Friday 10 June 2011

Murder Death Kill

A couple of weeks ago GB blogged about bookcases (actually two separate posts here and here) which generated quite a few comments. Fi from Four Paws and Whiskers got me thinking with this comment:
I guess it pays not to own too many books on poisonings and other murder methods.... or sex guides or even just a collection of bodice ripper novels - all might be embarrassing.
Now I tend to arrange my non-fiction books by topic, and while I don't have a shelf full of sex guides, I do have a shelf all about murder and poisons.

Now I'm not a psychopathic murderer but I do enjoy reading these books. I didn't set out with the intention of reading a whole bunch of books on the same topic. Rather I would read one book, which would make reference to another and I just ended up following the links. Sometimes I'd buy one of the books just because it sounded interesting. The "How to Kill" book is a good example of this -- I needed a book to read on a flight and thought this might get me some funny looks! I doubt I'd have the nerve to do that in todays climate though.

I now actually have more books than will fit on this small shelf. In fact I'm currently reading a very interesting book on germ warfare!

So do any of you have an interesting bookshelf that is maybe just a little out of the ordinary?
10 June 2011 at 18:10 , DawnTreader said...

I had GB's post on comment-follow-up so I had to come over and check this out.

I guess if I saw someone reading a book entitled "How to Kill" I would probably just assume it was a murder mystery novel!

If I saw the whole collection my first guess would probably be that someone was planning to WRITE a murder mystery novel...

And if you were a character IN such a novel, of course you'd be a suspect...

10 June 2011 at 18:14 , Graham Edwards said...

Fascinating. I'm afraid that my bookshelves are remarkably boring and I can't recall (I'm not at home at the moment) anything which might excite comment. Well, not that sort of comment anyway.

10 June 2011 at 18:35 , DawnTreader said...

I forgot to add, I guess my collection of lots of Christian theology on the one hand and quite a few books on "pagan" mythology on the other might cause some people to raise an eyebrow.

11 June 2011 at 09:26 , Mark said...

Well I don't think I have the ability to write a crime novel, but I do find I can guess the plot quite quickly in TV programmes like CSI and House so I guess they have their uses!

As for Christian/Pagan books, I suppose it gives you the ability to make a balanced argument.

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