It's nearly Easter, and I'm half way with a christmas Story!

My, Poirot, novel reading challenge is going well after what has been a fruitful period in the month of March. I have managed to read from, Dumb Witness to Hercule Poirot's christmas. (in total 4 books so far, read from the 4th to the 20th March. I know this because my chronological list is dated when they are read. Yep, it's that methodical (or anorak-ish) depending on your opinion about lists. I may, just may be able to shoe horn number 5 in before the end of march (perhaps, if I'm being wildly ambitious, 6?). However, March has been the most productive reading month since I started!

It has also meant I have come to a major milestone. The half way point in my challenge! Hercule Poirot's christmas was number 17 of the 34 I am too read. I have managed to read a christmas story with Easter coming up on the horizon. But the joy of reaching the half way line has resulted in quite a euphoric feeling (I am not focusing on the fact that I have another 17 books to go, for example!). I am still focused on the task in hand and am going well for the year target, if I continue at this pace then I am on target for an August finish, August! How far does that feel away at the moment, it does however give me the ability to slip a little, as I am reading 'other' books also! (I cannot be and never will a 'one' book man).

The halfway mark then. So, what do I know?

1. Agatha Christie, really does love a twist, that can assault you from any unsuspecting angle when you least expect it. (And, so frustratingly, I still cannot pick the twist. I did pick the murderers on, Death on the nile, and I imagine that this was probably at the same time point as other readers would. I did not though, manage to figure out how they had actually done it, until it was revealed to me by the narrative plot line.

2. Annoying Agatha Christie writing trait. I know the twist is coming. I know it is coming from the first page. I know it isn't an, Agatha Christie novel, if there is no twist. My point is; There is always a twist (sometimes a double twist!). And still, every single time it gets you. I cannot emphasise just how annoying (in a good way) this is. I should be able to pick them out, but no, I have abysmally failed.

3. As rich as her language is, and the way in which it reflects the 1920's and the 1930's. There have been a fair few parts that have made me, with my 21st century, upbringing and moral/cultural reference points, cringe inwardly with increasing discomfort at the choice of stereotype labelling in the narrative sense. I am, in a sense, fairly relaxed at this point as an historian of the ancient world there are and have been many debates about how you really do need to try and avoid adding a different times morality onto a previous age, it does your arguments no favours. What it does tell me, as does history, is that we should be thankful that as a race, a society, we have moved so far on with levels of tolerance and decreasing levels of deference that have made us, I think, better. I am sure that this won't be the last time.

There is an interesting debate to be had about whether the language could be more difficult to read because of the gender of the author, but that's for others who enjoy literary criticism and gender studies.

4. The flip side to 3, is that some of the language and choice of words in the books are much more wonderfully written and deliberately chosen than a lot of modern authors. I know that we a 100 years later possess a larger vocabulary canon to choose from (words do keep being added, some not always in a good way). Bigger is not always necessarily better, we have lost what I would call, the precise use of words at the precise point. Writer's of an age have that training to use single words to their descriptive full. It makes the narrative so much more, punchier and allows for rapidity of read.

My favourites so far, those that have stood out the most are; Death on the Nile, Cards on the table, Three Act Tragedy, the Big Four & the ABC murders. For various reasons these stand out for me from the rest. 

Onwards then, to the end, with the man with an egg shaped head and an author obsessed with pince nez's.