The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time : my thoughts

So, it’s that time again .. when I decide to write a “review” of a book I’ve just read. Just read means – read a couple of weeks (or even months) ago, but finally decided to write something. After a few weeks of yes-no-maybe, here I am.

The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time. Interesting title. Very highly recommended by my friends. Plus there’s the word ‘DOG‘ in the title. There’s no reason I shouldn’t read this book. D-O-G!!!!

You had me at Dog. 😉

This is the story of Christopher, a teen with autism. What we know about him is that he lives with his father, and his mum is dead (or is she?). He’s comfortable around computers, does not understand people -humans- at all, loves dogs, likes to mark his days as ‘Good’, or ‘Quite Good’ and so on – this based on the number of cars of a particular colour. Attends school – probably a school for special needs children. Oh, and he doesn’t like anyone touching him. Classic signs.

So far, so good?

Then one night he finds his neighbour’s dog murdered. Stabbed with a garden fork. What happens next sets the wheels in motion.And that is the book.

A dog is dead. Murdered. And no one cares. So he decides to investigate the murder himself. With a little help from his teacher, he decides to write a story. A murder mystery. He starts maintaining a journal of sorts, with notes about his investigation.

So. Does he find out who killed the dog? Of course he does. Happy endings and all that?

We eventually find out who killed the dog, and also what *really* happened to Christopher’s mum (No. She’s not dead – and that’s spoiler #1. Kinda.).

Not going to write everything that’s in the book here. But all I’ll say is that it’s a bitter sweet ending. And I would definitely recommend this book.

I rated this 2/5 stars on GoodReads initially, but then updated it to 3 stars. This does not mean I didn’t like the book, or the story sucks or anything.

I just rated it that low because (and spoiler #2 coming up) during the course of his investigation, Christopher finds some letters addressed to him …… from his mum. His dad had kept them hidden. She’s not dead – and at this point I figured out he’ll want to meet her or at least write back. Then (spoiler #3 – and a big one) his father confesses. He killed the dog. Why? Aw, come on I don’t want this to be a spoiler fest. So basically these two were the turning points, and I lost interest. I know who killed the dog, and I know about his mum. So there’s no curiosity, there’s no mystery left anymore. It’s all about what happens now.

The book is written as if a teen (or an adult) with autism is writing it. It’s meant to be Christopher’s book about the mystery of the murdered dog, remember? Did I mention he is an absolute genius at maths, and prime numbers are what interest him? The chapters in this book are numbered 1, 3, 5 … Prime numbers.

What I really liked about this book is that it gives you an insight into the lives of families with a child who has autism. One needs superhuman patience to deal with them. Much respect for people who have family or those who work with special needs children.

The way the father cares for Christopher, and how he reacts to his questions, just numbed my brain. There were times when I wanted to scream ‘Shut up, Christopher. Don’t you get it? The dog is dead. The owner does not care. Drop it. And get on with your life’ Like I said – Superhuman patience.

Don’t let that low rating fool you. It’s a damn good book. Go and read it (if you haven’t already).

Alright. Phew!

Have a great weekend!

2015 – a year in books

2015 has been a great year for me, in many respects. But one thing that stands out is that I set a target for myself, and stuck to the plan. I am not a big fan of new year resolutions, and I hardly keep any. Most are broken in the first week of January anyway 😉

So, the target I set myself was to read a certain number of books. Also, it included the part where I step out of my comfort zone and read books of genres/authors that I’ve never read before and am not comfortable with.

The target I had set was 20 books – doable. I have always been a decent reader – though I’ve never actually kept a track of the number of books I read in a month or a year. But considering I read at a good enough speed of ~2 books per month – sometimes more, if they are short reads, I think I read around 25 books a year.

Anyway, 2015 was the first time I had officially set a target for myself, and I intended to see it to completion.

GoodReads is a wonderful site, and though I’ve been on there since 2013, I have just recently (i.e since the start of 2015) using it regularly. GR helped me keep a log of the number of books, and also my ratings.

Here is a link to my 2015 YEAR IN BOOKS. Though I had initially set a target of 20 books, I revised it to 25 as soon as I started reading my 19th book. I surpassed that and ended the year on 31 books – not bad. *applause and drumroll please*

A snapshot of my 2015 progress

My Year in Books

Some highlights of the year :

1. I read my first Haruki Murakami book (Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman). Whenever I ask for recommendations, some authors always get mixed reactions. Murakami is one. People are big fans, or not at all. There’s no in-between. I loved this book – it’s a collection of stories. And I intend to read a couple more in 2016.
2. My struggle to finish The Fountainhead continues. I have this book sitting on my bookshelf for about 3 years now, but I’ve never been able to finish it.
3. The best of 2015 – too many to list, but if I have to pick one it is Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan.

For 2016, I have set a target of 25 books – and yes, I’ll be tracking my progress on Goodreads.