"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

One of the best books I've read recently is Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. A novel that manages to be original rather than merely novel, it has an autistic boy as a narrator. It's hard to describe it really - a sort of dyfunctional bildungsroman mystery detective family drama. It works in a strange quirky sort of way - and the narrator is surprisingly easy to empathise with. It's also short, which is always a plus - definitely a book I'd recommend to anyone to read.

Which reminds me that I'm stuck in the middle of trying to complete several books right now. I'm halfway through Bauldolino by Umberto Eco, still halfway through Thucydides' Peleponnesian War, , and still trying to finish Darwin's Dangerous Idea. I'll need a holiday just to clear my reading backlog ... or not, given my tendency not to finish these things. One day, I'm sure I'll (a) read all the books I own (b) paint all the unpainted lead miniatures I have. When that happens, I don't know, but look out for flying pigs and hell freezing over ...