The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

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This is number two in my attempt to read fifty books this year.

It was certainly a very simple read. The prose is very plain. I’m told that this is part of its charm, but I find it hard not to see it as a limitation of the author.

It’s not that I didn’t like it. I don’t feel that I wasted the few hours it took me to read it, but I really don’t understand why it’s as popular as it is and I’m certainly not tempted to read any of its (many) sequels.

Actually, I think the large number of sequels also puts me off a bit. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett and the Diskworld books – a series that I gave up on after reading about four of them because the rate at which they were appearing made it clear that Pratchett was putting very little effort into them. There are now five (or maybe six) books in this series. And Smith is writing other books as well. This obviously isn’t very hard for him. I much prefer to read books by people who put a bit of effort into their writing.

One comment

  1. This book was recommended to me by several very intelligent readers, and I know it was on the bestseller list. When I finished it, I felt as though I had read a children’s book. I also do not understand this book’s popularity, and I also am not tempted to read the sequels. Thank you for your posting. I was beginning to think I was the only reader in existence who does not admire this novel.

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