Ted Jones wrote:
Perhaps next year you should get her a copy of Great Expectations.


Which would invite a return gift of _Hard Times_ and _Bleak House_,
no doubt.


Sorry, when I posted my reply to fundoc, your reply had not yet reached my
news server. Does give me another avenue of entreaty. Have to be more
cautious recently because she is climbing well over 2000 books and lives in
a modest house. I also have to be careful of the books I give her because
"gasp" she has a strange tendency to actually read them.


Perhaps it's time to dispense with Dickens, who was, it should be
pointed out, less than sanguine on the subject of romantic love;
fundoc's suggestion of _Great Expectations_ is likely to have the
opposite of the desired effect. Move on to another writer. I suggest
Walter Scott: _The Betrothed_ and _The Bride of Lammermoor_. And hope
she doesn't respond with _The Abbot_ and _The Monastery_.


--Jon Meyers