“Most of the journey he spent listening to Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and reading The Big Sleep, which he had substituted for Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets when he realized he wasn’t going to Paris. He had seen the Bogart film version a few weeks ago and enjoyed it so much it had made him want to read the book. Besides, Raymond Chandler seemed more suitable reading for the kind of job he was doing.”
That was an excerpt from Cold Is The Grave by Peter Robinson. Don’t you just love reading about characters’ and their reading habits? Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks gets extra points for matching his reading material to his job and travel. What can I say, I try to match some of my reading material when I travel too.
So how about you? Are your characters reading anything good right now and something you want to try? I still haven’t read Maigret or Chandler but one day.
oh yes, i would love to know what my characters are reading. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne is in love and dreamily thinking about the war scene in the poem they had to learn in their summer school – i think it was called Marmion by Walter Scott. 🙂
How fun! Sadly, none of my characters are reading at the moment.
Stefanie – Ah, no bookworms? 🙂
I really like Peter Robinson. Since I’ve read everything by Ian Rankin, Robinson fills the void for me.
I love reading about books within books!
Veens – I’m sorry your comment got caught up in my spam! Anyway, ah that’s wonderful. I have never read any of the Anne of Green Gables books. Can you believe that. I think I’m definitely missing out!
jrav – Isn’t Inspector Rebus wonderful. I just feel as if I know him the way Rankin describes him. I am still on book 7, I think, of that series and need to get caught up a bit more. Robinson is another favorite of mine.
Kathleen – I know, it feels like you share something with the characters doesn’t it?
I love this! I recently read Donna Leon’s latest mystery (the title of which escapes me at the moment) and the whole first chapter was about Paola’s love of reading Henry James. After that, who cares who murdered whom? 🙂
I love it when characters in books like reading, too. In Elly Griffiths The Crossing Places that I read not too long ago, Ruth (the main character) talked about reading Ian Rankin! I’ve only read one Peter Robinson book, and I have this same one above on my pile as well.