Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim
I thought this would be a fun light read, but it turned out to be a good example of a book that has not stood the test of time. (Amusingly, the bookjacket states that it's set on the eve of WWII - given that the book was published in 1919, naming the wrong war should have been an easy mistake to catch.) I read 131 pages and it had yet to arrive at a plot. A novel's got to have something at stake; even if it's just "can the protagonist keep the surprise party a secret?", there has to be something going on that makes us want to keep reading. I will get my dose of escapism elsewhere.
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