Mark Haddon’s novel, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, features a 15 year old idiot savant math wizard named Christopher John Francis Boone and chronicles his peculiar quest to discover who has ended the life of a neighborhood dog. As the story unwinds, the complicated interactions between Christoper and those around him seem to become ever more entangled.

It is, quite likely, the strangest (and in the end, most melancholic) book I’ve read in some time. Christopher sees the world in a harshly logical, nearly completely emotionless perspective that dizzies the mind and provides ample occasion for reflection. If you’re up for being weirded-out, I recommend it to you.

The novel is choc-full of random offerings, a few of which I’ve included below.

Latin stuff

quod erat demonstrandum, you may know is Latin for “which is the thing that was going to be proved”, or quite simply, “thus it is proved.” It’s used at the end of math proofs in abreviated form to signal that the proof is done. QED.

Occam’s razor
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary, in other words, the simplest solution is most often the correct one.

New words in the book
invigilator — someone who watches examination candidates to prevent cheating
vicar — The priest of a parish in the Church of England
roister — To engage in boisterous merrymaking; revel noisily.
saccades — brief flickers of the eye
tessellate — To form into a mosaic pattern

British words found in the book
snooker (a billiards sport)
plaster (Band Aid)
“lose my rag” (become upset)
torch (flash light)
“end of my tether” (at my wit’s end)
become cross (get angry)
advert (advertisement)
power cut (an electrical power outage)
spanner (wrench)
“single or return” (one way or round-trip ticket)
tube (subway)
scarpering (scampering)
lolly (lollipop)
milkybar (a brand of candy bar)
boot (trunk)

warning: harsh language is used throughout.