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abject_reptile's reviews
5450 reviews
I'd have given it 4 stars for the elegant prose and the fact that it held my attention in spite of his favourite authors not being mine but he disappeared down a rabbit-hole on page 9 and never quite came up again. So while he made several thought-provoking points about reading I'd be somewhat at a loss if I had to précis the book. Worth reading and with few annoyances (his views on the Kindle, for example) but lacked clear direction. Let's call it a 'meditation'.
There were moments - long moments - of almost unendurable boredom. On the other hand, his judgements - why, for example, The Pickwick Papers is literature whereas Pride and Prejudice is mere reading matter - were a delight.
Not one of her best but there's something about Nesbit that makes her worth reading no matter what.
I was curious about and amused by the preface in the 1912 edition I downloaded for my Kindle from the Internet Archive. It mentioned that the text had been left as it was even though certain passages might cause offence to modern readers. Ah, the political incorrectnesses of the day, I thought! Whatever can they have been? Short answer: he didn't like Catholics, Portugal, or the Portuguese. Abroad is a strange place.
I can understand why this didn't grab me when I was a child but all I have to say now is 'was he on acid, or what?'