Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome (Book)

Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome. Sometimes I really wonder why am I so late in exploring some amazing Authors like Jerome K Jerome but then it is wonderful to find one of their gems in my own collection gathering dust for so many years. I picked up this little gem from Blossoms (Bangalore) two years back for a mere 50/- with a Tea cup mark on its laminated cover. Look at the irony, the first own was a book lover who cherished the book and got on to the length of laminating it with a thick transparent plastic cover and its second own bloody used it like a coaster and left a tea cup mark on it before he dumped it in a sale. I guess I am the third owner and removed that tea mark from it immediately which I believe it is still faintly visible. I must say it is one hell of a book which gave me some seriously laugh out loud moments. Last time I laughed like crazy reading a PGW book in the dead of the night after an scary experience of reading "The Shining" by my favorite Stephen King, I was so scared to sleep that night that I had decided to read a lighter book and then the way I was laughing, my mom threatened me to throw me out of house thinking I had gone mad reading a book. Later she read it herself and gave me some benefit of doubt that it wasn't my fault after all. Now, I am told that Jerome K Jerome was one of those few writers which even PG Wodehouse enjoyed reading :). This time, my daughter filed a complaint against me to my wife that I was disturbing her studies everyday in the evening for last few days :) can you beat that. Jerome K Jerome's humor is simply out of this world, unbelievably hilarious especially the straight forward way he has captured the charming 10 days from the life of his three amazing characters on a boating vacation with their dog. The simplicity and Jerome's sense of humor is such that it took me back in my own time when in college we used to go on adventure trips just like Jerome, Harris, George and their cute dog Montmorency :). In our second year of college one fine day we fantastic seven decided to visit the nearby forest, spend a day, prepare our own lunch in wood-fire and do some dancing around just like our "Three Men on a Boat". The problem started when the live chicken that we had went on a run, we all had to run helter skelter to catch our lunch running away from us, while catching the chicken, we lost the sense of direction as where we had come from and where we were going. And then it all started that who will kill the chicken, who will clean and cook it and the bigger question how? It all ended in a few of us throwing up, surviving the day on biscuits and water from a nearby stream, remaining half of the day we end up looking for direction and our entry point where we had parked our vehicles, only to finally find the highway miles away from where we started :) but it all ended on a hilarious note and a crazy memory for a life time right like the way these three musketeers make for themselves, their dog, the boat, lost and found in the course of the river as where they are going, which is the right way and how it all ends, a tale of super awesome fun. Right from the word go, this book is totally roller coaster ride as I couldn't find anything wrong with three men going on a boat ride on Thames but something as simple as packing for the journey to camping on the side of the river, they are such cute men with their own set of thinking and how they keep up with each other was totally out of this world matter. More than just the comedy of errors it tells so much about the life and times some 100 year ago in and around good old London. I totally love British sense of humor in comparison to their American or other world counterparts, they actually are the master of this art which just keeps getting better by the book I read from their part and the Author that I explore. I loved the way Author discloses his characters professions like in case of George who goes to sleep in bank from 10 am everyday to 5 pm and he is usually thrown out of the bank at 2 pm on Saturdays :). And the narrator himself (Jerome) who gets a sort of dictionary of diseases and realizes that he is almost suffering from everything from an A to Z in the book barring one disease and that is "Housemaid's Knee" for which he visits a Doctor and what his friendly Doctor prescribes him, you've got to read the book for a thing like that and laugh it out loud :). I am going gift this book to one of the most lazy friend of mine as it is full of such sarcasm on someone's laziness that our own narrator hits his own high at times. This book will make so much more amazing sense to someone who's been to London and have gone Thames boating :) as geographically how the story moves forward, I could actually only visualize the beautiful surroundings and wish that I could actually be there and do the same tour :). And the historical importance of the places they visit and pass is another superb add on to the already terrific book. And as I was assuming the age of the characters, the superb illustrations not only made me laugh but gave me a fairly good idea of their ages :). Have you read "Three Men on a Boat"? If you haven't, do not miss it any longer and get it ASAP. For me, I am going to get its sequel now "Three Men on Wheels" where they go to Germany on a cycling trip :) and I have to pick up so much more from Jerome J Jerome. Do let me know if you have a favorite from him, I might as well pick that up in the next lot.