Slow going

It might be some time before I get to finish the next book. Not only is it a reasonably sizable one but I am also getting "distracted" by several other things.
First of all, I have recently discovered cryptic crosswords!! I sort of knew them anyway but I have just bought a whole little book full of them. They are frustrating and addictive at the same time. Sometimes I can only get a few clues and have to look up the rest but sometimes I am really on a roll and cannot put it down.
A second distraction has arrived in the way of my newly acquired Nintendo DSI!! It's surprising how much fun such a little thing can be. I had been thinking of getting a games console of some kind of description for a while but as I only have a small portable telly the gaming experience was never going to be great unless I bought a new, bigger, flatscreen telly, and I was not going to do that just yet. This console is handheld, matte black, easily portable (handy as you always need something to do on those trips abroad), easy to use and totally hip!

So..... I am trying to find a balance with these new interests and my books and it might take some time before I figure out how to fit it all in and still keep reducing the amount of books to be read.

On the plus side: at least I did not buy any new books!!... well apart from the cryptic clue ones but they do not count as books..... do they?

Who knew??

Sometimes the old ones are the best. At least it proved true this time for the book I just finished. I went back to one of the classic writers of crime fiction Agathe Christie. For some strange reason I had never read any of her books. Through all m years of collecting books and reading various crime writers I never got round to reading one of hers. Having read one I cannot believe it took me so long to get round to reading her work and I am definitely going to add her to my list of authors I want to collect every single book of they have ever written. She is one clever cookie.


### SPOILER ALERT ####


Ten Little Niggers - Agatha Christie
Ten strangers brought to a lovely island, no-one knows the other at first glance, all of them seem completely normal, all of them accused of being involved in some one's murder, no contact with the outside world, a strange verse predicting the deaths of ten little niggers...... what could possibly go wrong?
It all starts off innocently enough. We are introduced to each of the main players of the story in the first few chapters. They all make their way to the island to spend some time there. Some of them are there with a clear purpose but others are not quite sure why they have been summoned there. We are introduced to Mr Justice Wargrave - a retired judge. He is going to the island to meet up with an old friend Constance Culmington. Then we meet Vera Claythorne - a young woman who seems to be awfully keen to keep her mind of someone called Hugo. Next up Philip Lombard - a man of action, ready to "sail close to the wind" for a relatively small sum of money. He's "the good man to have to hand in a tight place". Emily Brent is next on the list - a stern woman, very proper. Then we get to the Military man, General Macarthur - going to the island to meet up with some old friends. Dr Armstrong is next - nothing conspicuous about him, just a successful doctor getting away from it all for few days. Anthony Marston is next - a man with flair, money and a very fast car. The last one we meet making his way to the island is Mr Blore - a man who is going to pretend to be someone who he's not. Suspicious but therefore you dismiss him straight away as a possible killer. There are two more people in this story but they are already on the island. It's Mr and Mrs Rogers the manservant and his wife who are going to be taking care of the guests.
This whole mix of who these people are, why they are there and what will happen to them on the island makes the story all the more mysterious. You get some information on each of the guests as the story progresses and yet you have no idea where it is going to go and what is going to happen. I am going to try not to give away much about the plot but it being an Agatha Christie book it should come as no surprise to anyone that not all of them make it to the end of the book. However the story is set up with such cleverness, such great characterisation that getting her to lead you through the few days they all spend on the island and how the story develops is a sheer joy! Needless to say that that I was very pleasantly surprised by who-dunnit in the end.
Christie leaves little clues dotted around in the story that potentially incriminate each and every one of the guests, they all have something to hide and you can easily believe that one of them would go to extreme lengths to do so. I honestly believe that each person reading this book will come away with a different suspect. As I said before, the story is filled with individual tales that define the characters on the island. There's little clues and bits of information. Some obviously there to make you pick a certain suspect (which you resist for a while - good for you!). Yet you cannot help that somewhere along the line your mind focuses on one little thing. This little thing makes you go "aha, now I know", it sticks in your brain and leads you to suspect one individual. Whatever happens next can be explained with your guy/girl still being to one who is the killer, you can fit all the upcoming events into your own theory of who did it.... and that is the beauty of this book.
Suffice it to say I was wrong in my suspicions (Mr Rogers had an evil twin who managed to hide on the island at times passing himself of as the real Mr Rogers, and went round thinning the herd a little). But,... did I mind? Nope, not one bit. Agatha Christie can be right about who-dunnit until the cows come home as long as she creates stories like this. Loved it, absolutely loved it!

