The biography is quite a tome. If anyone wants a taste of what it's like without committing to 1000+ pages, you should read the Journey to the Western Islands o

The biography is quite a tome. If anyone wants a taste of what it's like without committing to 1000+ pages, you should read the Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland first. Johnson and Boswell toured Scotland together and then each wrote a short book about it. Well, Johnson wrote a book about it, and Boswell wrote a book about Johnson writing his book. It's pretty much the same style as the later biography but much more compact, and you can usually find both books published in a single volume (both book on the tour of Scotland, that is. )