pedanther

#8: If the previous book had a person on the cover, read a book without a person on the cover.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the first Poirot novel, but I haven’t been reading them in any kind of systematic order, so I’ve read around half a dozen of the later novels already. It’s the second I’ve read that’s narrated by Arthur Hastings, and once again I found him an impediment to my enjoyment. People always unjustly think of Holmes and Watson as the prime example of the great detective and his slightly dim sidekick, but really it’s Poirot and Hastings; Hastings can be relied on to go after every red herring and bark up every wrong tree and ignore every hint from Poirot that he might be on the wrong track. Poirot keeps making little jokes about how slow on the uptake Hastings is, which Hastings is too slow on the uptake to notice. I get the feeling it’s supposed to be funny, but I don’t find it so, and anyway that just makes me annoyed at the author for setting him up to be laughed at. It’s certainly not the case that we’re being invited to laugh with him, because that would require that he be in on the joke.

Also, somebody gets murdered, I guess? The mystery is actually quite clever, I think; I’d almost be tempted to read it again to see how all the pieces fit together, except that would mean spending more time with Hastings.


#9: If the previous book’s title started with a consonant, read a book whose title starts with a vowel.

I picked up The African Queen in a library-discard sale years ago, with a vague idea about seeing how different it was from the movie. It’s broadly similar, though the movie has a significantly different ending (and doesn’t let the characters do any more than exchange suggestive banter and occasionally kiss, while the novel is less restrained). I didn’t quite warm to the main characters, partly because I got the impression that the author didn’t entirely like them; some of his explanations for their behaviour had a feeling of coming from a superior and somewhat cynical remove.

Interesting experience, probably won’t read it again.


#10: Read a book in a different format from the previous book.

I wasn’t entirely sure whether my copy of The African Queen was a native hardback or one of those cases where the library added a protective shell to a paperback, so I figured to be on the safe side I should go with an ebook - which provided a convenient opening to read Diviner’s Bow, the new Liaden Universe novel that came out this month.

I devoured Diviner’s Bow in a single day; after spending the past few months chipping away at the depths of my to-read pile, it was nice to have a reminder of what it can be like to read a book I really enjoy populated with characters I like spending time with.


#11: Read a book where the author’s name is not the same color on the cover as the previous book’s author’s name.

I’ve started reading A Choice of Catastrophes by Isaac Asimov, but I’m not sure yet if I’m going to make it my official pick for the prompt; it’s shaping up to be a read-a-chapter-every-now-and-again sort of book, and I might swap in something that will be done quicker.