Charles Dickens At 200

Today is Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday. He lived a life in his early years that no one would wish on another. He was eventually imprisoned in a debtor’s prison as a boy, joining his family after a long a filthy journey through a childhood nightmare of thugs and thieves. You may not know that “(t)he strenuous – and often cruel – work conditions made a deep impression on Dickens, and later influenced his fiction and essays, forming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions, the rigors of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He would later write that he wondered “how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age”/ Dennis Mansfield . More here.

• Be kind to caucus workers — register Republican by Feb. 17 /Adam’s Blog
• Of smoking and freedom /Sisyphus, 43rd State Blues
• Otter, Legislature looking at new taxes /Idaho Conservative Blogger
• FDR’s Great Blunder: As showdown looms, an anniversary of note /Johnson Report
• GOP senator proposing animal killing free-for-all /Potato Understanding
• Steve Appleton /Randy Stapilus, Ridenbaugh Press
• Not all groups buy into forest collaboration, but Idaho got more funds /Rocky Barker

Question: The last book I read by Dickens was “Hard Times.” Mebbe 3-4 years ago. I’d read several before. But a long time ago. How about you? When did you last read Dickens? Which book?