That’s right…I’ve been hornswaggled (or boonedoggled or add you own ridiculous sounding word meaning hoodwinked).
I thought for sure that I was going to finish first…with our phone conversation last night and your telling me that you were going to stop after Book VIII. But no! That was a trick to give me a false sense of security so you could pull from behind and take victory from my hands! So instead I spent the evening watching Transformers (spoiler: There is not more than meets the eye) and trying to figure out if Optimus Prime was supposed to be a metaphor for God….I’ve typed to much! I forgot that the Autobots can monitor the World Wide Web: Best Movie EVER!
Well played…but I’m on to you from now on.
For the record I finished this morning about 10:13 (it may have been 10:12–it took me a second to get my phone out of my pocket to check.)
And all I have to say about the ending of the book is pfft. Pfft.
But I’ll admit that I’ll kind of miss Tristram and Trim and Toby and Slop…but not enough to ever read this book again.
Well since we’re both finished we’re ready for our next reading selection and I put a lot of thought into our second book. And I’ve decided on Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. We’re moving across the Channel (or through the Chunnel) and up around a hundred years (?) to a story that might actually have a plot.
So get ready for bourgeois ennui, torrid carriage rides, and Emma’s ever-changing eye color. I think a tentative start date for discussion of the beginning of May will allow us enough time to finish up all Shandy-related business.
And in closing I’ll end with my favorite quotation from Tristram Shandy it comes from the infamous sausage filling sequence:
“There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman, an’ please your honour, whilst she is making sausages…”
Well said.
And I remain
Your twin in reading (and, you know, DNA),
Jon
