Reading progress update: I've read 167 out of 784 pages.

Agatha Christie’s Complete Secret Notebooks - Agatha Christie, John Curran, David Suchet

I'm not going to complain about the variety of information and material included in this book, but I am a bit confused as to what connection with the notebooks some of the inclusions have. 

For example. Curran seems to include excerpts from letters, typescripts, Christie's own An Autobiography, and publication data. 

 

And Curran also seems to get carried away a bit with describing plots - even of the lesser-known short stories - in detail and providing his own analysis of them. This is a part that I am not enjoying as I am really not that interested in Curran's take on any of the stories.

 

We also have an odd break in the book: Chapter 5 is the last chapter but it is broken down further into decades of Dame Agatha's life, describing her literary output...and adding more of Curran's analysis. 

 

Again, parts of the backgrounds are interesting, but I am not sure if all of this is taken from the notebooks or if this is Curran throwing in everything his research has brought up...and then adding more of his own surmises, and again I have no clue what these are based on: the notebooks? Other biographies? Christie's own An Autobiography?  

 

Oh, and seriously, simply listing books and adaptations make for rather uninspiring reading.