Title: Ten little Niggers
Author: Agatha Christie
Penguin Books
201 pages
No ISBN nr, published in 1958/1959


Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 72
Not sure what's on the cards next... maybe DeanK the Odd Thomas series or maybe another ghosty one.... a proper one this time round though.

Getting over the disappointment

Instead of being able to go to London to see some Oscar Nominated Short movies I spent this weekend getting better acquainted with my sofa, my bed and depleting my stock of painkillers. I did manage to finish a book in the process and it was a perfect fit for the apparent "theme" of my weekend: disappointment.


### SPOILER ALERT ###

Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh - Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
I bought this one on my first ever trip to Edinburgh a few yeas ago. The title suggests that the tales are ghostly and/or sinister but unfortunately not many of them are of the ghostly kind. There are lots of little stories/entries/facts in this book - over 100 entries in all. Some of them are only a few lines long and some of them a bit longer. However, you will be hard pressed to find more than 20 ghost stories in this book. Then when you do find them they are in the part of the book entitled "Sinister Stories of old Edinburgh". The first part of the book is called "Ghostly tales of historic Edinburgh" and this is where I was expecting the ghostly tales to appear but is does not really contain any ghostly themed tales. It almost makes me think that they missed a spelling mistake in the final checks done on the proofs and that "Ghostly tales...." should actually have been "Ghastly tales..." as some of the tales are a bit ghastly. Alternatively, as most of the ghost stories were in the section called "Sinister stories of old Edinburgh" the definition of sinister has changed overnight (from creepy to ghostly) and nobody has bothered to tell me but somehow I doubt it. I was disappointed that the title of the book was so misleading. I kept reading on and on hoping that the next one I read was going to be a ghost story... and then it was not.
Having said all that I did enjoy reading the book. It was interesting to learn more about old Edinburgh (it was a violent place) and how the law was enforced (brutally), what people got up to (stealing, bigamy, Resurrections, you know.. the usual stuff) and how they were punished (ruthlessly). It was quite interesting to find out that in 1770 you could be declared a witch for wearing a wig or false teeth!!! I found it slightly disconcerting to know that in the past so many people were hung, drawn and quartered or tortured in the most "creative" ways imaginable to admit to practicing witchcraft and then be convicted on the thinnest of evidence. You learn a bit more about some of the most famous resurrectionists of the time Burke and Hare. There's tales of plotting against the king, people being banished from the city, the Hidden life of Deacon Brodie, hangings gone wrong (one woman was freed after her hanging went "wrong". Apparently you cannot hang someone twice for the same crime!). There's mention of escapes from prison, a corpse being sentenced to death and the infamous Edinburgh Mob. This lot seems to turn up at the drop of a hat. They were most vocal when they thought that an injustice was being done to one of the "good citizens" of Edinburgh. They tended to side with the victims of injustice and would try to assist in their escape whenever possible.
For those who want to get an idea of what the mainly ghostly ones are:
The Ghost of Johnny one-arm (the only one in first part - Ghostly Tales...)
The King, the Stag and the cross
Sir Richard Lawson (more devilish roll call than ghost story but I'll give 'm that one)
Wizard of the West Bow
The Power of the Sermon
Lady Stair
Mary King's Close
The Ghost Room
The Green Lady of Morningside
A Warning from the Bed
The Lady in Black
The Ghost of Bell's Wynd
The Spirit of Bible Land
The Face at the Window
The Ghost of the Headless Woman
A Good Angel
Sworn to Silence
Family Dreams
Mademoiselle Vernelt
The Ghost of Liberton House
The Steward of the Duke
So dreadful a Memory
Last Sightings
Is anyone there?
No 17

One of the things I did like about the ghost stories in here was that the authors seems to have made an effort to trace the origins of them. Actually, the same goes for the other tales in this book - all of them are based on fact not fiction and that makes it all come alive more, makes it all more real. It's a good way to learn a bit more about the colourful history of Edinburgh and some of it's most famous citizens. At times you feel astounded that some of the gruesome things you read about in this book are actually things that one human being did to another.


Title: Ghostly Tales & Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh
Author: Alan J Wilson, Des Brogan, Frank McGrail
Mainstream Publishing
189 pages
ISBN 1-85158-456-0


Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 73

Doing so well

Sometimes life seems to conspire against you in your plans to be good. I was doing really well not having bought any books for the past couple of days and now.... back to square one.
One of my colleagues at work brought in some books she wanted to get rid off. There were a few in there that looked really good and I just had to get them... you know how it is. The silver lining in all this is that she was selling them for charity so the money I paid for them is going to a good cause!!

