I like this book very much and here are 11 curious facts about it:

★ The chapters are numbered, but not like 1, 2, 3, 4, … but by using the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, … and there are 51 chapters in this book, which is also a prime number.

★ The page numbers appear on the bottom center of each page in little circles and they look like this: ① ② ③ . . .

★ The page numbers run from 1 to 268 in the regular chapters and from 269 to 271 in the appendix. The appendix has 4 pages. Conclusion: The last page number, 272, is missing. Therefore the last page number you can actually see in this book is 271, which is a prime number.

★ The first chapter – the one with the number 2 – starts on page ①, so the book’s title, dedication, front matter etc are not numbered like in almost any other book.

★ If you make a table of all the chapter numbers next to the number of the page on which the chapters start you will see that there are pairs in which the page number is also a prime number. I counted 11 of those pairs, which is also a prime number:


★ There are three chapters (199, 229, 233) for which the chapter number is smaller than the page number. For the rest the chapter number is greater than the page number. The largest difference between chapter number and page number is 35 (chapter 149 which starts on page 114) and the graph of all the numbers looks like this:


★ If you like to see a proof of why you can never move a tile beyond the fourth horizontal line in the game of Conway’s Soldiers (pages 181-183 in the book) you can read about it on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway&...

★ I don’t like the timetable at the beginning of chapter 193 (on page 192) very much because it says that Christopher cleans his teeth at 7:20 a.m. and has his breakfast afterwards at 7:40 a.m. and that he also doesn’t clean his teeth at all before going to bed at 9:30 p.m.!

★ I tried to solve the two quadratic equations from page 201:
0 = 437x² + 103x + 11
0 = 79x² + 43x + 2089
I found that they don’t have real solutions. There are complex ones, of course, but I don’t think those actually count here. I wish the author had picked some other equations, like this one:
0 = 10x² + 220x - 4080

★ The narrator’s first name Christopher and last name Boone have 11 and 5 letters respectively, both of which are prime numbers.

★ I read this book for the second time now and I finished it the first time 3137 days ago and that is also a prime number.

n  n
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

After finishing this book in 2019, I saw a marvelous theater performance based on the book. It was stunning!

Uno de mis libros favoritos de todos los tiempos. Me lo hicieron leer en inglés durante mis años de estudio y rápidamente entró en mi Top de mejores lecturas.

Acá conocemos a Cristopher, un niño de 15 años con autismo, que descubre el cadáver de Wellington, el perro de su vecina, por el cual lo marcan como sospechoso. Por lo que, al más puro estilo Sherlock Holmes, se plantea descubrir al verdadero culpable, llevándolo a desvelar una serie de secretos que le cambiarán la vida para siempre.

Libro muy fácil de leer, con capítulos cortos y algunas imágenes que van complementando la lectura por lo que lo terminas bastante rápido. La novela se narra en primera persona y desde el punto de vista de Cristopher por lo que de cierta forma llegamos a empatizar con su particular forma de pensar y su dificultad para la muestras de emociones, así como su lógica interna y matemática con casi todas las cosas que lo rodean.

En un principio pensé que solo se trataría de un simple libro de aventuras de un niño autista, pero a medida que van surgiendo las revelaciones se logra entender lo complejo del mundo de Cristopher y de como su condición de cierta manera termina por afectar también a aquellos que lo rodean.

El final es sensiblero, pero no por ello deja de ser bueno, dejándonos una sensación agradable para el futuro que le espera y los logros que Cristopher pretende alcanzar. En cuanto al padre, bueno, queda cierta sensación de injusticia para con él, pese a los errores que cometió... pero en fin... que cada uno juzgue con su propia lectura.

Libro ligero y diferente ¡Muy recomendado!

This is the story of Christopher Boone, a very likable 15 year old who suffers from Asperger Syndrome, a type of higher functioning Autism. Christopher sets out to solve a mystery; who killed Wellington, his neighbors dog, something he wants very much to do because he is accused of committing the crime. Christopher’s detective work helps him solve some other mysteries along the way, one that is much more important than who killed Wellington.

