Curious incident of the cloud atlas

This week we're looking at the book website LibraryThing, in which people list and discuss their favourite books. I was curious about the most discussed books. Harry Potter and the Twilight series led the pack. Then at #20 was an old bookclub favourite: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's about an autistic boy named Christopher who is logically trying to figure out the mystery of who killed a neighbour's poodle. The narrator has an distinct voice, and it was a compelling and universally enjoyed read.

One of the common tags applied to this book was humor, so I clicked that to find out what LibraryThing readers thought was funny. Douglas Adams, David Sedaris and Terry Pratchett topped the list.

LibraryThing can be useful for browsing and making unusual connections based on tags. However, I still like wandering the stacks and randomly picking up books. I like spying on what people are reading on the bus. I like picking up books left in hostels. My favourite chance read was when my husband found The cloud atlas by Liam Callanan by the side of the road as he was out biking. It's about the Japanese bomb balloons sent to North America during WW2, as seen through the eyes of three memorable characters. Since the book had dropped out of the sky to me, I dropped the author an email, to tell him I enjoyed his evocative tale. He wrote back- for which I am still delighted!