This past weekend was the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the vagaries of shifting weather patterns. This meant, finally, that it was time to break out the summer books. I started things off with a book I'd been meaning to read for some time, P.G. Wodehouse's Something Fresh .
I've been a big Wodehouse fan since I discovered him some years back, but I always have a problem with his books: I can never remember which ones I've read. Normally, I keep this kind of information in my book database, but most of the Wodehouse I read was checked out of the college library, so I have no record of my reading. This is particularly problematic because his books tend to be very similar, so it's impossible to tell whether or not I've read a particular one until I hit some memorable detail, typically well into the story. It's a bit frustrating to be reading a "new" book, and then at page 150 encounter a well-remembered scene and realize that I've already read the book.
Thankfully, though, I'd only read Jeeves books before, which meant that I could start in on the Blandings books (of which Something Fresh is the first) with no fear that I'd be inadvertently re-reading. And, thankfully, this book seems to be every bit as enjoyable (in all the same ways) as the Jeeves books; which is to say that it's a book largely made enjoyable by its stylistic touches. Wodehouse's characters are fun, and his plots are generally serviceable (if repetitive); but the real pleasure of a Wodehouse book is Wodehouse's writing, which is full of pithy asides, wry observations, and sparkling dialogue.
Now that I've finally read this book, I'll go grab the remainder of the series at my earliest convenience, and read all the Blandings books in an orderly and systematic fashion, keeping track of which ones I've read.
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