Coping With Conscience

My 34 year old daughter is severely autistic, and has been since she was seven. No one knows why and the condition has never varied in its intensity. So she is stuck in time. She knows this and vaguely resents it somewhat but gets on with things as best she can.

Each case of autism is probably unique. My daughter has no facility with numbers or memory but she does with space. As far as I can tell any enclosed space appears to her as a kind of filing system which she can decipher almost instantly. When she was twelve I brought her into a cavernous Virgin megastore to get a particular CD. She had never been in the place before, but after standing in the doorway for three or four seconds, she walked immediately to the correct aisle and bin and picked out the desired CD without any hesitation.

I have a theory, probably rubbish, that autistic people perceive the world as it actually is or, more precisely, within strictly limited categories that might be called ‘natural’, somewhat in the vein of Kantian transcendentals - space, time, numbers, etc. Most, like my daughter and Christopher, the protagonist of The Curious Incident, have no facility with purely linguistic manipulation - metaphor, lying, irony, jokes, complex allusion, actually fiction of any sort. The world is not just literal, it exists in a way that ensures words are always subservient to things and without imagination that it could be any other way.

In my experience autistic people tend to become upset when non-autistic people attempt to reverse the priority by making things subservient to words. This makes the autistic person confused, anxious, and often angry. They appear resentful that such liberties can be taken with what is so obviously reality. In effect, the autistic life is devoted to truth as what is actually ‘there’, stripped of all emotional, figurative, and cultural content.

This makes autistic people often difficult to live with. They insist and they persist about things which appear trivial to others. They nag and needle until they obtain recognition. In those areas that interest them, they are capable of splitting the finest hairs to avoid abandoning their perceptions of the world. They may on occasion conform in order to gain a point but they never really give in. They are stalwart in being, simply, themselves. Adaptation occurs elsewhere, not in them.

It is, therefore, probably impossible for non-autistic people to live without tension among autistic people. The latter are maddening in the solidity of their selves. They are, in a sense, elemental, for all we know formed in the intense energy of a star in some distant galaxy. Fortunately, the fact that most of us cannot understand their elemental force is not something that worries them very much. Their emotional reactions may be intense but these attenuate rapidly, leaving little damaging residue.

Ultimately, perhaps, autistic people are the conscience of the world. And conscience is always troublesome, not because it threatens to judge but because it reveals.

Postscript 19/08/22: My daughter died today of a cerebral stroke, aged 37. I am devastated.

دیدین بعضی وقتا تو موقعیتایی گیر می‌کنید که مجبور میشید حرف آخر رو همون اول کار بزنید؟ الان تو همون موقعیتم... کتاب تصویرگر یه پسر نوجوون اوتیسمیه که اون‌قدر شیرین و دوس‌داشتنی هست که با خودت میگی بری همه‌ی شیش میلیارد کمتر آدمایی که اوتیسمی نیستن رو جمع کنی یه جا. صمیمانه باهاشون بشینی و بگی بچه‌ها بیاید گورمون رو از رو کره‌ی زمین گم کنیم. بیاین بریم یه جای دیگه تا این آدم‌های نازنین کمی از دست ما خلاص بشن و نفس راحتی بکشن

آره. شاید همه‌ی اوتیسمیا این‌قدر دوست‌داشتنی نباشن. اما همین که آدم باور می‌کنه کریستوفر رو چرا نباید باور کنه که شاید حداقل یه کریستوفر دیگه روی این زمین وجود داشته باشه که داره رنج می‌بره از ما و «بودن»های ما. کریستوفر شاید داره با سادگی سقلمه‌ای می‌زنه به بازومون که هی رفیق شاید همه‌ی این مناسباتی که بین خودتون راه انداختین... همه‌ی این رفتارهای متظاهرانه‌ی پالتیکلی کارکتی که آشنا و غریبه رو باهاش بزک می‌کنین... شاید یکی یه جایی داره حالش ازتون به هم می‌خوره. شاید یکی هی مجبوره دستش رو چاقوی ضامندار سوئیسیش باشه. شاید یکی مجبوره از دست‌تون دستاش رو بذاره رو گوشش و فریاد بکشه تا صداهاتون، همهمه‌هاتون، جنجال‌ها و دعواهاتون رو نشنوه. برای دوس داشتن کریستوفر باید از خودمون کمی بدمون بیاد و خوب این معامله‌ی کمی نیست. مخصوصا برای «ما». «مایی» که خوبیم. مایی که اصلا کی میگه بالا چشم‌مون ابروعه؟
...

