Day 1 (DDRD 1,667) May 25, 2022
Didn't really spend a lot of time thinking about it, but this morning I decided that I was long overdue for some Charles Dickens and picked up the first book of my two volume version of The Pickwick Papers. It's been a long time since I read Charles Dickens...even though I went to some trouble and expense to buy a set of his Complete Works, which consists of 36 volumes. Yes, once upon a time I thought it in me to read all of those volumes. And perhaps it's still possible...though I doubt it. But who knows, maybe Pickwick will ignite an unquenchable fire which will consume all of those volumes. Time will tell.
For now, The Pickwick Papers Volume I has a 6 page Introduction, a 6 page Preface, 5 pages of set-up material, and then 484 pages of story. Volume II has 5 pages of set-up material and 477 pages of story. That's a grand total page count (as I count them, anyway) of 983 pages, which is a pretty hefty number, isn't it? Looks like a 49 day job if I can stick to 20 pages a day, which seems to be my current level of ambition.
And today? Read to page 11...and with the pre-text stuff that makes 28 pages, so that's good. As for the content...well, a bit slow. Of course, this was VERY early Dickens...second book, and the first one (Sketches by Boz) almost doesn't count. So here's hoping that I get into the groove soon. Or that Charles does.
Day 2 (DDRD 1,668) May 26, 2022
Read to page 38, end of Chapter II...and yes, things have kicked in. For one thing, the weirdness that Dickens can't seem to avoid rose up. Check this out:
Some members of the Pickwick Club are taking a coach, and the stranger who has joined up with them points out that they should duck their heads because a low archway is coming up. He then tells them, in his bizarre, truncated syntax, "Terrible place--dangerous work--other day--five children--mother--tall lady, eating sandwiches--forgot the arch--crash--knock--children look round--mother's head off--sandwich in her hand--no mouth to put it in--head of a family off--shocking, shocking!" (13)
Yep, that's the Charles Dickens I know and love all right. When I'd finished Chapter II I went back and re-read the first 12 pages, and lo and behold they weren't nearly as boring as I'd deemed them to be...though they weren't holding any candles to the decapitated mother story. At any rate, I think we're on our way now.
Day 3 (DDRD 1,669) May 27, 2022
Read to page 67, end of Chapter IV. Some pretty funny stuff, but nothing to make me bark yet.
Day 4 (DDRD 1,670) May 28, 2022
Read to page 97 (end of Chapter VI).
Some funny stuff, to be sure...some of it light (the recalcitrant horses hired by The Pickwick Club)...some of it exceedingly dark, such as
But quite a bit of tragic stuff as well, as the story related to the PC members (and written down in a notebook) entitled "The Returned Convict." At some point in that story it occurred to me that this novel seems to bear no resemblance to "The Dickens Nobody Knows" by Dr. Elliot Engel--which is a most excellent lecture, a version of which can be found on The YouTube. Engel spoke about the humorous adventures of a sporting club, however, and The Pickwick Club certainly does not seem to be that. Hmmm. Time will tell.
Day 5 (DDRD 1,671) May 29, 2022
Read to page 130 (end of Chapter VIII). And I am pretty sure that I'll be reading some more, because I have, indeed, fallen into this novel. The humor has really begun to emerge now. As in this bit, wherein the members of The Pickwick Club have gone off to do some early morning bird shooting, and one of the club members accidentally shoots another:
"Mr Tupman had saved the lives of innumerable unoffending birds by receiving a portion of the charge in his left arm." (101 to 102)
I'm not usually a fan of hyperbole, but in this case "innumberable" adds to the humor, thus suits my fancy.
