Old Books, New Readers discussion

Hi All,

The Book of the Month for January 2022 is Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome.



Here is a rough reading schedule for the month:
Chapters 1-5 January 1-7
Chapters 6-10 January 8-14
Chapters 11-15 January 15-21
Chapters 16-19 January 22-31

Here is a link to the Project Gutenberg free version of the book:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/308


Cheers,
Ian

Thanks Ian. I am up for this read, I voted for it! Read this book so many years ago it’ll be really interesting doing so again.

I am happy that we are doing this as well! I nominated this back in 2016 and put it on my kindle, but after it didn't win the BOTM, I forgot about it.

Thanks for the booklinks!

I have never done a group read with the group but this looks like a great book to start with.

I listened to the audiobook (narrated by Hugh Laurie) several years ago and it was so funny. Can't wait to re-listen to it!

I love that this is the choice as I am currently reading "To Say Nothing of the Dog," by Connie Willis which is heavily referential to this book. I was planning to read it when I finished!

I listened to the entire book in a couple days. Oops.
It's still amazingly funny and I can definitely see how Wodehouse was influenced by Jerome. In the first fifteen minutes I was wheezing with laughter as the narrator described all his ailments.
I found an excellent version of the audiobook on Youtube read by Steven Crossley, in case anyone else wants to try it. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ksv1...

How is everyone doing with the book? I am a little bit ahead of schedule at this point.

Not to give away any spoilers, but I am happy that they got on to the water by the end of chapter 5.

I am finding the book amusing, but I am not sure how much I like all the side anecdotes (i.e The uncle hanging the picture, the maze, etc) that are really not related to the plot. It seems like the kind of thing I would do if I had to stretch a short story into a novel. :-)

I am almost done with this book, and I am not all that into the humor in it. It is basically a travel log and I imagine if I was more familiar with the places and some of the history of these places, I could find more humor in it. The times they visited areas that had stories of the histories of places and times that I knew of I kind of got the jest. Still not my kind of humor but at least I could understand the reference.
The rambling on about stories remotely related to the current event and then trying to get humor out of it seems like a forced way of getting a laugh that is just not that funny.
Of course, maybe it's just not for me and everyone else will find it hilarious. won't be the first time I didn't get the joke.

Just got hold of the book, and I will start immediately. This is not my prefered genre. So, we'll see how it goes.

I really enjoyed the book and am considering listening to the audio version because I will probably laugh even more.

I've just finished chapter 10
Sadly, I haven't laughed once. I always thought I had a good sense of humour, but I'm reconsidering that because I just don't find this book humourous. I must say that there was some beautiful descriptive writing in chapter 10 when the narrator was pondering the moon and the stars. Does anyone know how old the narrator and his friends are?

I'm at chapter 14, about right going by the informal schedule above. I'm enjoying this book a lot more than I thought I would. Funny how a book written so long ago can still be funny now, I have been chuckling along.

I think it helps that the area he is writing about on the river is my old stomping ground (I used to live in Shepperton and know the places he speaks of well).

I am a bit jealous I didn't get the Hugh Laurie audiobook, I am sure that would be even funnier.

By the way I don't mind the tangents in his thoughts as he goes off about the maze and hanging pictures etc, it adds to each character's development for me.

"Funny how a book written so long ago can still be funny now, I have been chuckling along."

Ditto!! :)

Hi. New to this group (all groups for that matter :) Can you tell me what your next read will be? I got in too late for this one? Also, do you email us to let us know or do we keep checking back on here?

Jennifer wrote: "Hi. New to this group (all groups for that matter :) Can you tell me what your next read will be? I got in too late for this one? Also, do you email us to let us know or do we keep checking back on..."

Hi Jennifer,

Welcome to the group! There is still two weeks left in this book, so there is still time to join in. :-)

In the next few days, there should be a call for nominations for the February book of the month based on a theme; shortly after that, there will be a vote. Keep checking back! :-)

Cheers,
Ian

Cheryl wrote: "I think it helps that the area he is writing about on the river is my old stomping ground (I used to live in Shepperton and know the places he speaks of well)."

I am not that familiar at all with the area and have been following along with google maps. I never knew the Thames went through Reading; I thought Reading was about where Coventry is. :-)

Haha, it’s doing wonders for your geography then Ian!

Ian wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Hi. New to this group (all groups for that matter :) Can you tell me what your next read will be? I got in too late for this one? Also, do you email us to let us know or do we keep..."

Thank you :)

I finished this last night - I found the book so-so... It wasn't really my taste in humour, but there were some witisims I liked - "But we learned experience , and they say that is always cheap at any price"

I found it funny when they were cursing the steam boats whistling for them to get out of the way halfway though the book and towards the end, when they were being towed by the steam boat, they were annoyed by the row boats in their way.

It seemed like most of the funny anecdotes happened on other trips they made or to other people. Their trip was probably not the most eventful, but I guess the trip was used to frame the other stories or to make comical observations of society.

I like following along with the maps and getting a geography lesson :-). Also, I never knew that much about the signing of the magna carta in 1215, so the chapter where they went by Runnymede / Magna Carta island gave me an excuse to read up on it.

Cheers,
Ian

I have also finished now and really enjoyed this, far more than I thought I would.

Okay, I've finished the book.
Maybe if I was able to read a map and follow along with the journey I would have found it more interesting. But, sadly I couldn't do that, so most of the places they passed were just names, and because they were always joking I never knew what the correct history was of the places they passed.
I didn't find the journey funny unfortunately, I guess it just isn't my type of humour.
I did enjoy some of the anecdotes that Jay tells about George and Harris, like how George sings a comedic song. But otherwise I thought there were way too many anecdotes and too many of them went way off topic.
My favourite character was the dog.

Kathryn's comment, combined with some of the others, makes me glad I chose not to participate this time. I hope our next read will be more rewarding.

I really think knowing the area the book was set in must have made all the difference to this read.

I found the style of humour in this book a bit overdone, which is funny because it is probably due to this book being influential on later comedic writing.

I had no plans to read the next book (Three Men on the Bummel) but I am kind of curious since I have found out it is about them touring Germany on bicycles.

Off topic a little but have any of you used Gutenberg.org for free downloads and if so, did you like it and is it a safe site to use (viruses, etc)?

I think I used it once without problems. I’m not sure if it’s the best version of a book, I don’t recall any typos and I certainly didn’t have any problem virus wise or otherwise, in fact a fellow reader recommended it to me.

Thank you so much :)

Good luck on your reading Jennifer!

:) Thank you. I'm starting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I'm reading all the classics I should have already read lol

Ah interesting, I’ve not read that one either. That’s why I joins this club - to catch up on a few should have reads.

Same :) Have a great day

You too, happy reading!