Yesterday, I finished Neal Stephenson's The System of the World, which is the last book in his Baroque Trilogy, the first book of which—Quicksilver—I started sometime earlier this year.
Which, among other things, means that: at least it didn't take me more than a year to finish this colossal series. Overall, an amazing set of books: hilariously funny, great characters, frustratingly slow at times, &c.—but overall so, so worth it, throughout & in the end.
And there's this passage that I really liked. I don't know why, exactly, because it's not exactly central to the story or anything—I just liked the way it sounded:
Therefore, go ye out into the Rumbo, the Spinning-Ken, to Old Nass, go to the Boozing-kens of Hockley-in-the-Hole and the Cases at the low end of the Mount, go to the Goat in Long-lane, the Dogg in Fleet Street, and the Black-boy in Newtenhouse-Lane, and drink—but not too much—and buy drinks—but never too many—for any flash culls you spy there, and acquire transitory knowledge, and return to my ken and relate to me what you have learnt.
From Neal Stephenson's The System of the World, p. 156
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