WWW Wednesday

Today's post is WWW Wednesday, which is hosted by shouldbereading.wordpress.com
and I am answering these three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?


What are you currently reading?

I am working my way through Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. When I first starting reading Agatha Christie's novels, someone recommended her autobiography to me. But I felt I didn't really know enough of her books, and I didn't want to learn about why she had written a certain book before I read it.

Considering she was writing books for a period of almost 50 years, I wanted to see how her style of writing changed for myself. The first book was published in 1924 (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) and the last book she wrote was Postern of Fate in 1973.


Through reading her novels and short stories, I felt I could better appreciate the true scope of her work and just how well thought out and plotted each story was.


 
The autobiography itself (first published in 1977) is vividly written and full of wonderful anecdotes about her life. Society seemed so different, very formal and rigid compared to today. Her education surprised me, as well as the late start she had into writing. Certainly as a child, her aim was to become a famous pianist rather than a writer!

Agatha when young

I love reading about dating, and the formal 'courting' that went on which seems so different to how men and women behave now! Here is a short excerpt, describing romance and flirting when Agatha was a young woman in 1910:

Flirtation, as I have said, was an art carefully cultivated by girls of my generation. We knew the rules back to front. It was true that in France no young girl was ever left alone with a young man, but in England that was certainly not so. You went for a walk with a man, you went out riding with a man - but you did not go to a dance alone with a young man: either your mother sat there, or some other bored dowager, or appearances were satisfied by a young married woman being in your party. But having kept the rules, and having danced with a young man, you then strolled out in the moonlight or wandered into the conservatory, and charming tete a tetes could take place without decorum being abandoned in the eyes of the world.

What did you recently finish reading?

Simon Brett featured in my last WWW Wednesday (click here for post) and he has featured again!


I finished Bones Under the Beach Hut (2011) which is another in the Fethering mystery series. The whole series of books is based in the fictional town of Fethering, which is on the south coast of England. Two neighbours, Carole and Jude, somehow become involved in murder in this book after human remains are found under a beach hut Carole was renting.

This was the twelfth book in the series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set on the seaside, it definitely made me fancy a trip to the beach.

I find the books in this series are very an easy enjoyable read; good plots with lots of twists and red herrings. Perfect after a hard day's work!

What do you think you'll read next?

I am trying to read some more non-fiction this year, but so far all that has meant is more books sitting on the bookshelf!

My aim is to read Max Hastings' book - Finest Years, Churchill as Warlord 1940-45. I got this book as a present almost a year ago and have never made it past the first few chapters!

Churchill visiting Coventry in 1941

I couldn't go without any fiction at all, so I also plan to read Dr. No (1958) by Ian Fleming. I love the film, so it will be good to see where the storyline came from and if the film resembles the book in anyway.

I will be blogging about this book, as it is #1958book month on Past Offences (link here).
Still plenty of time to sign up and read a crime book first published in 1958, if you want to join in!

 Sean Connery as Bond

Thank you for reading :) If you have a WWW Wednesday post on your blog, please leave the link as a comment below and I will check it out!