FromtheEditor
Have you ever wanted to solve a mystery? How about six murders?
Have you ever wanted to read a book where the pages were printed out of order and you have to piece them together slooooowly?
A book club at the Dublin Public Library is doing just that.
Every other Thursday, a book club is working to solve the puzzles of “Cain’s Jawbone” by Edward Powys Mathers.
Originally published in 1934, the book jacket claims that only three puzzlers have ever correctly assembled the pages and solved the six murders at the core of the mystery.
Since the book seemingly features multiple characters with the same nicknames and sprinkles references to news stories and literature that also cloud up the narrative, I can believe it.
I spent our first session searching for quotes and managed to pair up five sets of pages. I still don’t really know where they all fall within the book but that’s something.
The next meet-up will be 5 p.m. on Jan. 12 if you’d like to slowly go insane with a group of people asking questions like: ‘Is Jasmine a person or a cat?” or ‘How many hyphens are on that page?’
The Library has much more to offer, of course. Barks and Books continues Saturdays at 11 a.m., allowing kids to read with a therapy dog from Annie’s Therapeutic Companions.
The craft club also meets Wednesday at 3 p.m. and the Erath County Genealogical Society meets monthly at the library with the next session set for Jan. 21 at 2 p. m.
There is also the more conventional book club meeting the final Saturday of the month at 1 p.m. This month’s selection is “The Martian” by Andy Weir, which can be checked out beforehand at the library or through Goodreads. If your resolution is to get a bit more social or literary and any of this sounds fun, call the library at (254) 445-4141 for more information
—Paul Gaudette can be reached at publisher@ dublincitizen. com.