The Name of the Wind

I'm of two minds about this book. On one hand, I think it has a lot of neat ideas and character moments. It is well written in a lot of ways and certainly has many gripping scenes that I read intently and I was quickly done a chapter and onto the next without realizing it.

But at the same time, this is the most fedora-tipping, gentleman wish-fulfillment thing I have ever read that's not an internet meme. I think the most perfect example of what I'm talking about is a scene in which the main character's rival/bully is flirting with a girl who is clearly unwelcoming to his advances. He's reading her a poem that he wrote, and our hero steps in and says:

“I'm not sure I can trust the literacy of someone who tries to rhyme ‘north' with ‘worth.' No wonder you have to hold women down to get them to listen to it.”

“My lady scriv” I said to her with a bow....