I’m not a big fan of Dickens; I usually find him tedious and long-winded.
But it would take a far more curmudgeonly fellow than I am to dislike Mr.
Pickwick and his travelling companions, to say nothing of the inimitable
Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick’s unsinkable servant.

This was my second time through The Pickwick Papers; I doubt
it will be my last. The first time I read it, it was as a Project
Gutenberg e-text on my PDA. I picked up a paperback copy while I was in
Vancouver last month. I needed a book to read while I ate dinner, and
the only bookstore I could find was a remainder shop. Fortunately it had
a number of remaindered classics, Pickwick among them.

This is a very long book to read straight through, and I don’t recommend
that you do that; but being largely episodic in nature it’s a wonderful
book to pick up every so often, between other books, and that’s how I
read it.

Bring a little bit of patience, and don’t take too much at once, and I
think you’ll enjoy it considerably.