nausicaa83 | "Roots and lies, roots and lies, our family tree is old, from there we climb the golden hill." (Reply)

For the weirdest square in the Reading Bingo, the "A Forgotten Classic" one, I went with The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith. It's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? A classic book can't, by definition, be forgotten. Otherwise it wouldn't be a classic. So I went for something similar, a book that's a classic but that I didn't know about until I bought it a few months ago. Close enough!

In this case it was suggested to me by Amazon, because I'd been looking for a new copy of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men In A Boat, which is one of my favourite books ever, so much so that I've already destroyed two copies by reading it too many times. Oops. Anyway, I got a few suggestions about other novels from the same period, and this one caught my eye, especially because of the title.

And it was indeed a great suggestion, because I loved it. It's a lovely, funny portrayal of suburban life in 1880s London. The best part is that while it's meant to be comical, it is actually an extremely accurante account of daily life for the lower-middle-class of that period. It was incredibly fascinating, and at the same time I found myself giggling and nodding along as it is very relatable, even now. It's weird to describe, because it opens a window on life on a very different London from today's, and at the same time it's modern to the point of being timeless, because at its core people haven't changed at all. It's that kind of realization we all need from time to time. ^^

And some great news, Livejournal just brought comment subject lines back. Remember how much we used them in fanfic communities? They were incredibly useful, and after two and a half years, thanks mostly to the new CEO, they're finally listening to their users. They even resurrected