I found this book on one of those "read these books" lists. I enjoyed the author's tongue in check humorous style of writing. I'm sure the book was much longer than it needed to be.

Knickerbocker's History of New York is a book of humor written by Washington Irving. It is a humorous take on the history of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands and the city of New Amsterdam from it's founding to the take over by the British and the renaming of the colony and city to New York. The supposed author Diedrich Knickerbocker centers the story on the last Dutch governor of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant and his friend Antony the trumpeter. Peter and Anthony seem to be a take on Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. The book is a bit too long I think but parts are truly amusing and entertaining. Now I think I need to read a real history of the Dutch in New York.
slow-paced