I don’t like it when a book gives me a reading assignment. Winger is not a short book and in part two I encountered this footnote:
Okay. If you haven’t read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, you should. Because it is fucking hilarious, and there’s no way you’d understand “Hello, Central” unless you read the book.
And of course I have not read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I’ve seen a few adaptations of it. Did not get the reference. So I tried to appeal to the great author Andrew Smith himself via twitter:
@marburyjack Do I need to interrupt Winger to read a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?
— David Yenoki (@davidshead) July 20, 2013
And as of this post I have not received a notification that I can wait until after finishing Winger to read A Connecticut Yankee so here I am, shifting through a Project Gutenberg ePub of Mark Twain’s classic that isn’t Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. (I realize he is also remembered for the Prince and the Pauper which like Connecticut Yankee I have not read).
*sigh* and I think I’m only 9% done with Connecticut Yankee. If Andrew Smith has embedded more literary references it may take a while before I finish with Winger and I was hoping to be ready for the next time I see him…