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Reading report for June and July 2008

The period from the last week of June, the whole of July and the first week of August was an incredibly busy time for me. First came a 3 week intensive summer school in Croatia, during which time I read only 3 books, then a 12 day stop at home, followed by a 10 day holiday in the USA, during which I read a total of 1 book. I am surprised that I managed to read as many as of 16 books in June and July, but of course most of them were June reads.

Of the June books, 2 were rereads.

Books I read in June:
B.M. Gill: Seminar for Murder
Nick Hornby: High Fidelity
Linda Howard ofl.: Under the Boardwalk
Tim Moore: Spanish Steps
J.D. Robb: Betrayal in Death & Interlude in Death
Margaret Truman: Murder in the Smithsonian

Rereads in June:
Jennifer Crusie: Anyone but you & Bet me

Books I read in July:
Polly Evans: On a Hoof and a Prayer
Georgette Heyer: Powder and Patch & April lady
Timothy Holme: The Neapolitan Streak
Hrafn Jökulsson : Þar sem vegurinn endar
Jerry Stanley: Children of the dust bowl

Reread in July:
Georgette Heyer: The Unknown Ajax

Comments

Anonymous said…
Enjoying your comments on mystery series and writers. Did you know that Ronald Knox also had a famous list of rules for mystery writers?

Jim McCullough
Greensboro, NC
Bibliophile said…
Thank you. I don't know about Knox's list. I did some googling and found the rules here:http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/303

While they are not much different from Van Dine's rules, there are some interesting differences in the forbidden plot elements.

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