»Three Men in a Boat

I finally read Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat, often described as a classic. The book gracefully unrolls the story of a boating-trip down the Thames, with its attendant comic misadventure. The first sentence sets the dry tone for the book: "There were four of us ...", because the boat holds the three men -- and Montmorency the dog. A grade-school friend gave me his copy of this many, many years ago -- maybe twenty! -- but it still sits on the shelf. I picked up a paperback reprint while travelling, and found that the book's narrative neatly suits the reading of a few pages while on a train or while waiting for a flight.
P G Wodehouse pays homage to Jerome in Psmith in the City, setting an exciting political meeting to the scandalous retelling of an incident from Three Men in a Boat.