I heart Mark Twain

Someone in my family gave me Mark Twain's Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World recently and I am totally enchanted. Who knew Samuel Clemens was such a traveler? Probably everyone except me. I had never really gotten into Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn even though I know they are American classics and whatsits.

This guy is so witty and brilliant I can't keep my hands off the pages! It was written back in 1897 and early photographs from his travels are included in the book (right now I am looking at The Blue Ribbon otherwise known as the equator when he crossed it in September of that year). The way he goes about describing events and nature is like a time machine. I am there. I can see the sunset over the Hawaiian Islands more than a century ago:

"The long sloping promontory projecting into the sea at the west turned dim and leaden and spectral, then became suffused with pink--dissolved itself in a pink dream, so to speak, it seemed so airy and unreal. Presently the cloud-rack was flooded with fiery splendors, and these were copied on the surface of the sea, and it made one drunk with delight to look upon it."

Twain also goes on to give moral advice. I like this one best: "There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition; there are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it."

He also mentions that the Southern Cross in the skies of the Southern Hemisphere shouldn't be called the Southern Cross at all but the Southern Kite as it actually makes heaps more sense. Kites are at home in the sky whereas crosses are not. He's right, I reckon. The Southern Kite is a much better name.

I also like how silly Twain is. Such as when the ship he is on passes the 180 degree mark and a day is lost as he is heading west on the Pacific towards Australia. He remarks on how different the weather is at the bow of the ship where it is still September 8th than it is at the stern where he is standing on September 10th. Also that food tastes different in both places, too. I think my favourite bit of this silliness is at the end when he jokes:

"If the ships all moved in the one direction--westward, I mean--the world would suffer a prodigious loss in the matter of valuable time, through the dumping overboard on the Great Meridian of such multitudes of days by ships' crews and passengers. But fortunately the ships do not all sail west, half of them sail east. So there is no real loss. These latter pick up all the discarded days and add them to the world's stock again; and about as good as new, too; for of course the salt water perserves them."

Throughout this book, I have discovered just how charming Mark Twain is. And I'm not even halfway through it! It is chock-full of good stuff. I thoroughly recommend you take a browse sometime. Very funny and uplifting.