Just short of three weeks to the day on which I began, I've finished Great Expectations. Before I write anything else, I'm compelled to tip my cap to Everyman's Library editions of novels. If, twenty years down the stretch (when, presumably, I've struck it rich), I could re-purchase every book in my possession as an item in this collection, I'd do it in a second. My library would ooze class, and I'd ride around on my ladder with wheels affixed to the tops of my bookshelves, laughing with the laugh of a man who just bought an absurd number of finely-bound hardcover books.

But getting back to Dickens, I'm making quite an understatement when I say that I enjoyed this book wholly — from beginning to end, I never found myself stagnating in the middle of a page, waiting for something to happen, for some paragraph to grab me back into the novel, as I occasionally did in David Copperfield (although I will say that Copperfield is my favorite of the two). I remember learning in high school that, in The Great Gatsby (which has a great typo-twin, The Great Hatsby), F. Scott Fitzgerald strove to write the perfect paragraph — he came damn close at the very end, I'd say, but in Great Expectations, I found myself on several occasions re-reading a single paragraph, feeling as I did when reading the closing of Gatsby. But even with those outliers aside, the writing kept me, the reader, along at an even pace.

Parting with the characters was bittersweet: on the one hand, I was happy for Pip, who had found his place in life, and for Joe and Biddy who had found happiness together; but on the other, I was sad to leave the characters — much like finishing The Deathly Hallows or Lord of the Rings was like losing most of my friends. Every great novel, leaves the reader with that inkling of sadness that the tale is told. For my purposes, anyway, this is a good rubric to have on-hand.

Anyway, I think that's all I'll say for now. Next up is Norwegian Wood. This will mark the second time I've followed Dickens with a Murakami story. My life is nothing but one big thrill ride, I know.