So captivated was I by the pages I read today that I started to think, "Maybe I should just read all of Dickens' novels in a row." To that end, I found a listing of said novels:
The Pickwick Papers (1836)
Oliver Twist (1837)
Nicholas Nickleby (1838)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1840)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1843)
Dombey and Son (1846)
David Copperfield (1849)
Bleak House (1852)
Hard Times (1854)
Little Dorritt (1855)
A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Great Expectations (1860)
Our Mutual Friend (1864)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
Fifteen of them. So it would take some time, to be sure, but I doubt that it would take more than a year, maybe even less. I've already read four of them (underlined), and definitely would enjoy reading them again. And I've already got copies of all of them on hand in the nice (if a bit worn) Centennial Editions. Speaking of which, if I managed to read all fifteen novels, that would mean I'd finished
Little Dorrit I
Little Dorrit II
Sketches by Boz I
Sketches by Boz II
Nicholas Nickleby I
Nicholas Nickleby II
The Old Curiosity Shop I
The Old Curiosity Shop II
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Oliver Twist
The Uncommercial Traveller
Hard Times
The Mystery of Edwin Drood/Master Humphrey’s Clock
Miscellaneous Papers I
Miscellaneous Papers II
David Copperfield I
David Copperfield II
Our Mutual Friend I
Our Mutual Friend II
A Child’s History of England
American Notes/ Pictures from Italy
Pickwick Papers I
Pickwick Papers II
Christmas Stories I
Christmas Stories II
Christmas Books
Bleak House I
Bleak House II
Barnaby Rudge I
Barnaby Rudge II
Dombey & Son I
Dombey & Son II
Martin Chuzzlewit I
Martin Chuzzlewit II
Reprinted Pieces
25.5 of the 36 (there seem to be 37 volumes, however, so I'll have to look into that) volumes (since the majority of the novels occupy two volumes), so you know, might as well finish off the other 10.5 or 11.5 if I get that far, right? Well. We'll see. God knows that my reach usually exceeds my grasp.
I'm also wondering what on 🌍 was behind the order of the Centennial Edition volumes. Of course I will write to the publisher and ask if I can't find an answer to that online. That's what Old Guys do, right?
BTW, the website I found which lists the "37" titles above leads that page with the title Charles Dickens Centennial Edition Complete 36 Volumes Heron 1970, so I don't know what's up with the "37" titles listed. Also, said website proclaims that they have ONE complete set in stock for £225.00, which at the moment = $284.15...so I don't think I'll be taking this set up to Half-Price Books anytime in the near future.
More BTW, found the publisher of The Centennial Edition--Heron Books--and they no longer publish it, so....
ADDENDUM: Read a little more--to page 158, the end of Chapter X.
Day 6 (DDRD 1,672) May 30, 2022
Read to page 180 (end of Chapter XI).
porter's knot (pl. porter's knots)
(obsolete) A double shoulder pad worn with a strap around the forehead, used by hawkers and market porters for supporting burdens on the head. (https://www.wordsense.eu/porter%27s_knot/)
"The spirit which burns within us, is a porter's knot, on which to rest the heavy load of worldly cares and troubles; and when that spirit fails us, the burden is too heavy to be borne. We sink beneath it." (161)
I'm enjoying The Pickwick Papers quite a bit at this point, but I keep thinking back to that Elliot Engel lecture and how not much of what he had to say there about this book seems to be true. For instance, he talked about how Dickens said that he would get reader's to come back for the next published installment of the book by having something happen which would be very tantalizing...and EE gave the example of a character falling from a cliff, then catching hold with his fingernails, and said that this was the invention of "the cliffhanger." Well, nothing like this has happened so far, and the more I read the less likely that kind of event seems to be, so I looked up the etymology of "cliffhanger" and found this on Wikipedia:
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhanger)
So pardon my French, but...what the fuck? Did Engel just make that shit up? I guess I'll go back and listen to the lecture just to make sure that my memory is accurate...but I'm pretty sure that it is in this case.
News as it happens.
Oh. In other news (not the kind that happens), Mr. Pickwick has happened upon another story, this time in manuscript form, thus we are given "A Madman's Manuscript," which tells the story of a guy who goes crazy and does crazy things. It seems out of place here in a "comedic" novel, and I wonder what motivated Dickens to splice it in here. It has absolutely nothing to do with the plot line. Reminds me of the bit in Don Quixote when they find a manuscript in a trunk and then spend a hundred pages or so on that before they get back to the story. I guess it's a way of creating a mini-anthology, but I don't get it.
News: I found Elliot Engel's "The Dickens Nobody Knows" online * and listened to it, and 35 minutes in EE tells the cliffhanger story (man falls off cliff, clings to it with his exceedingly long fingernails) referring to Chapter III of The Pickwick Papers as the source of this story. Well, here's how Chapter III of that novel actually ends:
‘They are not worth your notice,’ said the dismal man.
‘You are right, sir,’ replied Mr. Pickwick, ‘they are not. I am
ashamed to have been betrayed into this warmth of feeling. Draw your chair up to the table, Sir.’
The dismal man readily complied; a circle was again formed round
the table, and harmony once more prevailed. Some lingering irritability appeared to find a resting-place in Mr. Winkle’s bosom, occasioned possibly by the temporary abstraction of his coat—though it is scarcely reasonable to suppose that so slight a circumstance can have excited even a passing feeling of anger in a Pickwickian’s breast. With this exception, their good-humour was completely restored; and the evening concluded with the conviviality with which it had begun.
