Karl Marx's Manifesto is such a widely known book and this is the first time i read it. This may be a sign of the times, but i found the book almost humorous because of all the jokes i've heard and seen involving the 'proletariat rising up'

for example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=L-RsuI_cOSI

Or how many times in class in high school we would joke about having a proletariat uprising over a test or some project.

Its very interesting now to see the actual text that bred such thought. I can imagine being an oppressed lower class worker, reading this, lending it to my friends, and becoming extremely unified and emblazoned against the bourgeois. I really enjoy reading the sections made to fire up the proletariat like on page 167 "the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product."