[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I wasn't hugely thrilled with the book. The prose itself was entertaining but I didn't find anything particularly compelling in the stories. The mysteries were ones the reader was not supposed solve.

My overall feeling about the stories is similar. I think my disappointment was that I wanted a little more meat and intellectual stimulation since I am by personality a problem-solver. The only story I felt was presented in a solvable fashion was "The Singular Speculation of the House-Agent" although somewhat too obvious.

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

One of the things I love about G.K is his wonderfully lateral way of looking at the ordinary;

A good example of this is in that first story:

"Facts," murmured Basil, like one mentioning some strange, far-off animals, "how facts obscure the truth. I may be silly—in fact, I'm off my head—but I never could believe in that man—what's his name, in those capital stories?—Sherlock Holmes. Every detail points to something, certainly; but generally to the wrong thing. Facts point in all directions, it seems to me, like the thousands of twigs on a tree. It's only the life of the tree that has unity and goes up—only the green blood that springs, like a fountain, at the stars."

I enjoyed the parody of Sherlock Holmes, especially as represented by Rupert. I really liked this quote in the last story. His brother Basil said of him: "His reasoning is particularly cold and clear, and invariably leads him wrong. But his poetry comes in abruptly and leads him right.

Originally Posted by issybird

I love how Chesterton constructs a sentence and his unerring ability to create an unexpected yet exact simile.

I really liked the writing style. Unexpected was the exact word that kept lingering in my thoughts. I loved how descriptive his writing was. I wonder if that comes from his training as an artist.

Originally Posted by issybird

Definitely The Man Who was Thursday. It's a captivating thriller with beautiful prose and lots of plot twists and gives some insight into the international political situation right before the start of the Great War.

From Chesterton's biography, he was quite prolific and seems to have written about a diversity of topics and was very intelligent. I decided to give The Man Who was Thursday a try. I am about 30% into it and find it a much more appealing and engaging read to me than The Club of Queer Trades.