Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Secret History

Last night I finished reading the book The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The book was first published in 1992 and tells the story of a student named Richard who goes from California to study at a prestigious university in Vermont called Hampden. Shortly after he arrives he discovers a group of five students who spend all their time together and are the only students to take a course in ancient Greek held by a charismatic and eccentrc lecturer. Richard manages to join the classes and soon gets drawn into the enclosed world of the group, only to find out that the student's extra-curricular activities are leading to murder. It's a very well-written book, and very entertaining. The story revolves around a murder and the first half of the novel depicts the events leading up to the killing while the second half deals with the events of the murder on the close-knit group. It's not really a mystery boook because the identity of the victim and the killer is revealed in the opening pages of the book.

I was also listening to a radio adaptation of The Big Sleep based on the Raymond Chandler novel. Set in Los Angeles, the story revolves around Private Investigator Philip Marlowe trying to track down a blackmailer. It was turned into a famous film starring Humphrey Bogart.

Today was really quiet. I went out broefly to and took a walk around, before stopping off to have a drink and read my book. Then I just went home.

Labels: , , ,