No damn cat. No damn cradle.
Which leaves me wondering what else Eliott Engel made up. Did Dickens really invent the paperback book? Did he really invent "procrastinated suspense"? Was The Pickwick Papers really the bestselling book of 1836 AND 1837? I can't say with certitude, but my brief internet walkabouts indicate that the answers are No, no, and no. Which is very disappointing. There was a time when I loved Eliott Engel's Dickens lecture so much that I played it for my students, thinking it would get them excited about reading Charles Dickens. (It didn't work, by the way.) Now I'm thinking that he's as full of shit as a Christmas turkey, as one of my co-workers at the wire harness factory once said.
Sigh.
In other news, I read a bit more: to page 192.
I found this bit relevant, topical, and amusing...in a That is So Fucking Sad kind of way:
...the Eatanswill people, like the people of many other small towns, considered themselves of the utmost and most mighty importance, and that every man in Eatanswill, conscious of the weight that attached to his example, felt himself bound to unite, heart and soul, with one of the two great parties that divided the town--the Blues and the Buffs. Now the Blues lost no opportunity of opposing the Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing the Blues; and the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met together at public meeting, town-hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words arose between them. With these dissensions it is almost superfluous to say that everything in Eatanswill was made a party question. If the Buffs proposed to new skylight the market-place, the Blues got up public meetings, and denounced the proceeding; if the Blues proposed the erection of an additional pump in the High Street, the Buffs rose as one man and stood aghast at the enormity. There were Blue shops and Buff shops, Blue inns and Buff inns--there was a Blue aisle and a Buff aisle in the very church itself.
Of course it was essentially and indispensably necessary that each of these powerful parties should have its chosen organ and representative: and, accordingly, there were two newspapers in the town--the Eatanswill GAZETTE and the Eatanswill INDEPENDENT; the former advocating Blue principles, and the latter conducted on grounds decidedly Buff. Fine newspapers they were. Such leading articles, and such spirited attacks!--'Our worthless contemporary, the GAZETTE'--'That disgraceful and dastardly journal, the INDEPENDENT'--'That false and scurrilous print, the INDEPENDENT'-- 'That vile and slanderous calumniator, the GAZETTE;' these, and other spirit-stirring denunciations, were strewn plentifully over the columns of each, in every number, and excited feelings of the most intense delight and indignation in the bosoms of the townspeople.
I mean...talk about ripped from today's headlines, right?
But Dickens always levies his social criticisms, no matter how scathing, with a bit of humor, so shortly after that bit there was this:
"Don't ask any questions. It's always best on these occasions to do what the mob do."
"But suppose there are two mobs?" suggested Mr. Snodgrass.
"Shout with the largest," replied Mr Pickwick. (192)
Yep. God bless us every one.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=W-7KTpudOpU.
Day 7 (DDRD 1,673) May 31, 2022
--reminds me a bit of Frank Kings Gasoline Alley comic strip:
...one of the greatest strips of all time, in me 'umble.
Read to page 220. And we have yet another "found" anecdote: "The Bagman's Story." I really don't understand this constant diversion from the main plot line. Not that these diversions aren't diverting...but they kill the momentum of the plot (such as it is), which doesn't make good writerly sense to me. But who am I to argue with Charles Dickens? Nobody. Just like Odysseus.
Day 8 (DDRD 1,674) June 1, 2022
Read to page 255.
Chapter 14 includes a conversation with a chair, in which the chair reveals vital information to a man which enables him to discredit a widow's suitor, and usurp his place. So Not a Dream, Not a Hoax, Not an Imaginary Story. You've got to love Dickens, don't you?
Day 9 (DDRD 1,675) June 2, 2022
Read to page 295, end of Chapter XVIII. Well past the halfway point now and less than 200 pages left to go. It's going quite well now...as you can no doubt tell by the fact that I'm averaging 35 pages a day. And that's despite the fact that I powered down a Hard Case Crime novel (The Next Time I Die) so that I could do a review of the advance copy.
Shortly after the start of Chapter XVII, we get yet another short tale: "The Parish Clerk. A Tale of True Love." It was okay-ish...though the ending left me cold...but once again I just have to wonder why we keep making these detours from the main road. Maybe Dickens was just using up some stuff that he had lying around the office. It doesn't spoil the novel, but it doesn't enhance it, either.
ADDENDUM: Read to page 315. 169 pages to go in Volume I. I'm thinking I'll be finished in less than a week, given the rate I've been going at it.
