The 2.5 Pillars of Wisdom (the von igelfeld trilogy)

My current read is a book by Alexander McCall Smith, a sort-of Scottish author who has a very dry sense of humor. Fittingly, I first read one of his books in Glasglow last summer entitled "44 Scotland Street," which is a story about these wacky characters who live in the same building in Edinburgh. It's not the usual kind of book I read - people who know me know that I tend to steer towards fantasy/sci-fi or romance - but at the time, it seemed like a worthwhile read. Surprisingly, I was captivated - and not because I was on a plane flying 10,000 miles above ground. "44 Scotland Street" had some pretty impressive characters and (to me) showed the strange sides of "normal" people. I went on to read the next two books in the series before returning to my ever-faithful faeries.

But the other day at the library, I picked up a copy of Smith's "The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom - the von igelfeld trilogy." The little blurb on the back immediately intrigued me:

"Welcome to the extraordinary world of Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, an unnaturally tall and memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and Inspector Clouseau's hapless gaucherie.

Von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, which he shares with his equally tall and equally ridiculous colleagues, Professors Florianus Prinzel and Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer."

Just the names of the professors are ridiculous :). I'm midway through the book right now, and adore it! It pokes fun at pompous and serious von Igelfeld who spends his life thinking about the contradictions of the phrases "x, a friend of cardinals and popes" and "x, a friend of a cardinal and a pope." I love how the most random things are discussed in the most serious manner - from the merits of the sausage dog (to which almost a whole chapter, as well as multiple references, is devoted) to the importance of portuguese irregular verbs. "The 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom" is a light-hearted funny read, and I recommend it to everyone - especially fans of P.G. Wodehouse.