Monday, March 22, 2010

Mark Twain's Roughing It

I've just read the last chapter of Mark Twain's Roughing it:

"Moral: If the reader thinks he is done, now, and that this book has no moral to it, he is in error. The moral of it is this: If you are of any account, stay at home and make your way by faithful diligence; but if you are "no account," go away from home, and then you will have to work, whether you want to or not. Thus you become a blessing to your friends by ceasing to be a nuisance to them - if the people you go among suffer by the operation."

With more than a century between us, Mark Twain captured my situation so accurately that I'm laughing my head off at this very moment. This excerpt can be found at the end of the last chapter and before the appendix. This is so hilarious.

I've dutifully read every single sentence in the book for about the first 60%, and randomly selected chapters in the next 40%. So I haven't read the other stories, but I find them quite amusing. Really. Life is all about Roughing It.

Thank you so much, Mark Twain. :D

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