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You should all read Auntie Mame and Lord Peter Wimsey

I am a slouchy pile of slouch today due to EVENTS on the weekend. The fact I can type is currently being seen by my brain as a miracle, so forgive me for whatever this post ends up being about. I just feel guilty about a relative lack of updating last week, so HERE ARE MY BRAINTHOUGHTS, INTERNET.

Patrick Dennis is vastly, vastly underappreciated. People barely know who he is today, which is just BS, for he is one of my all-time favorite authors (see also: Dickens, Margaret Mitchell, particular A.S. Byatts). He wrote Auntie Mame, which I usually name as my favorite book when forced to answer this stupid question. It's episodic, which is my favorite way a book can be, and there's so much detail in a non-hideously boring way. It's funny and socially advanced (make of that phrase what you will) and I love it.


There's also a sequel, which is actually more of a parallel novel (it takes place during Auntie Mame) called Around the World With Auntie Mame. The copy I originally read was from the University of Illinois's undergrad library, and it was from the first printing. When I bought a copy, I was exceedingly astonished to discover it contained a "new" chapter. Said chapter involves Auntie Mame and her nephew Patrick (the narrator) living on a commune in, I believe, the Ukraine. It was censored from the early editions because it dealt with communism. Which is RIDICULOUS because all that chapter does is point out why communism doesn't work.


Speaking of the undergrad stacks, I miss them. The U of I has an ENORMOUS collection, and pretty much whatever I needed, they had, usually in an old edition. I started Series of Unfortunate Events there, then Auntie Mame, then the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I think I've talked about fonts before, and how they make me judge books, be it however unfairly. Since I started reading the Wimsey series using the library's Very Old Copies, when I graduated and hadn't yet finished them, I had to go to AbeBooks and email booksellers for pictures to find the right WimseyFont. I've mentioned this before as well, but I forget if I've included a picture of the correct WimseyFont. It is this (the first page of Gaudy Night, which is the greatest):



Fonts are important.

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