Agatha Christie on her world tour in 1922.
“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” — Sophia Loren
The Wonderful World of Books
I’m currently reading Diana Athill’s “Somewhere towards the End,” which was written when she was in her late 80s. She’s now 98 and still going. While I’m only in my 70s, I find that Diana’s reflections on life expressed in her book often mirror my own.
Agatha Christie with her surf board in Hawaii.
For example, both of us are big readers, and both started our reading adventures focused heavily on fiction. But we both find ourselves reading more and more non-fiction books with each passing year.
Writes Diana: “I am puzzled by something which I believe I share with a good many other oldies. I have gone off novels.” She then goes on to ponder, with no definitive answer, why this is?
Of course I had to ponder the same question. I think it’s because I no longer need to escape from life but am more fully willing to embrace it. But then it’s also because I love surprises, and real life seems to contain just as many, if not more, of them than the make-believe worlds.
For example, I’m a big fan of Agatha Christie’s, whose mysteries often hold many surprises. But the book about her that I’m now reading – The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery – has also held a few surprises.
The book, which mostly consists of letters to her mother, written while she was on a world tour with her husband in 1922, has also been full of surprises, completely changing my preconceived idea of who Christie was. I think I saw her as an extension of Jane Marple.
But Jane Marple never went surfing, and Agatha Christie loved to surf. I’m not sure why I thought this was so absurd, but the book contained illustrations to prove it.
I don’t know about anyone else, but learning to read is one of the greatest gifts life has bestowed on me. So what’s everyone else reading these days?
Bean Pat: The Iris and the Lily http://tinyurl.com/jy6sqkf This blogger is just beginning her retirement years and she’s off to a great start.
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Hi Pat, I enjoyed reading your post. What a great photo of Agatha Christie on her world tour!
Thanks Bob. Hope life’s treating you well.
Agatha was quite the woman. After being a fan of her mysteries for many years I can see the storyline laid out pretty quickly. But I’ve been constantly intrigued with her personal life and character development. I believe there’s a bit of autobiography in fiction too Who’s the hidden Agatha?
I learned quite a bit about Agatha in The Grand Tour that I hadn’t known before. It was an interesting book simply for that. And yes, I do believe there’s a lot of disguised autobiograph in fiction. Thanks for commenting Ethel.
Some of the books I’m reading just now – re-reading actually – are from my childhood days, by the German author Karl May, who wrote, among other things, about trappers and Indians in the Amerika of the 1860s and 70s, creating the characters of “Old Shatterhand” and his blood brother “Winnetou”, an Apache. What I’m interested in just now is how accurately he described the region, as some parts of his stories actually take part close by.
I, too, love reading books with settings I’ve lived in or visited. I especially enjoy Edward Abbey’s vivid images of Southern Utah, where I’ve done a lot of hiking and sightseeing. I checked out Karl May, and now may have to see if I can find one of his books. He sounds interesting.