Agatha Christie Perpetual Reading Challenge

Agatha Christie is one of the most influential authors in my life. She is the first author of adult book I read through when I was a teenager (yeah, I leapt straight from children books to adult’s – we didn’t have Young Adult’s back then). Christie is also that author, whose books have transported me from fairy tales to reality. She has struck me with the notion that EVERY single person can commit murder – it’s not about criminals or gangster, it’s about us. Killing another human being is just a decision – it’s as simple, for example, as deciding to shop or not to shop today. If you think it’s possible, and if you really need to buy something, then you just go on. Just like that. And that is horrifying for my younger self!

Because of that influence, Agatha Christie becomes a very important literary figure of me. I have read a lot of her books – all of Hercule Poirot’s and most of the others – during my youth. Actually I never keep track of which books I have read and which I have not; and I have forgotten most of the stories. So, when I found this Agatha Christie Perpetual Reading Challenge at Robin @ Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks, I thought: Why, this is a clear sign that I must reread all her books (and read ones I haven’t)! There is no time limit, so no pressure. Indeed, if I read, let’s say, three or four books a year, with her almost 100 books, I’ll need 30 years to read all! Whew… it’s perpetual indeed!

This is the complete list in publishing time order (which I intend to read through), but I think I will skip some of the short stories collections:

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - 1920 (Hercule Poirot & Hastings)
2. The Secret Adversary  - 1922 (Tommy and Tuppence)
3. Murder on the Links  - 1923 (Hercule Poirot & Hastings)
4. The Man in the Brown Suit - 1924 (Colonel Race)
5. Poirot Investigates - 1924 (Poirot short story collection) X
6. The Secret of Chimneys - 1925 (Superintendent Battle)
7. The Murder of Roger Akroyd  - 1926 (Hercule Poirot)
8. The Big Four - 1927  (Hercule Poirot & Hastings)
9. The Mystery of the Blue Train - 1928  (Hercule Poirot)
10. The Seven Dials Mystery - 1929 (Superintendent Battle)
11. Partners in Crime  - 1929 (Tommy and Tuppence short story collection)
12. The Mysterious Mr. Quin  - 1930 (Harley Quin short story collection) X
13. Giant's Bread (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
14. The Murder at the Vicarage  - 1930 (Miss Marple)
15. The Sittaford Mystery - 1931
16. Peril at End House  - 1932  (Hercule Poirot)
17. The Thirteen Problems - 1932 (Miss Marple short story collection) X
18. The Floating Admiral   (Detection Club collaboration)
19. Lord Edgware Dies - 1933 (Hercule Poirot & Hastings)
20. The Hound of Death  - 1933 (Macabre short story collection)
21. Ask a Policeman (Detection Club collaboration)
22. Murder on the Orient Express - 1934  (Hercule Poirot)
23. The Listerdale Mysteries - 1934 (Short story collection)
24. Why didn't they ask Evans? - 1934
25. Parker Pyne Investigates - 1934 (Parker Pyne short story collection)
26. Three Act Tragedy - 1934  (Hercule Poirot)
27. Unfinished Portrait  (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
28. Death in the Clouds  - 1935 (Hercule Poirot)
29. Murder in Mesopotamia - 1936 (Hercule Poirot)
30. The ABC Murders  - 1936 (Hercule Poirot)
31. Cards on the Table  - 1936  (Hercule Poirot)
32. Six Against the Yard (Detection Club collaboration)
33. Dumb Witness - 1937  (Hercule Poirot)
34. Death on the Nile - 1937  (Hercule Poirot)
35. Murder in the Mews - 1937 (Poirot short story collection)
36. Appointment with Death  - 1938 (Hercule Poirot)
37. Incredible Theft (Hercule Poirot)
38. Hercule Poirot's Christmas - 1938  (Hercule Poirot)
39. Murder is Easy - 1938
40. And Then There Were None - 1939
41. The Witness for the Prosecution - 1939 (Short story collection)
42. Sad Cypress - 1940   (Hercule Poirot)
43. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - 1940  (Hercule Poirot)
44. Evil Under the Sun  - 1941 (Hercule Poirot) 
45. N or M?  - 1941 (Tommy and Tuppence)
46. The Body in the Library - 1942  (Miss Marple)
47. Five Little Pigs - 1942  (Hercule Poirot)
48. The Moving Finger - 1942  (Miss Marple)
49. Towards Zero - 1944
50. Absent in the Spring  (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
51. Death Comes as the End - 1944
52. Sparkling Cyanide - 1945
53. The Hollow - 1946  (Hercule Poirot)
54. The Labours of Hercules - 1947 (Short Story collection)
55. The Rose and the Yew Tree  (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
56. Taken at the Flood  - 1948 (Hercule Poirot)
57. The Witness for the Prosecution - 1948 (Short Story collection)
58. Crooked House - 1949
59. A Murder is Announced  - 1950 (Miss Marple)
60. Three Blind Mice - 1950 (Short story collection)
61. They Came to Baghdad - 1951
62. The Underdog  - 1951 (Hercule Poirot)(Short story collection)
63. They Do It With Mirrors  - 1952 (Miss Marple)
64. A Daughter's A Daughter (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
65. Mrs McGinty's Dead   - 1952 (Hercule Poirot)
66. After the Funeral - 1953 (Hercule Poirot)
67. A Pocket Full of Rye - 1953  (Miss Marple)
68. Destination Unknown - 1954
69. Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly (Hercule Poirot)
70. Hickory Dickory Dock - 1955 (Hercule Poirot)
71. The Burden   (Published under pseudonym  -  Mary Westmacott)
72. Dean Man's Folly - 1958 (Hercule Poirot)
73. 4.50 from Paddington - 1957  (Miss Marple)
74. Ordeal by Innocence - 1958
75. Cat Among the Pigeons - 1959  (Hercule Poirot)
76. Adventure of the Christmas Pudding- 1960  (Short Story collection)
77. The Pale Horse - 1961
78. Double Sin - 1961 (Short Story Collection)
79. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side - 1962 (Miss Marple)
80. The Clocks - 1963  (Hercule Poirot)
81. A Caribbean Mystery - 1964  (Miss Marple)
82. At Bertram’s Hotel - 1965  (Miss Marple)
83. Third Girl  - 1966 (Hercule Poirot)
84. Endless Night - 1967
85. By the Pricking of my Thumbs - 1968 (Tommy and Tuppence)
86. Hallowe'en Party - 1969  (Hercule Poirot)
87. Passenger to Frankfurt - 1970
88. Nemesis - 1971  (Miss Marple)
89. Golden Ball and other Stories - 1971 (US short story collection)
90. Elephants Can Remember  -1972 (Hercule Poirot)
91. Postern of Fate - 1973 (Tummy and Tuppence)
92. Poirot's Early Cases -1974 (18 story collection)
93. Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case -1975 (Hercule Poirot & Hastings)
94. Sleeping Murder - 1976 (Miss Marple)
95. Miss Marples Final Cases - 1979  (8 story anthology)
96. Problem at Pollensa Bay - 1991 (Short story collection)
97. Harlequin Tea Set - 1997 (Short story collection)

Are you Agatha Christie’s fan too? Have you read a lot of her books?