The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

So much for that RESTful Services book I was reading. Around when I wrote up my post about RESTful services I gave up reading it because that book was lacking a plot. I don't blame it since its not really a NOVEL but I was yearning for some escape from reality. The reality being that my job is really getting on my nerves these days and reading books about things could have been designed and implemented better was not helping at all.

So instead I started reading the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mack Haddon instead. I didn't know anything about this book when I started reading it except that a friend of mine really enjoyed reading it and recommended it to me. Skimming the back I gleaned some more information: Its about an Autistic boy. I didn't bother reading any more (or maybe I did and I just forgot) because I like not knowing where the story is going to go.

Not to sound like a stereotypical ignorant but this book was eye-opening. I am familiar with autistic people and I understand that they are quirky. I know that there is a spectrum that an autistic person can lie. There is a huge range of conditions that can make themselves apparent for different people. But knowing this is completely different from knowing how an autistic person thinks. From an outside perspective you know that they have an unusual way of perceiving the world. You see someone that is autistic and they are behaving strangely but how far to you go to understand why? I don't think I've ventured that far because I wouldn't know where to start. This book is like a starting point for me. Demonstrated by examples. It is told from the perspective from an autistic boy and it is interesting to see the logic that is behind behavioral patterns that are not uncommon.

That being said I think the book was good. It wasn't great like The Road but it was definitely more effective because it was REAL. It wasn't just a story about some fictional individual but it was a story about many autistic people that are learning to live in and cope with the world and people around them. It was fun, to the point, fast and humorous without overtly trying to tug at your heart. The anecdotes of the boy are illuminating and yet funny for someone who can think outside of that fame-of-mind.

Anyway, good and fun book to read. Try it out.