Sunday, January 18, 2015

January Reread - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

This book is the first in a new feature on this blog, that of rereading a book that found its way on to my TBR pile, but remained unread because I felt guilty about rereading a book when there were so many other new-to-me books on the pile gathering dust. My TBR pile is finally under control in a way it hasn't been since my Borders Last Days sales book buying frenzy, thanks in no small part to both the TBR Pile Challenge and the Mount TBR Challenge, in addition to a lot of other challenges I've done in the past 4 years, so I felt now was a good time to clear these reread books away one per month.

I originally read this book around the time it was first published (2003), and I loved it. It seemed to really give the reader an experience - it encapsulated why I love a good book, which is that you can experience the inner life of another person. In this case, the person is someone who is a truly "unreliable narrator," in that their neurology makes it difficult to relate to other humans' emotions, so the reader is left to suss out much of the book using inference and reading between the lines. It makes the story much more funny, and sad, and touching. I'm glad I found this nice copy on the Library Sale shelves and brought it home, as I enjoyed it just as much the second time, and I will hang on to this copy for the time being. Highly recommended.

Edited to add: I was looking for something else and noticed that this book made the American Library Association's Books Challenged or Banned list for 2010 - 2011 and for 2005 - 2006 - so I am claiming this book for that challenge too.

2 comments:

  1. I listened to this on tape on a Megabus ride. And it was just wonderful.

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  2. Hi Annie, I bet a good audiobook version would be spectacular! And make a long trip go a lot faster :)

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