Random Thoughts: Reading the entire works of an author

Mr H and I watched a bit of a new quiz show last night. It’s called Puzzling. It felt like it was trying too hard, somehow, with its complicated rules, and it didn’t grab me from the off like Only Connect did.

Lucy Worsley, presenter of Puzzling on Channel 5 (image from the 5 website)

But that’s by the bye. There was a contestant on the show who, during the awkward ‘getting to know you’ bit, revealed that she has challenged herself to read the works of Agatha Christie in chronological order.

Meanwhile, over on Instagram, an artist I follow is reading his way through the works of Stephen King. In amidst his art, the only books he posts about are by King.

It made me wonder whether both the woman on the quiz show and the artist that I follow are only reading the works of their chosen author. And then I wondered how that might feel.

Wasteland

Wasteland by Keith Crews came free with the first Kindle e-reader that my husband bought me in 2010. This edition was self-published by the author but has since been reissued in paperback and is seemingly the first in a series. It follows hitman Angelo Marchetti as he crosses a place known as the Wasteland armed with two guns he calls Thunder and Lightning.

The Smell of Other People’s Houses

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock’s first novel is a snapshot of life in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1970. Told by a small group of teenagers, we see the world through their eyes; the smallness of the town, the strangeness of the adults around them, and the ways they find to survive the transition from childhood to adulthood.

The Heart Goes Boom

Alex Green’s debut/only novel is a wise-cracking examination of the shallowness of the world of acting, particularly late night soap operas, and the story of one man’s epic quest to understand the meaning of true love and immortality.