Day 10 (DDRD 1,676) June 3, 2022
Read to page 345. And guess what? Another story. And another grim story. Have to admit that I wouldn't mind if CD had left these things out. Not that they're bad, just that I'm enjoying the novel and don't want to be distracted from it.
Anyway, this one is a ghost story, and when the ghost tells of the misfortune that brought him to this spot, he says
Which is actually a distilled version of Bleak House, which Dickens would get around to writing 16 years later.
Day 11 (DDRD 1,677) June 4, 2022
Read to page 373, the end of Chapter XXII. And I'm pretty sure I'll read at least a bit more later today, so I'll probably go under 100 pages n the near. Funny, I've had this set of Dickens for years...since sometime around April of 2015, as best I can figure...without reading a word of it, and now after 11 days of pretty casual reading, I'm finishing off my first volume. Also, that what I once thought was impossible... namely reading the whole of Dickens (assuming this complete edition is indeed complete)...now seems quite possible indeed.
Oh, there was a fun and interesting incident in which Pickwick gets lost in his hotel. Goes to show how a great writer can make pretty much anything an exciting read.
ADDENDUM: Read to page 384--just a page into Chapter XXIV.
Some most excellent stuff along the way here. Such as this:
"...his complexion exhibited that peculiarly mottled combination of colours which is only to be seen in gentleman of his profession, and in underdone roast beef." (374)
And this:
"If ever you gets to up’ards o’ fifty, and feels disposed to go a marryin’ anybody—no matter who—just you shut yourself up in your own room, if you’ve got one, and pison yourself off hand. Hangin’s wulgar, so don’t you have nothin’ to say to that. Pison yourself, Samivel, my boy, pison yourself, and you’ll be glad on it arterwards.” (377)
In checking up on that quote, I happened to find the Project Gutemberg version of The Pickwick Papers (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47534/47534-h/47534-h.htm), which has the same illustrations that my version has, but also additional ones, some of which are in color. This one--
--reminds me a bit of Frank Kings Gasoline Alley comic strip:
And yes, now less than 100 pages to go in Volume I. If I keep at my current average pages per day pace, I'll be finishing up in another 3 days--which would make a total reading time of two weeks for Volume I. Not too shabby.
Day 12 (DDRD 1,678) June 5, 2022
Read to page 425, to the end of Chapter XXV. Which leaves only four chapters in Volume I. And a mere 59 pages, which should be pretty easy to knock out in two days. I feel like Dickens has really slipped into his groove at this point. He writes with perspicacity and insight, but frequently tinged with humor.
Day 13 (DDRD 1,679) June 6, 2022
Read to page 484. Yes, I finished Volume I today. Two things:
Thing One:
In a way, I think this sentence sums up the heart of Dickens:
"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days...." (447)
Because on the one hand (as I see it), there's the sincere joy in the holiday, the true Christmas spirit...but on the other hand, there's the recognition that it's all really bullshit. To me, this is the equivalent of Noam Chomsky's concept of Necessary Illusions. (Or John Lennon's Whatever Gets You Through the Night.)
Thing Two:
The final chapter was yet another inserted story. This was one was actually pretty good, though, as usual, it had very little to do with the main story. On the other hand...check this out. In this story, a grumpy ass old guy is visited on Christmas Eve by a goblin who shows him scenes which convince the ga old guy that he's wasting his life, so when he wakes up the next day he's a changed man. He leaves his town and goes elsewhere so that he can live a different life. Mmm-hmm.
Day 14 (DDRD 1,680) June 7, 2022
And it's hardly an anomaly. In fact, though I haven't examined them yet, as I recall just about every one of the books in this collection show
Started Volume II today.
Read to page 23. Oddly enough, I found it a little hard getting traction. It makes no sense at all--I'm not starting a new book, I'm just resuming (with Chapter XXX) a book I've been reading every day for the past two weeks. But I suppose it's psychological. I probably should push myself a bit and read some more today, just to get back on the horse... but to be honest, I don't feel like it, so I probably won't.
Day 15 (DDRD 1,681) June 8, 2022
Read to page 53, and today felt much more comfortable than yesterday. One of the characters introduced in today's reading was a surgeon named Dr. Slasher. That kind of stuff used to annoy me, but it doesn't anymore. In fact, I find it kind of amusing. Also, having lived a bit longer since my last reading of Dickens, I realize that quite often there actually are people whose names correspond to their professions ...presumably by accident, but perhaps not.
