Nearing the end
What began as an inspiration from the BBC radio programme, good reads, that swiftly metamorphosed into a literary quest to read all the Agatha Christie, 'Hercule Poirot' 'novels', in Chronological order, is, like the books themselves, beginning to reach its conclusion. In Poirot parlance, the suspects are presently gathering in the drawing room, as our 'Egg headed, Belgian, ex-policeman, enters to begin his initial declamation to the assembled witnesses of his, 'methodical' and 'orderly' genius. I am currently only six books from facing, 'The Last Curtain' (both literally and Literary speaking - and yes, this is a pun. You can laugh...now!).
It has been a long and, at times, arduous a journey since those halcyon October days in 2013 when this whole project grew from the origins of the 'A,B,C murders' discussed on the radio on the drive home from work.
Yet, the end now is in sight for both Poirot and myself. I have been thinking of late; just what to do next? In essence, what would Poirot do?
I am pondering, obviously the 'other' major character, 'Mrs Marple'. One obvious benefit is far less books to read! (At times, the idea of reading a series of 36 books seemed a small figure and easily achievable, but then, when you start trying to devour them you then discover two things, 1) You realise that it's actually quite a large number and 2) to read them all in one year,mathematically it requires one book to be read every 1.4 weeks.
It therefore became, rapidly, a time consuming challenge and the one immediate benefit to this was the requirement to increase my levels of reading. It certainly 'upped' my reading game and the level of intensity which had been diluted of late. I now had to 'find' the time to somehow get through these books at a pace rapid enough to make it within my time limited challenge. It involved replacing other projects with 'reading'. Things had to slide and be replaced by quiet time with a book, finding myself sneaking 20-30 minutes before work, or in the afternoon, grabbing and making the most of moments. I soon came to realise that I had missed this level of intense reading (I think the last time I had to read so much, so often without a break was when I was studying for my Masters degree) and so, in some ways, this process has also helped revitalise my love of reading, just for pleasure. I now knew this pleasure had been dulled by the busyness of life and my lack of effort at times.
Another by-product is I have begun to record all the books I am reading. Most seem to be written by Agatha Christie I have to admit. At some point, in the future, I may be able to start putting more 'classics' books that I have on in the background.
It has been a long and, at times, arduous a journey since those halcyon October days in 2013 when this whole project grew from the origins of the 'A,B,C murders' discussed on the radio on the drive home from work.
Yet, the end now is in sight for both Poirot and myself. I have been thinking of late; just what to do next? In essence, what would Poirot do?
I am pondering, obviously the 'other' major character, 'Mrs Marple'. One obvious benefit is far less books to read! (At times, the idea of reading a series of 36 books seemed a small figure and easily achievable, but then, when you start trying to devour them you then discover two things, 1) You realise that it's actually quite a large number and 2) to read them all in one year,mathematically it requires one book to be read every 1.4 weeks.
It therefore became, rapidly, a time consuming challenge and the one immediate benefit to this was the requirement to increase my levels of reading. It certainly 'upped' my reading game and the level of intensity which had been diluted of late. I now had to 'find' the time to somehow get through these books at a pace rapid enough to make it within my time limited challenge. It involved replacing other projects with 'reading'. Things had to slide and be replaced by quiet time with a book, finding myself sneaking 20-30 minutes before work, or in the afternoon, grabbing and making the most of moments. I soon came to realise that I had missed this level of intense reading (I think the last time I had to read so much, so often without a break was when I was studying for my Masters degree) and so, in some ways, this process has also helped revitalise my love of reading, just for pleasure. I now knew this pleasure had been dulled by the busyness of life and my lack of effort at times.
Another by-product is I have begun to record all the books I am reading. Most seem to be written by Agatha Christie I have to admit. At some point, in the future, I may be able to start putting more 'classics' books that I have on in the background.
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