2022: Could there be a more perfect book? Setting my alarm to re-read this in 2030...

2010: I love Dickens for so many reasons, not the least of which is his ability to describe a limp handshake. Hasn't everyone shaken hands with this person? (And if you haven't, well... maybe you ARE this person)

"He quite shook hands with me-- which was a violent proceeding for him, his usual course being to slide a tepid little fish-slice, an inch or two in advance of his hip, and evince the greatest discomposure when anybody grappled with it. Even now, he put his hand in his coat-pocket as soon as he could disengage it, and seemed relieved when he had got it safe back."

Tepid little fish-slice! They just don't make Victorian novelists like they used to.