Book 3 for 2001 – The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. I read this on my Kindle.

Here’s another book that I finished because 1) it’s on The List, and 2) I’m stubborn that way and don’t like to leave a book unfinished. A book has to be pretty awful for me to not finish it. And if it’s really and truly awful, sometimes I’ll finish it just to show that I can’t be beaten. 🙂

Anyways, I suspect that when he wrote this, there weren’ many books in this genre, so it gained a degree of notoriety just because of that. It’s an interesting concept, but, mired as it is in proper 19th Century English high society, it takes an awful long time to get there.

18th Century English literature is frequently *all* about high society, and so doesn’t apologize for it. It’s tedious, but honest. 19th Century English high society likes to pretend that it’s part of the modern world, but also likes to pretend that it’s better than the modern world. So it’s just tedious.

I really need to find more books worth reading, some time this year. This wasn’t it. And I’m afraid that the next one – Swordbird – which I’m reading because my son keeps bugging me to read it – isn’t going to be a big winner either. At least it will be a fast read.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to River Teeth, which I think will come immediately after that.