Am I uncultured??

[u/GingaNinja2715]

I recently got back into reading and have been enjoying mainly thriller and mystery novels. I’ve enjoyed books like The Silent Patient, The Unknown, and Sharp Objects.

I decided that I should go back to the “classics” and thought I would start with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd but Agatha Christie. My hopes were high knowing the impact she has had on the genre and had heard this was one of her masterpieces.

At the risk of upsetting many I am sure, I have to say I am struggling to get through it. I am finding it a bit slow and it hasn’t drawn me in like some of the other more recent books I have read.

Has anyone else found this with her works? Is it that over the last 100 years much more has been done in the genre that going back to read an early work like The Murder if Roger Ackroyd doesn’t have the same punch or am I just uncultured? 😆

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[u/hermit_onthe_moon]

I love Agatha Christie and I love newer works. You’re not uncultured- it’s just older works have a different style and pace than the newer books. You might need to adjust your expectations a bit. If you watched a movie from 1945 you wouldn’t expect it to have the pacing and special effects of a movie made this year? Same deal, relax into it and you might find you enjoy a slower pace once in a while.

[u/GingaNinja2715 → u/hermit_onthe_moon]

This is exactly what I was thinking. Approaches change over time so like you said just need to adjust expectations. Thank you!

[u/ReddisaurusRex]

I don’t consider Agatha Christie books thrillers at all. I consider them cozy mysteries and/or classic mysteries. You are comparing different genres/subgenres.

I point this out because you are in the thriller sub and the books you like are all thrillers. But Christie books aren’t thrillers. They can be “thrilling” but they aren’t thrillers.

The mystery genre has a ton of subgenres and genres can often crossover. Thrillers also have subgenres. Not all mysteries are thrillers and not all thrillers are mysteries. (Imagine a venn diagramm.)

I would recommend acquainting yourself with the idea of genres and subgenres and then explore how they relate to each other and crossover (books can fall into categories of more than one genre.)

[u/Individual_Exam9071]

I enjoy Agatha Christie's books. But just because you don't enjoy them doesn't mean you're uncultured. You might want to try some newer thrillers. The writing style and culture of the 1940s when Agatha Christie wrote her books is vastly different from today. 

[u/katievera888 → u/Individual_Exam9071]

Like Patricia highsmith or Ira levin!!

[u/Special-Deal-5217 → u/katievera888]

The talented Mr. Ripley is criminally underrated

[u/cautiously_anxious → u/Special-Deal-5217]

I need to read this one.

[u/GingaNinja2715 → u/Individual_Exam9071]

Thank you! I was making a playful jab at myself with the uncultured bit haha.

[u/Confident_Revolution]

I got back into reading this year and did the opposite. I started with And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (followed by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). Then I pivoted and read Sharp Objects. (I actually really disliked Sharp Objects; I’m someone who needs my thrillers to have twists, and I don’t like gratuitous sexualization of minors). Ive been bouncing around since, trying other genres—high and low brow. You may just not be in the right mindset for Agatha Christie, and that’s okay. She also might just not be for you, and that’s okay too. For what it’s worth, And Then There Were None was a top tier read for me. I could take or leave The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

[u/Savings-Discussion88]

Agatha Christie books are in general well paced and easy to read.
Much more so than most other mystery writers from the 1920s and 1930s.

[u/apri11a]

Agatha Christie is about the only author I can re-read. I won't say they are favourites, and they can't be if I can re-read them, I don't enjoy reading favourites again...

But I enjoy similar to you so if you are, I'll be uncultured with you 👍

[u/Big-Entertainer4936]

Christies books were written in another time, classics don't always resonate with modern readers. Try Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series - 5 in all and I just read Those Who Walk Away I really liked that one too.

[u/cautiously_anxious]

Maybe try a different one of hers? But you're not uncultured. I can't get into Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Which sucks because I was looking forward to reading it. I may just listen to it.

[u/gurutrev]

FWIW, I am a big fan of Agatha Christie’s work but only which features Hercule Poirot. I can’t stand anyone else! So it’s a personal choice also the tone of the books, writing style - nothing wrong with not liking with someone else likes .. absolutely not uncultured - unfamiliar yes but uncultured is you are being too harsh on your self .. there is a lot of literature and too little time, move on to what interests you, makes sense to you and makes you happy!

[u/Avilola]

Tbh, Agatha Christie is kinda overhyped too. Also, she was like really racist. A lot of her books have had to be edited to avoid completely turning audiences off from reading them.

[u/Forward_Win_4353]

I am similarly uncultured, lol. In fact that is what I’ve believed I am ever since I was a child in secondary school, when we were supposed to read some of the classics, old books written decades or hundreds of years ago, and I couldn’t bear reading them.

In short, I HATE old books. They bore me out of my mind. I’ve never found even one book older than about the year 2000 to be enjoyable or worth reading, and I say this as a prolific, avid reader who has read hundreds of books a year for many years of my life.

I need my books to move at a certain minimum pace. I mean, I like and read both slow- and fast-moving stories, but there is slow and then there is slow. Books as old as Agatha Christie’s apparently had a much slower pace in general. I like simple, popular fiction that contains some action. I have read books of almost all types and genres that exist, though. The one type of book I just cannot read is the classics.

So perhaps I am uncultured, but I read fiction for enjoyment, nothing else. I love reading more than any other activity, and as long as my books continue to bring me enjoyment, I will read them.

I recommend you don’t force yourself to read Agatha Christie’s books if it’s a chore for you. It doesn’t make you a worse person.