The year is about to end and I still have a couple of challenges to attend to, help me! During my hopelessly short Christmas break I managed to read again one of my favorite books. I cannot say I have only one favorite book, pretty many books fit that category. Especially I like Agatha Christie's novels and other good, old-fashioned murders.
When I was younger I was reading something all the time. I was interested in several topics and there was a constant list of books I was planning to read. Then I got accepted to business school and slowly lost the joy of reading, what with all those compulsory course readers and other stuff I needed to read through for my studies. I didn't want to even see a book after I did my hours at school. After graduation I moved abroad and almost stopped reading altogether. It was difficult to find interesting books in a language I could read without difficulty. I gave up and decided I'd read again when I went to Finland for holidays. After resigning from my job in Ireland I spent some time in Finland before going to Australia and also went back to my former self and read everything I could catch. The local library suggested I could make a peak in the statistics alone.
Lately I've been reading mostly travel literature and non-fiction because my stressed and tired mind is just not up to dealing with anything too complicated. Especially books that play on emotions and sick, difficult interpersonal relationships will get immediately skipped. I don't have enough energy to get immersed in the fictional shit of fictional people. If there is even a small possibility the book is going to give rise to emotions I'd rather keep locked somewhere deep inside, I'll pass. I wish I could manage my own share of shit first. So, in case I read fiction, it must be light on plot and very predictable so I will not get anxious. Luckily there are the murders. Murder never gets too tiring. Or I can just read a book I already read before. That way I don't have to over-exercise my brain.
I chose to read Death in Berlin by M.M. Kaye. I've read the book several times, and the same goes for Death in Kashmir. These books set in the post -WWII world are comforting, nostalgic and interesting all at the same time; I could start reading them again straight after finishing them once. One more plus is that they are often set in some exotic location. I first read Death in Cyprus because Mom had bought it second-hand and happened to mention it reminded her of Agatha Christie's production. I decided to give it a go. After that I read all the mysteries M.M Kaye wrote. Too bad there are not that many of them.
At this very moment I have a pile of books stacked next to my bed, waiting for the miraculous moment of having time and energy at the same time so I could read something. I won 4 books in the raffle and brought some travel books with me from Finland. But, as usual, life is too full of responsibilities for me to concentrate on reading. It's a small wonder if I can manage to leaf through a city guide by Berlitz.
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