As is often my case, I'm reading two books at once:

For about the last five weeks I've been spending lots of hours reading James Boswells The Life of Samuel Johnson. It is about 1297 FULL, small-typeface pages. I sometimes think I'll have as many hours in, reading his life, as he did in living it! It is interesting, though. I'm about 3/4 through it now, and I may live long enough to finish it.

Just the other day I picked up from my old bookshelves (because I needed a book that I could carry with me in a pocket, which is decidely not true of the above) an old copy of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. My, oh my, that man could WRITE! It's been many (maybe 40?) years since I read it previously, so it's effectively a fresh read to me.

I can heartily recommend both books, but The Life of Johnson only to a person with a long attention span. The Mark Twain is one of those books you can pick up and lay down, read in almost any order, come back to next month, etc., and not have your pleasure spoiled.

Dave Oesterreich