Books bought: 4
Books to be read: 74

At present I am working my way through another ghosty one about Edinburgh.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

As I reported yesterday I finished another one. I am still not really making any dent in my collection of books but at least I am having fun trying.


## SPOILER ALERT ##

The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
I am not exactly sure what to make of this one. I kind of liked it, was able to read it quite quickly (2.5 days) but somehow it has not blown me away.
There's both old and new friendships being forged and torn apart, people trying to unravel a great secret and the great search or answers, narrow escapes from campus police, some murder, a fire, intrigue, double cross, love lost and won and at the end the promise of more to come. In short: there is a lot in this book and it seems to have all the ingredients to make it a really good read.
The story is about a group of friends at Princeton, all from different backgrounds who live together on campus. There's Tom trying not to make the mistakes his father made and in the process making sense of Frankenstein in 190 pages or less. Then we have Paul -the loner, the genius. He is the one writing a thesis on this mysterious book the Hypnerotomachia. A Renaissance book possibly filled with secret knowledge. A book that Tom's father has spent a lifetime trying to understand. The next one is Charlie, a hardworking student with the promise of greatness thrust upon him and you know he will fulfil his potential. The last one of the group is Gil. He is a rich kid destined to become what his father became before him even though he has no idea what that is yet. Paul's work leads him to all sorts of wonderful discoveries and straight into a heap of trouble. The others try to help him and then all hell breaks loose.
We get some background on all of the characters - how they came to Princeton, how they met as friends and we learn a bit about their families or lack of them. However, the emphasis of the story seems to be on Tom. We learn about the relationship between him and his father. How his father tried to find the secrets of the Hypnerotomachia, how it influenced his life, work and friendships and in a way nearly destroyed the relationship between him and his family. We see how Tom has coped with his father's death and the shadow of his father being cast into his life by this mysterious book, the Hypnerotomachia.
The books as a whole tends to jump from past to present, from one character to another and from one storyline to another. For me all this takes the fluidity of the main story line out of the whole book. It seems to distract you from what the main focus of the book should be, what it proclaims to be: what the blazes is so special about this book they all keep going on about?
Fine, there are secrets hidden in the text of the Hypnerotomachia, there are riddles to be solved to get to the next level of understanding and find even more "truth" hidden inside the book. However, most of this is done from a distance. We are told about this but we are not really involved in the finding of the solutions themselves. We do not suffer sleepless nights with the characters investigating every avenue that can led to a breakthrough, and then stumble upon the solution together. Paul is the one writing the thesis about the Hypnerotomachia and all he does seems to be to go away to investigate something and then come back and tell us what he found, how it solved the next bit of the puzzle. All this meant that in the end I did not even care that much what the "big secret" was or in what clever way it was discovered. I was not involved that much and was too busy being distracted about the whole story of Tom and his relationship with his father. Let me explain: one of the main characters Tom has lost his father a few years ago. His father was a scholar trying to uncover the mysteries of the same book that Tom's roommate Paul is now writing his thesis about. Tom's father was obsessed by the Hypnerotomachia and torn between his love for the book and the secrets it held and his love for his family. A similar ting seems to be in store for Tom but he has love to save him and manages to tear himself away from the book. Tom realises that his life is more important than trying to solve the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia, a choice his father was never able to make. This Tom-storyline weaves it's way in and out of the astounding discoveries that Paul makes about the Hypnerotomachia. You could almost say that it takes over as the most lasting memory of what the book is actually about.
Perhaps that is the strange thing about this novel? A part of it wants the emphasis to be on the research that Paul is doing on this obscure Renaissance book. A book that both Paul, Tom's father and several others in the book keep trying to understand and decipher. Yet the novel's main character seems to be Tom. He is the most rounded character, the best developed, we learn the most about his past, his life features most in the flash backs. Paul, who does most of the work on the Hypnerotomachia, whose life is almost consumed by the book (like Tom's fathers' was) remains the lesser developed character, the outsider, the loner, out on the edge of life being quietly brilliant. He does not get the prominent part in the novel that all his work on the Hypnerotomachia would easily justify. Instead we get Tom. Why is that? Is he novel actually more about life and human relationships than about a book and the secrets is holds?

PS: if Tom does not want to run his mum's other bookshop.... can I apply for the job please?

PS2: they do explain the meaning of the title of the novel somewhere so no worries there!


Title: The Rule of Four
Author: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
Century
372 pages
ISBN 1-8441-3005-3


Books bought: 0
Books to be read: 70