"The sixth of July. Your loving friend Benedick."

My sister Clair and I like to read books together. It seems strange to be telling that to a blog as if it's some new thing. At any rate, she and I somehow managed to finish the entire Sherlock Holmes canon in about two months, and not wanting to carelessly bolt the Jeeves and Wooster series down in a similar way, I got her on to the Psmith books.

Unlike Jeeves and Wooster, which is one of those things you love right away or not at all, the lesser-known Psmith series is definitely an acquired taste. If you wish to go about the business of acquiring it, I highly recommend securing a listener and reading the thing aloud. Psmith's monologues are that much more audacious when they're actually audible. (The jokes on Psmith's name are trickier when you can't see them in print, though; he says it's pronounced with a silent 'P', "as in pshrimp.")

For private reading, I've been tackling the rest of the Lord Peter Wimsey books. I like these books, but I can't put my finger on their appeal. Is it the mysteries themselves, the offbeat main character, the darkness lurking behind the humor, or merely the fact that I grin involuntarily every time Lord Peter uses the phrase "uncommonly awkward"?

Wimsey and Psmith accompany each other well; they have noticeably similar character traits and mannerisms. Also, I've had it spoiled that (SPOILERS! TURN BACK TURN BACK) each eventually acquires a wife, something you really wouldn't expect of either of them. Psmith has Eve Halliday, and Wimsey has Harriet Vane. Coincidentally, I happen to be one book away from meeting the love interest in both cases. I do hope those crazy boys are in good hands.

(OKAY YOU MAY LOOK AGAIN NOW)

And all this goes without even mentioning any of the Shakespeare. There's always Shakespeare. If I elaborated, this blog post would start to sound like one of those newsletter Christmas cards with a column for every member of the family, so I'll cut it short.

It's Summer, after all. This season's twenty times too short as it is.

Below: a Wimsey book basking among the beetles