In my quest to conquer the classics, i have consumed yet another one. I finished Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens a couple of nights ago and have a bit of time to think it over.

It was a harder read than i thought it would be. It takes me a couple of chapters to get into the groove of each book, especially those written in a different century and this one took a while to get that groove. It’s also much darker than i thought it would be. When i think of Oliver Twist, i think of the Artful Dodger, Fagin, Oliver, Please Sir may i have some more…you know, the musical. But the book had lots of deceit and seediness and death and revenge.

Dickens is excellent at capturing a character or situation with a well-turned sentence. He also used a lot of words for some situations. I’ve got some more Dickens on my list, so we’ll see how those go.

Next up: i’ve kinda started The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It’s pretty interesting so far. I’m thinking something much lighter when i’m done with that.

What are you reading?

I finished Dracula by Bram Stoker - not at all what I expected. I thot it would be all Bela Legosi creepy but there was some great character development & plot. It wasn’t as “scary” as I thot it would be. There were moments of intensity but nothing causing nightmares. It wasn’t my favorite book so far, but it wasn’t bad.

Next up - Oliver Twist by Dickens. I’m looking forward to this one. I like his characters & this one has some great ones. It may be time for some more Twain after that or venturing in to some I haven’t read before…