Day 16 (DDRD 1,682) June 9, 2022
Read to page 90. The Pickwick Trial has begun. The presiding judge is a tremendously fat man (described as being a head and a stomach, and so small that only his eyes and the top of his wig show above the bench) who sleeps through most of the testimonies. The advocates on either side of the trial are chums, and the prosecution is given to making much of nothing...as when he insists that a note from Pickwick to his landlady which referring to a warming pan is actually a romantic communique. Again I'm reminded of the trial which forms the primary focus of Bleak House. Dickens obviously spent some hard time in the courts. Maybe Eliot Engels' information about Dickens being a court reporter was actually true. (Though at this point it's hard to believe that anything Eliot Engels said about Dickens was true.)
You know...these CENTENNIAL EDITION Heron Books books seem to be very shoddy in construction. Check out the binding on The Pickwick Papers Volume II:
And it's hardly an anomaly. In fact, though I haven't examined them yet, as I recall just about every one of the books in this collection show
similar types of damage. (In fact, yesterday I was exploring a consignment store and found some volumes of this series, and every one of those books had damage on the spine of like ilk.) I'm still grateful that I have all of this Dickens ready to hand, but it would have been nice if they'd been put together with a little more care. I mean...I have regular hardback books bought off of the shelf which don't deteriorate in this way. Shouldn't a Centennial Edition of the complete works of Charles Dickens hold up at least as well as them?
Day 17 (DDRD 1,683) June 10, 2022
And I'm not in the least bit rough with this tome. It just kind of melts in your hands as you read. What a shame. I mean, they look pretty nice until you start reading them.
Read to page 111. The Trial had some pretty funny moments--most of them courtesy of Sam Weller, who is clearly smarter than the judge and lawyers, and plays them masterfully.
Day 18 (DDRD 1,684) June 11, 2022
Read to page 140. And yet another side story. This one actually had some peripheral connection to the main storyline: Pickwick is in Bath, and the story was about the founding of Bath.
Day 19 (DDRD 1,685) June 12, 2022
Read to page 165 (end of Chapter XXXVIII).
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress was Dickens' second novel. I know a little bit about the story from this and that, but I've never read it before. I'm already starting to look forward to making its acquaintance, though. Which does not mean that I'm ready for Pickwick to end. Just the opposite, actually. I'm enjoying it so much... and knowing that this is Dickens' first time out just makes me even more anxious to read one of his better known works.
Day 20 (DDRD 1,686) June 13, 2022
Read to page 191. I'm also working my way through the 6th Nancy Drew book, The Secret of Red Gate Farm, and The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman, who is a delightful writer. Not to mention the three books I'm reading with Jacqueline every day, and the other three books I'm reading with Joe every day. And the huge Isaac Asimov autobiography (volume 1). And the comic books.
Hmmm.
Day 21 (DDRD 1,687) June 14, 2022
Read to page 222 (in honor of Pete Dixon, of course). Pickwick is in jail. Debtor's Prison, more specifically. This book is pretty much the opposite of a Sporting Club. Did you even read the Cliff's Notes for this, Dr. Eliot Engel? Sheesh.
I'm sorry to say that this book is really falling apart. Check this out:
And I'm not in the least bit rough with this tome. It just kind of melts in your hands as you read. What a shame. I mean, they look pretty nice until you start reading them.
Day 22 (DDRD 1,688) June 15, 2022
Read to page 253. Oh, wow. Only 224 pages to go. And I've averaged 34.5 pages per day, which would mean that if I keep to that pace, I only have about a week left to go. That's pretty exciting, ennit?
Meanwhile...
Mr. Pickwick is still in prison, and the tone of this book has darkened immensely. Check this out:
"...if I lay dead at the bottom of the deepest mine in the world; tight screwed down and soldered in my coffin; rotting in the dark and filthy ditch that drags its slime along, beneath the foundations of this prison; I could not be more forgotten or unheeded than I am here. I am a dead man; dead to society, without the pity they bestow on those whose souls have passed to judgment. Friends to see me! My God! I have sunk, from the prime of life into old age, in this place, and there is not one to raise his hand above my bed when I lie dead upon it, and say, 'It is a blessing he is gone'" (226)
And if that isn't grim enough, then how about this:
"...we still leave unblotted in the leaves of our statute book, for the reverence and admiration of succeeding ages, the just and wholesome law which declares that the sturdy felon shall be fed and clothed, and that the penniless debtor shall be left to die of starvation and nakedness. This is no fiction. Not a week passes over our head, but, in every one of our prisons for debt, some of these men must inevitably expire in the slow agonies of want, if they were not relieved by their fellow-prisoners." (227 - 228)
This one also has some stink on it, as Dickens turns his Sarcasm Ray on. Shows you where his heart was pretty much from the beginning of his writing career, I'd say.
