slow day on the board, so........

[desertgrandma]

I was just reading thru all the Agatha Christie books available for the Kindle. It would cost me hundreds to buy them all......so I started day dreaming. Here's the question.....

IF you could have any authors complete series of books downloaded to your device, for free, which one would it be?

I choose Agatha. Poirot and all her books are so re-readable.

[Donnageddon]

Isaac Asimov.

Including all his hard to find science popularization books.

[DMcCunney]

Everything by J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, The Children of Hurin, and the collections of annotated manuscripts his son Christopher has been assembling. While we're at it, toss in his translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight".
______
Dennis

[desertgrandma]

I remember reading the first three of the Hobbit series.......great books.

[Sparrow]

P. G. Wodehouse - very funny, and there's plenty of them.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I was just reading thru all the Agatha Christie books available for the Kindle. It would cost me hundreds to buy them all......so I started day dreaming. Here's the question.....

IF you could have any authors complete series of books downloaded to your device, for free, which one would it be?

I choose Agatha. Poirot and all her books are so re-readable.

I think I'd go for Christie as well. Partly because there are so many of them. I'd save a ton of money.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I think I'd go for Christie as well. Partly because there are so many of them. I'd save a ton of money.

But once you've read them once, you know who did it .

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

But once you've read them once, you know who did it .

Well...........if you are older........and have brain farts............sometimes its a suprise the second time around!!!

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Isaac Asimov.

Including all his hard to find science popularization books.

Oh yeah.......drool.......

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I remember reading the first three of the Hobbit series.......great books.

Depends on what you mean by "the hobbit series". Almost all of Tolkien's fantasy is set in the same universe, and there are common characters, but only _The Lord of the Rings_ is an actual series. The Hobbit is a not quite prequel to LoTR, and _The Silmarillion_, _The Unfinished Tales_, and _The Children of Hurin_ largely concern events that happened far earlier in the history of that universe.

Witness "The Ainulindalë", the first section of the Silmarillion, which recounts the creation myth, in which Iluvatar creates the Valar and the Maiar, they sing, and they become a celestial orchestra, creating a great music based on themes propounded by Iluvatar. The music creates a vision of Arda, the world, that so attracts some of the Valar that they beg Iluvatar to make it real so they can go and live there. He does, they do, and the First Age begins.
______
Dennis

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Depends on what you mean by "the hobbit series". Almost all of Tolkien's fantasy is set in the same universe, and there are common characters, but only _The Lord of the Rings_ is an actual series. The Hobbit is a not quite prequel to LoTR, and _The Silmarillion_, _The Unfinished Tales_, and _The Children of Hurin_ largely concern events that happened far earlier in the history of that universe.

Witness "The Ainulindalë", the first section of the Silmarillion, which recounts the creation myth, in which Iluvatar creates the Valar and the Maiar, they sing, and they become a celestial orchestra, creating a great music based on themes propounded by Iluvatar. The music creates a vision of Arda, the world, that so attracts some of the Valar that they beg Iluvatar to make it real so they can go and live there. He does, they do, and the First Age begins.
______
Dennis

I bow to your superior knowledge on this subject. I just remember reading The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings. Great reads...bought them for my granddaughter and she enjoyed also........

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

But once you've read them once, you know who did it .

Not when you read them 40 years ago. Not with my memory anyway.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Not when you read them 40 years ago. Not with my memory anyway.

Even if you do know, it can still be fun.

One of the rules for a good mystery is that the detective shouldn't know anything the reader doesn't know. All the clues the reader needs to figure out who did it should be available. The challenge is providing the clues, but doing so in a manner that isn't obvious, so that it comes as a surprise to the reader when the detective recounts the chain of reasoning that led her to the real killer.

Christie was a master of constructing intricate plots and "hiding clues in plain sight". You can admire the skill of the construction, even if you do remember who did it.

I confess, Christie isn't my favorite mystery author. I admire her skill, but her tales are a bit too "dry" for me. Her characters are subordinate to her plotting, and generally don't take on the sort of depth I like.

One mystery I'll recommend is E. C. Bentley's _Trent's Last Case_.

The book is both a superb mystery, and a send-up of the mystery form. The protagonist, Philip Trent, is a painter. He has contributed occasional freelance journalism to a major London paper, quit the business, and is asked back by the editor to look into the murder of an American financial magnate. Trent's investigations lead him to mystery, romance, an utterly surprising denouement, and a renewed vow to abandon newspaper reportage.

_Trent's Last Case_ is available at MobileRead in a Sony Reader edition here, at Project Gutenberg in HTML here (as "The Woman in Black") and plain text here (as "Trent's Last Case"). It's also available at Munseys (as "The Woman in Black") in a variety of formats here and at Manybooks in more formats here
______
Dennis

[desertgrandma]

great. On my way do download it Didn't need to cook dinner tonight anyway. Husband can eat cold spaghetti.

[desertgrandma]

I believe that E.C. Bentley?