This group is for reading and analyzing the novels and stories of Agatha Christie. We plan to read the books in order of publication, and hope to be able to discuss her growth as an author, as well as compare her with other writers of her era.

Discussion forums and mailing lists are different media; it's like comparing films to TV series. Anyway, the forum's focus are specific quotations, with each Christie book receiving a dedicated webpage for quotations from that book, and a dedicated forum thread to discuss those quotations, if there's any interest. There's already been some specific discussion of Agatha Christie's potentially “racist” remark in Death in the Clouds. Other differences are that in a forum, many Christie works may be discussed simultaneously, whereas in a mailing list set up like this one, the discussion is linear (one book at a time); and there are forum categories for other writers beside Christie (such as this writer's forum).

To sum up, both media (mailing list <-> forum) have their own advantages and disadvantages and they can't really be seen as competing against each other. It would be meaningless trying to set up another Agatha Christie-focused mailing list such as this one, as it would merely replicate what already exists. A discussion forum such as christie-forum.aboq.org may add something new and useful.