30 Day Book Challenge // Day 1: A Book By Your Favourite Author

30 Day Book Challenge: Introduction

Over the years, I've seen so many people take part in 30 day challenges; song challenges, fitness challenges, and of course, book challenges. I've always been really intrigued by them, but always thought it was too much of a commitment to take part. If I'm honest, what I really thought as that I'd look silly for choosing something that wasn't cool, or that other people didn't know about.

Since joining the bookstagram community a few months ago, I've felt at home. It's welcoming, interesting, and most of all, fun. I've taken a lot of cool pictures, structured my reading better, and (most importantly), added a wealth more books to my TBR pile!

One of the things that I'd seen and had always been in the back of my head to do was to finally do a 30 day challenge. Now I had a platform to do so! I created my own template and decided June would be the time to get started. 

Here we go!

Day 1: A Book By Your Favourite Author

When it came to choosing my very first book to take a picture of, I knew instantly what it would be. My favourite author is definitely Agatha Christie, as I've read and loved so many of her works. Here's what her books mean to me...

When I was a lot younger, I remember watching the television adaptations of the Hercule Poirot stories with my dad. They were fun and light-hearted, but also felt to me to be very mysterious and sophisticated. It wasn't long before I'd caught up, and I knew the time had come to start my first book.

I remember very clearly deciding to go through all of the Hercule Poirot novels in order of publication. They aren't very long, so the teenage Hannah saw this as no problem at all. When I'd made my way through all of those, I knew I had to start collecting other Christie novels, and the obsession grew.

I think what I love most about Agatha Christie is that she is able to write a perfect balance of dramatic and suspenseful, whilst keeping that air of humour and easiness that is so typical of classic crime. Even more importantly, of course, is that she was so inventive with her plots. The characters come to life from the page, and there are so many tiny details that have such an impact on the plot. It's so fun to try and keep up with them all and piece everything together. Even if you can guess the right culprit, it's almost impossible to guess how or why. 

Most people who have read one of Christie's novels have chosen And Then There Were None or Murder On the Orient Express. I love both of these books infinitely, and would definitely recommend them as great starts for Christie novices. My favourite book of hers, however, has to be Death On the Nile. From the moment I read it, I loved the glamour, and drama and the twists and turns. I also love the different televised adaptations, and can cite the David Suchet version word-for-word! 

It felt only right to start off this challenge with the Queen of Crime herself, and I'm glad I got to feature my toppling stack of books.

Onto Day 2!...