Lost Book Gem: "The Pickwick Papers" - Charles Dickens (1836)
"I gotta take me on a permanent vacation." --> Aerosmith <-- Take a two week trip and you feel like you've done something. Samuel Pickwick and his wealthy cronies decide to skedaddle outta the city for a two year romp exploring the English countryside. Now that's what you call a vacaysh ! Charles Dickens ' first novel finds him weaving a humorous tale of misunderstandings and happenstances that follow likable Pickwick and his goodnik buddies wherever they travel. In the process, Dickens brings to the forefront many social issues that would be more famously explored in his later novels. At over 800 pgs, "The Pickwick Papers" (1836) is not for the faint of heart. Dickens occasionally stretches sentences like he's pulling apart a Slinky. And the slangular dialect of the period can take a bit of warming up to. But once you catch on to the rhythm of the word-flow... (and you will) ...it's a pretty dang entertaining r