Three Men in boat - Jerome K. Jerome

 

Three Men in a Boat, a witty novel, published in 1889,  by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday on the Thames. This  has been my 99 of 2020 and one that I have loved since my school days.

The movie Sound of Music, and this book, has always been my favorite. It is about Jerome himself (the narrator Jerome K. Jerome) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom Jerome often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional. 

For some reason my favorite has been chapter 4, may be because it was part of school curriculum and I had so much fun reading it, especially thinking of how packing could be done, the story of cheese, butter and adjusting time to wake up are all so nostalgic. Upto chapter 5 are their preparations, and from Chapter 6 on begin the real trip of a fortnight, where boat was their home.  They travel from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston, and describe the places enroute and is like a travel guide from three friends afloat on an open boat.