This book is great. It is Jerome's account of a boat trip up the Thames. According to the Jerome K. Jerome Society all the events really happened, although perhaps not all on the same trip or to the same person. As the trip progresses and the three survive various mishaps (soggy food, uncomfortable nights, water shortages), Jerome weaves observations about human foibles into the plot. The book is far more ironic than any Gen-Xer could hope to be, and the humor is as freash and lively as it was when it was first written. The language is still accessible, there were only five words I had to look up in the dictionary (and even those were easily understood from the context; I just like looking words up in the dictionary). At 184 pages, it is a quick read. I highly recommend it.

My favorite passage, pp. 144-145:

It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost become a passion with me; my study is so full of it now that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. I shall have to throw out a wing soon.

And I am careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have by me now has been in my possession for years and years, and there isn|AMP|rsquo;t a finger-mark on it. I take a great pride in my work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps his work in a better state of preservation than I do.

But, though I crave for work, I still like to be fair. I do not ask for more than my proper share.