داستان توی چند فصل مونده به آخر کار به شدت افت می‌کنه. به توصیه‌ی این کمینه ضمن حفظ خون‌سردی داستان رو ادامه بدید که یه پایان‌بندی خوب در کمینه
.

"I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

A mostly light-hearted novel told from the perspective of Christopher Boone, a teenage boy with autism. A lovely autistic teenage boy with an incredible talent for math and a gifted logical brain that is amazingly observant of every little detail around him is our hero in this book.

He’s afraid of talking to strangers, being put in unknown situations, being touched and lacks the proper intuition about others that many “normal people” take for granted. He loves timetables, dogs, rats, prime numbers and Sherlock Holmes and he hates metaphors (not similes!), noisy places and yellow and brown colours.

Mark Haddon did an outstanding job. Christopher's lifestyle was depicted in such a personal and compassionate way by the author. For its representation of someone with Asperger's Syndrome, this best-selling novel has won numerous honours as well as criticism from the autism community.

This novel was amusing and heartbreaking at the same time, which I felt was a great combination. Despite Christopher's lack of understanding of emotions, the book is highly emotional. There are also a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, including times when you shouldn't be laughing, but Christopher tells them in such a way that you will.

I'd recommend this book to adult readers because it's not exactly a children's book, but it's not too difficult! Those of you who choose to read it will hopefully like it as much as I did.

Fun fact: The chapters of the book is numbered as ascending prime number!

n  You might like to check out more similar books here.n

[7/10]

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

Fifteen year old Christopher has major difficulties understanding human speech patterns and human emotions, so he finds refuge in the cold equations of advanced mathematics, in scientific papers based of facts instead of emotions and in the ocassional murder mystery novel that uses logic to solve mysteries.

We meet Christopher at a moment of crisis: his parents divorce has uprooted the strict routines that make his existence bearable. When the young man discovered the dead body of a neighbourhood dog in his backyard, he decides to emulate his idol Sherlock Holmes and investigate the murder, writing down the clues and his logical deductions in a private journal / novel.

>>><<<>>><<<

I have come late to the party with this very popular novel and, to be honest, I was mostly disappointed in the journey. I thought the author did a poor job of accurately representing the autistic personality disorder and was twisting the facts around based on the needs of the plot, with little concern for consistency. I know I am nitpicking through the text, but Christopher’s issues with metaphors and similes come and go at random. Similarly, his agoraphobia, violent reaction to strangers and self-control appear and disappear according to plot convenience.

Furthest away in the sky were lots of little white clouds which looked like fish scales or sand dunes which had a very regular pattern.

In the end, I got reconciled with Mark Haddon and with Christopher after I finished the book, when I read in an interview with the author that his intention was not to analyze the medical condition, into which he had done little research, but to illustrate the impact autism and other mental disabilities have on families and friends, the need for patience and understanding in caring for the special needs of persons who struggle with a lot of the things we take for granted.

We all make mistakes, Christopher. You, me, your mum, everyone. And sometimes they’re really big mistakes. We’re only human.

As such, I conclude that Mark Haddon has done a decent, necessary job of putting the issue into discussion and I am thankful for my friends from the book reading group who picked the title for a monthly read.

Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer to them. It’s just that scientists haven’t found the answer yet.

Instead of criticizing minor plot holes or inconsistencies, I prefer to close my review with my favorite quote from the novel, another necessary appeal to fight ignorance and malice with critical thinking and with kindness.

Not very subtle atheistic agenda

I was fascinated by this book at first. The author must have first hand experience of working with an autistic child with OCD. The fact that the book is written from the perspective of this child is clever up to a point. As I continued reading, though, I started to have doubts. Is the author really attempting to help the reader understand what living with autism or an autistic child could be like or is his agenda more sinister....

