Elementary, my dear Watson

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always liked to read series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, Percy Jackson, The Selection, Celestra, Secret, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and books like The Fault in our stars, Elephant in the Garden and Let it snow. The list is practically endless. It’s funny because I know there are a gazillion books out there which I would like to name and still not a single one comes to my mind when I’m asked on the spot.

On the other hand, Nanditha loves to read Agatha Christie books and Sherlock Holmes, and despises the novels I read. It took me forever to convince her to read the Hunger Games. Once she finished the first book, she got pretty interested, so I was like, “See?”

The school library has several Agatha Christie books, like the Miss Marple series and the Poirot series. I myself had ‘Miss Marple’s final cases’ and ‘The 4:50 from Paddington’. They were pretty much wasted on me, so I asked Nanditha if she’d like to read them.

Dad said he liked Sherlock Holmes stories when he was young. He still does. But I usually put the book down after the first chapter. I know it’s a famous line, but I still haven’t got to the part where Sherlock says “It’s elementary, Watson.”

Shakespeare has never appealed to me either. But I do realize that in every Shakespeare story someone gets betrayed, someone falls in love and someone dies (not necessarily in order).

Why do people always compare the greatest love stories and romances with ‘Romeo and Juliet?’ From what I remember, neither of them was breathing at the end.

But like I said, the school has Agatha Christie books. I finally decided to give them a go. Besides, there was a chance they would be more interesting now than they were 2 years back.

I read ‘The Moving Finger’ and ‘The Big 4’. They were actually pretty good!

It was Nanditha’s turn to say “See?”

I should probably try out Sherlock Holmes too. From what I read once, Sherlock Holmes was so popular, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed him off, people began to complain. A lot. Talk about pressure!

The Shakespeare plays in my library are in the form of dialogues, plus, everything is in old English. The letters are microscopic in size. It would be comparatively easy for me to read a book with my eyes closed.

These are my opinions on Shakespeare, but who knows? Maybe I’ll start liking his plays and stories when I grow older. Look at me and Miss Marple now. We’ve made our peace with each other.