Mystery Bytes: Quirky & Interesting Book-Related Links

Here's a Round-Up of interesting and quirky mystery-related links on the Internet. Just wanted to share in case you missed these. Click on the link to read the entire story.

Live in New England? Plan to visit? Here's a great guide to New England's Best Bookstores to Spend the Day. What could be better? New England Travel.

Creating a “best bookstores” list for New England is more challenging than it would be for most places. Our region is blessed with countless wonderful shops, each with its own charm. Some pride themselves on being eclectic, or all-encompassing, or uniquely focused. But for this post, I’m calling out what I consider to be destination bookshops.

***

Speaking of Bookstores. Here's a wonderful article on that charming 17th century alley, Cecil Court, that's lined with secondhand bookstores and antiquarian shops. It's a great stop when in London. Atlas Obscura.

This dreamy little 17th-century lane is a book lover’s paradise. It’s lined with about 20 secondhand bookstores and antiquarian shops, all selling a trove of unique treasures. It’s no wonder the street’s nickname is “Booksellers’ Row.”

***

If you're like me, you have books everywhere -- on shelves, on the floor, in piles, in the kitchen, bathroom, linen closet, bedroom, dining room, etc.  Will you ever get to read them all? Well don't fret, here's an article on Why You Should Surround Yourself with More Books Thank You'll Ever Have Time to Read. Fast Company.

Lifelong learning will help you be happier, earn more, and even stay healthier, experts say. Plus, plenty of the smartest names in business, from Bill Gates to Elon Musk, insist that the best way to get smarter is to read. So what do you do? You go out and buy books, lots of them. ut life is busy, and intentions are one thing, actions another. Soon you find your shelves (or e-reader) overflowing with titles you intend to read one day, or books you flipped through once but then abandoned. Is this a disaster for your project to become a smarter, wiser person?

***

I used to love Board Games, especially Monopoly and Clue. The original Monopoly board was based on Atlantic City where I spent summers, so it was very special to me. And don't we all just love Clue? Here's a Fun article on Board Games: Miss Flame in the Bedroom with the Shoe: 4 Board Games that Changed with the Culture. Mental Floss.

Plenty of board games have debuted special editions, integrated electronics (who wants to roll dice anymore?), and upgraded to fancy carved pieces. But here are four classic games that had to change their rules just to stay relevant in the culture around them.

***

Do you love audio books? Apple Lets You Download Six Free Audio Books Read by Celebrity Narrators. No mysteries in this FREE group, but definitely worth listening to. OpenCulture.

***

Intrigued by Nigeria? Crime Fiction Lover reviews Five Nigerian Noir books. I would add My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite.

While the wave of superb Scandinavian novels been the buzz in crime fiction for a good while, and you have new trends like Korean crime novels beginning to bubble to the surface, few have noticed the gritty, blade-on-your-throat crime fiction emerging from Nigeria today, by writers like Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. These novels have that pulse and energy you get from classic noir, but they simultaneously play with genre tropes, subverting them, bending the craft to suit the peculiarities of modern Nigeria...

***

And, one more article: Changing the Face of Crime Fiction: Six Writers of Coloron Writing Mysteries, Crime Novels and Thrillers. Writer's Digest.