It’s summer, once again, and it’s time for my Summer ramblings, this time about some light gaming and much reading.
I am not much into gaming in the summer, since I prefer to spend my time outside, soaking up as much sun and summery warmth as I can in preparation for the colder months. But since the summer has been a bit rainier than usual so far, and I’ve had a stubborn cold for the past few weeks, I’ve been spending more time at home than usual.
Hercule Poirot Marathon
I’ve been going through my pile of physical unread books, and since it contains quite a few crime and mystery books, I’ve started a mini Hercule Poirot marathon. To be fair, it’s not just because of the books – I recently saw an adaptation of Death on the Nile at the historic Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, and of course, afterwards I watched the movie trilogy with Kenneth Branagh. It was a foregone conclusion that I would be replaying the games soon enough. I’ve started with the most recent one – Agatha Christie – Death on the Nile, which came out last year, and when I am done, I’ll move on to the previous ones, although I am not quite sure in what order yet.
Jigsaw Puzzles from Laurence King
In addition, I’ve recently gotten the three Agatha Christie puzzles from Laurence King Publishing: The World of Agatha Christie, The World of Hercule Poirot, and The World of Miss Marple. If you like puzzles or would like to try them because you’ve heard they’re good for your brain, Laurence King puzzles are the best place to start. For 1000-piece puzzles, these are a very chill experience – there are plenty of elements without any big areas in one color, which can easily drive you batty. Also, once you’ve put together the whole thing, you can just lift it up, even turn it around, to glue it. I’ve been a fan of jigsaw puzzles for a while now, but I don’t think I would’ve been able to put together a 1000-piece puzzle in a couple of hours by myself if it were another brand’s.
Reading Books by Detection Club Members
One element of the Poirot Marathon that’s not working as planned is, ironically enough, the reading. It turns out I remember the books all too well. So, instead, I am reading some other series by other authors, such as Lord Peter Wimsey Series by Dorothy L. Sayers and G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown series. It seemed fitting to choose Agatha Christie’s fellow Detection Club members, a dining society of crime writers who swore an oath to adhere to fair-play rules and avoid using “Jiggery-Pokery” and “Feminine Intuition” in their writing. Interestingly enough, fourteen members of the club wrote a detective novel together, The Floating Admiral, in 1931, which, of course, I am also planning to read at some point.
I am also reading an interesting non-fiction book by Sara Lodge – The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective, in which Lodge reveals the role female detectives played in Victorian society, in popular fiction, and in real life. Since female detectives in a historical setting are still a rare sight in games and movies, with one notable exception being PBS’ Miss Scarlet, I am uncertain what game I will play once I finish the book. The closest I can think of are The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow and Call of the Sea, but I imagine those will send me off to reading Edgar Allan Poe, so maybe I’ll save them for closer to Autumn.
The Constant Joy of Reading
For all the different games we have today, I still sometimes can’t find what I really want to play. It seems to me that no other hobby will come close to the joy of reading, and everything else will always feel like a supplement to reading. In books, I can always find what I am looking for – be it advice or a new adventure. With games, it seems that there are still some holes to fill- a whole game with Jane Royce from Microid’s Death on the Nile, or that Jane Austen game I keep dreaming of, or really a modern historical game set in a Victorian city where we get to investigate as a female detective.
So, that’s my gaming plans for the summer – some casual detecting, some puzzling, a lot of reading, maybe some hiking if weather and health allow it.
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