirot. Need I say more? Can hardly wait to start it!

Pick of 2015

These are my favourites from last year:

The Case for Easter, Lee Strobel

Short and snappy, a good quick evangelistic read. Could be read comfortably in a couple of hours.

Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie

A spooky murder mystery that has been lying dormant. Obviously waiting for Miss Marple to come along and solve it.

They do it with Mirrors, Agatha Christie

Miss Marple appears again to solve a murder that is rather theatrically carried out.

What I read in 2015

I read some books last year! This is what I read with links to my thoughts about them:

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, Simon Callow

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel

The Jungle Books, Rudyard Kipling

The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie

The Case for Christmas, Lee Strobel

A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie

Kim, Rudyard Kipling

The Case for a Creator, Lee Strobel

They do it with Mirrors, Agatha Christie

The Case for Easter, Lee Strobel

Plain Tales from the Hills, Rudyard Kipling

Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie

The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel

Sofa Spotlight - The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel

This being one that I had read before and not particularly enjoyed (I think it took me over a year to read it) I was interested to see if I would like it more the second time round. And I did appreciate it more this time, but I didn't enjoy it or benefit from it as much as I did from the other Lee Strobel books that I've been working my way through.

Why The Case for Faith is not as sharp or as hard hitting as the others I'm not really sure. Maybe it was the questions that he was raising were just not as appealing to me. What I did like about the book was the way it began and the way it concluded. At the very beginning Strobel goes to visit Charles Templeton who was a friend of Billy Graham but had since lost his faith in Christ. Strobel wants to know how he lost his faith and why he doesn't believe any more. Following that interview Strobel sets out to answer the objections that Templeton raised, and for me that had a lot of worth.

Overall it's a good book. I just didn't get pulled in as much as the others. Still worth a read though.

Sofa Shelf - Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie

Well this was really fun to read. It's about a murder that takes place eighteen years before and at the start there is no body. Actually at the start it reads a bit like a ghost story. A young couple take a house in Dilmouth and it's not long before that Gwenda remembers that she's lived there before and possibly witnessed something sinister.

Miss Marple is at her best. Of course she works out more than anyone else but the way she goes about it is brilliant. Well it would be wouldn't - who could resist telling a little old lady with her knitting everything. She comes across as so harmless but is yet sharper than all of them.

So who is it that committed the murder? All that Gwenda remembers is someone with monkey paws. Creepy! Right at the end the tension is so high that, yes I was up late trying to get to the end of the book!

This is the last of the novels that I'm going to read with Miss Marple in them for now, but it has to be the best one that I've read so far. Anyway it's been so good that I decided to find a book of short stories with Miss Marple in them. My hope is that short stories will be short enough to read so that I won't stay up all night trying to get to the end of the story!

Sofa Spotlight - Plain Tales from the Hills, Rudyard Kipling

Plain Tales from the Hills is a collection of short stories. And they definitely fit the description of being short! All of the stories stand alone and are enjoyable in their own right, but there are a couple where characters reappear. In some ways it feels as though you get to know Rudyard Kipling through these stories and the way that he saw India when he lived there.

In the 336 pages of this book you get a picture of what India would have been like to the British people who lived there. It's not a book that you would go to if you wanted to get a broader idea of life in India at the time of the Raj. There is really only one point of view in this book, and that is the point of view of the white man. 

Even so these stories are worth reading. Behind most of them is a light humour, but some of them are rather poignant. As I like reading just before bed these stories have been a light way to unwind at the end of the day. It's something you could dip in and out of as you please. 

Anyway one I liked.