So finally I couldn't finish the list of books from last post before the year ended. I happened to change a book midway and then the last couple of weeks of the year brought with them a huge adventure at work which took up much more of my time and energy than what I could have anticipated beforehand. So here are some thoughts on what I could read before the year ended.

A Caribbean Mystery (Author: Agatha Christie)

I picked up this book knowing that Agatha Christie had a detective character in her books named Hercule Poirot. So I was surprised when it became clear to me that the there was no such character in this story. Instead Miss Marple, another famous character of Agatha Christie which I just did not know about, was the protagonist in this crime thriller. And it came as a nice fresh breeze. There was a very stark difference between stratagems that were employed by Miss Marple instead of the ones that I normally saw from Sherlock Holmes. Since Miss Marple has been written an old lady so she was relying mostly on her social skills. This was awesome to read as those skills are something which we can continue to learn from and don't need to come across crimes for them to be helpful in our regular life.

Smarter Faster Better (Author: Charles Duhigg)

I continued with this book after I was done with "A Caribbean Mystery" and I don't have much to report here, this is the quarter book from title.

Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)

Once I figured out I won't be able to get through "Smarter Faster Better" with the additional adventure going on at work I picked up Treasure Island from Robert Louis Stevenson. This was another one of the classic book I had heard about but never read. The best and worst part of the book for me was its language, the language was so antiquated and the vocabulary so highly relied on nautical terms that I had to understand the pages as it was nigh impossible for me to understand lines. All in all, I was able to piece together what happened in the story but it is completely possible that I might have completely misunderstood some particular part of the narration.

Completing the challenge was a pretty close call as I closed Treasure Island with less than an hour remaining in the year. I somehow managed to truck through more than a third of that book on the last evening of the year.

I don't see myself taking on any more such reading challenge for the time to come. Do check back here in a few days as I intend to post a round-up of all the books and/or stories that I read during the last year.

Bye for now 👋