The author blatantly attacks any form of belief in God. He uses the fact that the child thinks logically and cannot lie due to his mental health condition. He clearly states that beliefs in God are delusional and outside the realms of the logical and rational thought process therefore they are categorically wrong. The child dismisses those with any spiritual beliefs as fantastical. The fact that the author uses the enhanced capabilities of the child in areas such as maths and logic to do this is outrageous. The whole premise of the author's argument is therefore that you cannot be a rational, logical human being and believe in God. Additionally, there is no room for manoeuvre on this point because the child cannot be wrong because of his special gift....To use an illness especially in a child to promote an atheistic agenda is appalling and I'm surprised that more people haven't picked up on this issue with this book.

There is a lot of highly offensive language in this book including blasphemy. The author even uses the shortest verse in the Bible as a swear word at one point.

From a secular rather than spiritual point of view, even the most basic reading up on these mental health conditions reveals that adults should not just accept or give in to ritualistic behaviour. Yet, all of the adults in this book appear to be doing this throughout especially his parents. This does seem to make his behaviour worse.

If this is really what it looks like to be inside the mind of an autistic child, which is possible, it is very sad. His whole life is full of fear; fear if he eats the wrong thing, touches something, says a certain thing and he frequently reverts to solving maths puzzles in his head to calm down. The problem is that the book never attempts to address any of the behaviours seen in the child so he never gets any better....

I can't recommend this at all due to the spiritual issues as mentioned.

Me gustó muchísimo.

Jamás había leído un libro donde el protagonista tuviera Trastorno del espectro autista, lo leí porque quería conocer mas y para poder ver como perciben el mundo. Fue como armar un rompe cabezas leer este libro.
Fue muy interesante y me ayudo a entenderlos y conocerlos mejor.

Nuestro protagonista en esta historia se llama Christopher, tiene 15 años y un día descubre que el perro de su vecina esta muerto y él muy fanático de Sherlock Holmes (lo que en eso me parezco tanto a él que AMABA cuando hablaba de él y el doctor Watson), decide encontrar al asesino del perro, y mediante esta búsqueda va a desenterrar secretos de sus padres y su familia.

La premisa es muy interesante al igual que el titulo. Me costó bastante entender algunas actitudes de los padres de Christopher, Hay acciones que yo las hubiese hecho de otra manera.
y lo que comprendí también, es que la paciencia llega a un limite, lo cual el niño la sobrepasaba ante sus padres.

Se que no es fácil tener que criar a un niño con este trastorno, pero no es imposible, y con paciencia y cariño y apoyo, se puede.
Ellos no son diferentes, son iguales a todos, solo que mas inteligentes que muchos de nosotros y eso no los hace especiales, sino sobresalientes.

El final me gustó muchísimo también.
Y lo super recomiendo, es una historia amena, donde estar en la cabeza de este niño es una aventura sin límites.

What a wonderful and heartbreaking book! It really gives you insight into the mind of a person who has autism and how difficult it is for them and their caretakers. This was my second timing reading this book - with many years in between - because it was chosen for my next book club meeting and I'm going to see the play at the end of March. It's interesting what I remembered and what I didn't!

Ok, I get the concept. A heartwarming story told from the vantage point of an autistic boy.

Heartwarming, eh. Sure. Cerebral? You bet. For the "Literary Snob"? ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY. (Because most of those people LOVE "The Catcher in the Rye"...one of my most hated books of all time...and this book has been compared to that one. I should have known).

Look. I'm smart, I'm educated. I'm a professional woman who adores literature and loves to read. I bought this book because I was told that it was GREAT by a couple of friends. I'd also read the reviews. I'll give it a shot, ok?

Ack. It took me a full month to get through this book. This from someone who can devour a book in twelve hours (including "masterpieces" such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice....loved them all). I didn't like it. I didn't find it "lyrical" I didn't find the writing in ANY way "superior" to some of the "genre" authors I read (Nora Roberts anyone?). It left me depressed and out of sorts. And a little pissed off.

If that's what makes a "Classic" these days, please count me out. I'll stick with my "silly" genre novels ANY day of the week.