So I've been trying to organize my reading piles this past weekend. I'm midstream in so many books and reading projects, and with the year quickly speeding by, I wonder if there is still time to finish most of them and salvage earlier plans and ambitions. I have been reading (literally am in the middle of quite a few) lots of mysteries this year, but none of them at the moment will count towards my vintage mystery reading (you can see the Bingo card here that I am working on).
I'm opting to fill the six spots down from the G as I've read two so far that will fit--Agatha Christie's The Man in the Brown Suit for a mystery with a color in the title, and Josephine Tey's The Man in the Queue with a theatrical setting. Now it's time to think about which books will fit the rest of the slots (rather than my random reading so far). Four books to read by the end of the year? It sounds easy enough. It's just the rest of the books I am reading or want to read that always throw me off. But there is no harm in planning, right?
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Read one book set anywhere except the US or England. I've picked up George Simenon's Maigret in Holland (which is being reissued this fall by Penguin with the title A Crime in Holland), which will do double duty as I finish up my Reading the Netherlands books.
Read one locked room mystery. I have two that would work. I am leaning towards John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man, which is a classic from what I understand. Georgette Heyer's Envious Casca would also work (but I am unsure where my copy is and am not sure if I am up to digging through bins in search of it--how lazy is that). The latter is set on a country estate during a house party and the former has a snowy setting.
Read one academic mystery. This one is easy as I have been wanting to try another Josephine Tey mystery. While this is not an Inspector Grant mystery I have heard many good things about Miss Pym Disposes. It is set at a girl's physical training college.
This leaves me with one slot, for which I am stumped.
Read one book that features a crime other than murder. I am sure there are loads of them, but the catch is that any books I choose must have been written before 1960. Mysteries usually mean murder is the crime, and nothing really comes to mind. I'm leaning towards Bunny Lake is Missing by Evelyn Piper, which is about a child's disappearance. It has the added advantage of being a noir thriller and tale of domestic suspense, so perhaps I'll give it a go.
It's always good to have ideas in reserve, so suggestions for good books always welcome. Now to sort through the rest of my reading and end of the year plans. Obviously my plans are always pretty loose (or my reading wouldn't be all over the place like it is at the moment . . .). What about you? Thinking ahead, making plans, tidying up old plans? Or not thinking about it at all and just reading at whim? I sometimes think I 'think about books and reading' too much. Or is that even possible?