13 January 2026

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge 2026

I should have written this yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of Dame Agatha’s death on 12 January 1976. Instead, I spent the day finishing my first Christie mystery for the year, the first in this year’s Christie Challenge.

I’m not doing the official Read Christie challenge this year. The general theme (Biggest, Best, Beloved) just doesn’t appeal to me and monthly suggestions seem too subjective. So, I’m limiting myself to the Reading the Detectives challenge, run through a private Goodreads group. Reading the Detectives is continuing last year’s theme – Christie’s Detectives: Poirot vs Marple. Six mysteries for each of the detectives, alternating months.

This will involve the final six Miss Marple mysteries (ending with Nemesis published in 1971) but will only take us to 1936 with the Poirot mysteries. Poirot is by far Christie’s most prolific detective. There will still be another twenty four novels featuring him left at the end of the year (not including the modern additions), plus all the short story collections.

The photo below shows almost all the books included in the challenge. I’m missing one of the Poirot mysteries - Death in the Clouds - represented by the red outline. I’ve looked for it in seven different bookshops over the last few weeks without success. It even proved hard to get online. I’ve ordered a copy but got an email yesterday letting me know that delivery will take longer than initially anticipated. Hopefully, it will be here before I need it in September!

- Toriaz

5 January 2026

LEGO RELICS Exhibition

Yesterday Victoria and I went to the Australian Museum in Sydney to see the LEGO RELICS exhibition. The exhibition’s themes centre around the world’s diminishing resources, around recycling and the future of the planet. Each major exhibit uses old machines or furniture that would otherwise have been thrown away, and incorporates these into scenes full of detail and humour, made from LEGO, with stories to follow and humorous incidents.

One exhibit used an old Volkswagen, another a piano. Other exhibits also used a jet ski, a grandfather clock, a refrigerator, a bookshelf, a piano and even old televisions from the 1950s and 1960s. The Volkswagen scene was mostly displayed in the open bonnet of the car and used a Mad Max theme in a scenario in which the citizens were running out of oil. The jet ski was surrounded by a beach resort. There was a pamphlet featuring a treasure hunt for the whole exhibition – looking for details in the exhibits – and at the end there was an open area where children could play with LEGO.

Victoria sent me all her pictures from the exhibition, so I thought I’d use two images for a blog post. First, is me, standing near the exhibit that uses an old bookshelf and old books, with scenes inspired by the genre of books on display. I’ve also included a mini-scene that was in the explanatory sign, that shows a LEGO library with LEGO people, sitting and reading.

It was all very clever and the kids there seemed to enjoy it.

- bikerbuddy

1 January 2026

Happy New Year!

Lucy – the photo from which our logo is taken

Today is the ninth anniversary of the our starting the Reading Project. Last year was a particularly difficult year to get things done, so I’m hoping this year will be easier and I personally get a few more books read and reviews published. Today is also the birthday of Lucy, the Reading Project dog. She turns seven today. Just over a year ago, at the end of 2024, I changed the website logo. We had been using a generic icon that was free to use from the internet since we started.

I decided to change it and make it more ours, so I used the photo of Lucy, right, taken in our hall, and I modified it to make the logo that now appears across the site.

Victoria has a cat called Pickles who has occasionally been mentioned in reviews and blogs. She doesn’t know when his birthday is. He is a rescue cat. She got him about ten years ago in winter when he was 6 months old, so she has decided have Pickles share his birthday with Lucy. So Lucy is turning seven today and now Pickles officially turns ten. I’m sure they’ll get together later and blow candles. (Not!)

Also, I’ve just completed yet another update of all the reviews on the site to improve and standardise them. I’ve now included popup information about reviewers with a reviewer image when you run your mouse over the reviewer name in the title box. You can try it out. There are just a couple more to complete for former reviewers which I hope to finish in the next few days.

Hoping for the best 2026 for everyone, which of course includes reading some great books!

- bikerbuddy