I love Mark Twain, mostly because of how easy it is to rip him off and ascribe quotes to him.

But also because Tom Sawyer was the first book I had read as a child that put the taste of Southern grass in my mouth and the feeling of thick humidity reaching out and strangling me.

I don't always like writers from past times (the older they are, the harder the mental overhead in feeling the story), but he was one from another time that intoxicated me, even as a "millennial" hooked on comics and video games.

This article and other comments have inspired me to dig a bit more into the man.