While hiding in the ac...

one can get some reading done - especially when everything on tv annoyed my heat addled brain.  In the last week or so I finished Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.  It was a nice easy read off of the 1001 books list.   The book was kind of bizarre.  There were more than 5 apparently totally disconnected storylines.  We don't actually get to meet Dirk until page 140.   The stroy lines all merge and make sense in a sci-fi way in the last 25-30 pages.   While it was an amusing book, and a quick read, I had to admit I was a bit puzzled.  What were the criteria used to create the 1001 books list?  I'm not sure what this book had to hold it up to some of the other sci-fi greats - even comparing it to the Hitchhiker's guide - by the same author.

Also, in one day I read An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor.  It was next in the series of Irish Country books.  It is a bit of a detour from the other books.  It starts with carolers that arrived at the end of the last book.  Mrs. "Kinky" Kincaid tells them a story from her youth in Cork, while they warm up with pies and drinks.  After they leave she continues reminiscing.  While in the other books Kinky is "fey"  she can see bits of the future, this book is a lot more fantasy.  There are ghosts, and fairies and banshees.   I'm kind of on the fence about this.