Books are a wonderful way for coworkers and friends to share experiences, even when we’re miles, states, and countries apart. Hearing about what someone is reading is like taking a 5-minute vacation. Each week, one Piper team member will answer the question, “What are you reading?” and take you on a well-deserved, 5-minute vacation.
This week Brian is reading The Annotated Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll (annotated by Martin Gardner).
“It feels like a crazy millionaire uncle…taking you on his dune buggy for an hour-long joyride…”
BRIAN SAYS…
Nonsense is like sand. A little of it is irritating, unsightly, troublesome. But a whole lot, in the right setting, makes a wonderful vacation.
The Hunting of the Snark is a whole lot of nonsense, but in the hands of Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass), it makes a wonderful vacation. It’s a long poem, yet it’s short enough to read in one sitting, which is what I recommend. I won’t try to summarize the plot — the title does that already. (What’s a snark? If you ever find out, let me know.) Nor will I delve into the minutiae of Martin Gardner’s modern commentary, a job best left to Gardner himself. He is the ideal tour guide to this sandy resort: patient, infinitely knowledgeable, and (most importantly) fun.
Instead, I’ll just tell you how the book feels. It feels like a crazy millionaire uncle getting roaring drunk and taking you on his dune buggy for an hour-long joyride through his estate, and twenty minutes in you realize he’s stone sober and maybe has PhDs in logic and literature.
AMAZON DESCRIPTION
The definitive guide to one of the most baffling epics of nineteenth-century literature―a companion to The Annotated Alice.
“It’s a Snark!”…for whatever else can it be?” Published on April Fools’ Day in 1876, Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark remains one of the most amusing and bizarre works of modern verse. Carroll, who completed this classic poem eleven years after the publication of Alice in Wonderland, invites readers along on a fictitious hunt to determine who―or what―the Snark actually is. More than 130 years later, the indomitable Martin Gardner returns to the Snark with a trove of new annotations and illustrations, uncovering some of the most confounding literary, linguistic, and mathematical references embedded in any of Lewis Carroll’s many works. Included in this gorgeous, two-color volume is an introduction by Adam Gopnik, as well as Henry Holiday’s distinctive, original illustrations, a substantial bibliography, and a suppressed drawing of the infamous Boojum. With a host of other Snark resources, this is the most ambitious work on Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece in many decades.
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Tell Brian what you thought in the blog comments below!