Which is just one of the reasons I love Charles Dickens.
And today, without any provocation on my part (other than opening the book to read), this happened:
I suspect that this will affect the re-sale price.
Fucking Heron Books.
Day 23 (DDRD 1,689) June 16, 2022
Read to page 287 (end of Chapter XLV...and there are only LVII chapters in the book, so yes, The End Is Night).
Pickwick is still in prison. Two things hit me:
(1) Because he has money, Pickwick is able to live in relative comfort in the prison. He has a furnished room, eats well, and has alcohol to drink. Meanwhile there are poor people who are literally starving to death...like Job Trotter, whose emaciated state is described in vivid terms.
(2) Pickwick goes out of his way to help people who he sees are suffering...even one (Mr. Jingle) who has done him wrong. The same is true of Sam Weller, who helps the aforementioned Job Trotter when he sees what a terrible state the fellow is in.
In reference to (2), Pickwick hears that one of his fellow prisoners is in bad shape and goes to visit him. He gets there just in time to see him die. Of this fellow prisoner, Dickens tells us that
"...he had grown so like death in life, that they knew not when he died." (266)
Day 24 (DDRD 1,690) June 17, 2022
Read to page 331 (end of Chapter XLVIII). Pickwick is finally out of debtors' prison, and immediately the tone shifts back to light comical. It's a bit disorienting. I suppose you could say that varying the tone so drastically allows The Reader to resist the impulse to succumb to sadness and despair, and I suppose that is Dickens' intent. But I kind of get the feeling that it's more Dickens inability to control himself from plunging into the depths, and then his realization that he has got to get back to the comic novel he is writing. As if his intention was to just write a light-hearted bit of a thing, but he then veers off course and goes into the serious stuff. It's kind of like when Sparks tries to write a "pop" song. They start off quite well, then end up with something like "Pineapple," which I'm guessing very few people are going to be willing to put up with on more than an occasional basis. (Of course I love the song dearly, and it's playing in my head even as we speak. If you'd like to join me, try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSAO65FD5Rw. No, no, thank YOU.
ADDENDUM: Just kidding. Read to page 352 (end of Chapter 49). Unfortunately that last chapter was yet another Side Story which had absolutely no relationship to the main story.
Day 25 (DDRD 1,691) June 18, 2022
Read to page 380. Which means less than 100 pages to go. Which means maybe 3 days to go.
Day 26 (DDRD 1,692) June 19, 2022
Read to page 419. Which leaves 58 pages...which is probably too much to do in a day. I'd intended to read a little bit more today so that I could finish the book off tomorrow, but hey, Father's Day and three kids, so the math didn't work out. But who knows, I might feel like doing 58 pages tomorrow.
News as it happens.
News as it happens.
Day 27 (DDRD 1,693) June 20, 2022
Read to page 441. Don't intent do stop there, but had to pull up for a bit since I was awakened around 3:30 and am not able to focus very well right now.
However...
Joe has re-appeared in the story, and since his name is almost always preceded or followed by the word "fat," I started wondering how many times the word appeared in the novel. Well, this is the 21st century, so I didn't have to wonder long. A quick trip to The Gutenberg Project and a Control F followed by f a t space (to eliminate father, fatal, fate, etc.) yielded 158 hits, most of which were connected with Joe. That seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Like maybe even obsessive.
Just sayin', sir.
However...
Joe has re-appeared in the story, and since his name is almost always preceded or followed by the word "fat," I started wondering how many times the word appeared in the novel. Well, this is the 21st century, so I didn't have to wonder long. A quick trip to The Gutenberg Project and a Control F followed by f a t space (to eliminate father, fatal, fate, etc.) yielded 158 hits, most of which were connected with Joe. That seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Like maybe even obsessive.
Just sayin', sir.
Day 28 (DDRD 1,694) June 21, 2022
All in all, this was a good book. It had some truly funny moments, some touching moments, and it addressed a social problem (debtor prisons) with seriousness and vigor. And to think that this was Dickens' very first novel...it's pretty astounding. I am quite happy to think that tomorrow I shall begin reading his second: Oliver Twist.
Read to page 477, aka The End.
Be there or be ▢.
DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read
DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
2nd 1K Total: 17,164 pages; Grand Total: 30,613
(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
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