The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie and read by James Saxon...

I really enjoyed listening to the twists and turns within this Miss Marple mystery although in the novel she appears a lot less than she does in the BBC version starring Joan Hickson...

The sheer spitefulness of these malicious and venomous poison pen letters soon disturbs the peace and tranquility of this quiet English backwater... but beneath the surface there are depths of emotion just waiting to be revealed.

I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone who has not read the book, but two horrible murders are committed using the poison pen letters as a screen to hide behind.

The narrator telling the story is a young man called Jerry Burton who moves into a rented house with his sister Joanna.  He is recovering from a flying accident and has been told to go to live somewhere quiet to aid his recuperation.

While he becomes friends with the local doctor and helps the police to find the killer and author of the letters, he falls in love with the strange girlish step daughter of the local solicitor, whose wife has supposedly commited suicide, and initially, she refuses his offer of marriage.

Unfortunately for me...  I was listening to the book on a rather scratched library audio book and the story had bounced, stuttered and jumped through 5 CD's...  On the 6th CD it was pretty much okay until Chapter 19 where I discover who the murderer is, who the author of the letters was, and the rescue of the damsel in distress...  I am about to find out if the guy got the girl or not... when ... sputtering and making a nasty scratchy noise the CD ground to a halt...  argh!

Mostly True...

I ordered Mostly True by Brian Andreas on a whim...  it arrived today...  I read it in about an hour...

Then I found myself picking it up and reading it again...  then flicking through it and reading the short and pictorial stories as they flashed by...

I think it is an enlightening book.  I love his short stories that he calls mostly true from his life but with some fantasy elements added in... and the reader can work out which while reading...

"A few said they'd be

horses.  Most said they'd 

be some sort of cat.

My friend said she'd 

like to come back as a

porcupine.

I don't like crowds,

she said."

Porcupine by Brian Andreas

This is not a long book and I read it initially very quickly, but it is a book that will live in the lounge on my coffee table so that when I relax with a cup of tea and want to see life through a very different kaleidoscope I shall pick it up and read the first pages that I open...  

What's the best you can do?

What's the best you can do?  First-hand Recollections of a Second-hand Bookseller written by Derek Rowlinson

This was a hilarious read.  Mr Rowlinson, ran a second-hand bookshop in Bangor, Co Down, (Northern Ireland) for many years.  This book was an autobiographical glimpse into his experiences buying books, and selling books to the general book buying populace.  I don't know if I ever actually went into his bookshop before he closed it.  I do hope I did.  

I just have to mention a couple of quotes from the book to give a flavour of this unexpected page turner... 

in a chapter called "General Ignorance" on page 41...

"Coming up to Christmas I overheard one woman ask her friend in a broad Belfast accent "What d'ye want to buy him that for?  Sure he's already got a book.""

in a chapter entitled "Meanness" on page 63...

"I shall never forget the woman who stood at the bookshop window with a Chinese carry-out in one hand and armful of video rentals in the other, whilst her little daughter pointed at a fifty pence children's book I had on display.  "We haven't got money to waste on that," she told the girl peevishly, and shooed her along."

Late in the evening as I finished this short but pleasurable read I found myself thinking how lucky I was to have a mother who also loved reading and encouraged my brother, sister and I to read by using the "Teach Your Baby to Read" system that she bought in the late 1960's.  I can still remember the black and golden coloured box that it came in.

Fascinating to see the different perspective of a second-hand bookshop from the viewpoint of the bookseller in comparison to the person like me who loves to browse their shelves on wet afternoons looking for an out of print delight, although, I often find it easier to find the book online, a second-hand bookshop is an experience for all of the senses.