Standing here solidly on my own two hands and going crazy

2. Three Plays: Once in a Lifetime/You Can't Take It With You/the Man Who Came to Dinner ; George Kaufman/Moss Hart (307 pages)

"The Man Who Came to Dinner" may be the first play I ever read, some...gulp...twenty-plus years ago. I'd read my way through several sections of my public library, and found myself leafing through the paltry offerings from playwrights. I'm not sure why "The Man Who..." caught my eye, but I'm so glad it did. Witty, both timely and timeless, it's not only one of my favorite plays, but the film version (starring Bette Davis and Monty Wooley) has become one of my must-watch Christmas eve movies, right behind "White Christmas".

I had a little trouble getting into "Once in a Lifetime", so I took a break and read something else for a bit. When I came back to it, after skipping ahead to the final play, I found it much easier to fall in-step with it, and got a good chuckle out of the clueless yokel who shakes up Hollywood, at the time 'talkies' became...well, the talk of the town.

I also found it slow-going with "You Can't Take it With You", but I persevered till the story and I matched steps. I saw the ending coming, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable.