Dickens project update

Nicholas Nickleby: I'm on page 410. Ordinarily, by this time, I would have already finished a book of this size, but this one is pretty dense going. The language is more archaic than I remember (what the hell is a popolorum tibby or a half quartern loaf?!) and Dickens does tend to go on, and on, and on about what some of his characters are saying or doing (get to the point dammit!!!!!).

I also got distracted, perhaps on purpose, by the arrival of Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners in my Amazon order. I did also finish a slim volume of Dickens Christmas stories (also from that Amazon order). See, I read other books, but they're still Literature! But I must 'fess up to that other good read: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (also in that Amazon order). Literature? Um, not so much, but a really good (and fun) read nonetheless!

I plan on discussing the Christmas stories (three short stories in one very slim volume) along with A Christmas Carol (just as soon as I finish reading it).

The project has expanded a little, as my projects tend to do, and I'm going to add a biography of Dickens onto the reading list. I did find a very nice one at a used bookstore but it is $20. Perhaps I'll take some books in to that store and see if they'll buy some of them and/or take some in trade.