Book Review: Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne)
Have I read this before: Indeed! In high school, I think? I can’t remember exactly.
Review: Good lord, I love this book. Jules Verne’s characters are always awesome, but not a single one of them is more awesome than Phileas Fogg. I think he is my favorite literary character (with the possible exception of Captain Queeg).
“He was so exact that he was never in a hurry, was always ready, and was economical alike of his steps and his motions. he never took one step too many, and always went to his destination by the shortest cut.; he made no superfluous gestures, and was never seen to be moved or agitated. He was the most deliberate person in the world, yet always reached his destination at the exact moment.”
“…Mr. Fogg stopped him, and, turning to Sir Francis Cromarty, said, ‘Suppose we save this woman.’
‘Save the woman, Mr. Fogg!’
‘I have yet twelve hours to spare, I can devote them to that.’
‘Why, you are a man of heart!’
‘Sometimes,’ replied Phileas Fogg, quietly; ‘when I have the time.'”
How can you not love a character like that, seriously?
As for the plot itself, it’s pretty much classic Verne. I love how he’s always throwing his characters into seemingly impossible-to-remedy situations and then he’s like “AND SUDDENLY AN ELEPHANT” or something else and it saves the day. I reiterate from past blogs: Verne is awesome. And this is my favorite of his books (though re-reading 20,000 Leagues made me realize just how badass that one was, too).
Favorite part: “Stop the train, we need to have an emergency duel!” Nothing says “defending your honor” like wanting to use a brief stop at a train station to duel to the death. And, failing at that, nothing says “no seriously, I gotta defend my honor!” like ushering passengers out of a train car so that you can utilize said car for a duel to the death. Oh, Jules.
Rating: 9.5/10
Book Review: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
I was going to do the whole “utilize random number generator to determine next book to read” thing, but I think I owe the library like $400,000 in late book fees and I’ve been having way too much anxiety to deal with people as of late, so I just decided to go with the first book on the list. Which was lucky, ‘cause I actually own this one: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
Have I read this before: YES! I read it in high school some time…let’s see…10th grade. 15 years old.
Review: I love Verne. I love this book. I love how perfectly it is written. I remember searching on Amazon for a copy of this and one of the many, many reviewers complained that this book was boring.
How the hell could anyone see this book as boring??
- Mysterious underwater thingy hunted by a ship.
- Misanthropic captain with a love for all things ocean.
- Shipwrecks.
- Atlantis.
- Underwater burials.
- The South Pole.
- Near asphyxiation.
- Giant squid.
- Maelstroms.
Hell, that list alone should make you excited!
I don’t want to give too much away about this one because I want people to FREAKING READ IT. Just know that it’s good. It’s very good. It’s freaking Jules Verne, yo.
Reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaad iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
Favorite part: The South Pole, man. It’s, “are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” for like a whole chapter and then when they finally do reach it after making a ton of checks to see if it’s the right place (this was set in the 1800s, after all), the landing is described beautifully. Like I said, it’s freaking Jules Verne, yo.
Rating: this gets 9/10. Fantastic.
Also, happy 26th birthday to Michael “Rage Quit” Jones. Your Rage Quit vids got me into Achievement Hunter, whose videos have been a consistent source of amusement since about January of this year (which has been super helpful for my mental health). Keep ragin’, you awesome dude.
Oh my
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is absolutely fantastic. And this is coming from a person whose enjoyment in the world of science fiction used to come solely from Jules Verne.
Sexy, sexy Jules Verne.
After a rather innocuous beginning—in the sense that I thought it would end up to be similar in style and tone as Verne, since Wells apparently idolized the dude (who wouldn’t?)—it took a very different turn than I was expecting and I actually got a bit of an adrenaline rush reading through the 3rd quarter of it. Read it.
And now I’m reading Lolita, which is amazingly well-written but is so similar to some sort of twisted pedophilic tell-all that it’s actually kind of creeping me out. And the 30-minutes bus ride to campus (WITHOUT A TRANSFER, SCREW YOU #7) = excellent reading time, now that I don’t get motion sick anymore.
Today’s song: The Mummers vs. Passion Pit, a mash-up by Stayloose
OH JESUS IT’S BLOG TIME
I either want to be Phileas Fogg or marry him. With very few descriptions of physical characteristics, he is still the freaking sexiest character I’ve ever read about.
I need to read more Verne. I really like his characters.
EX
Dammit Jules Verne, I want you.
20,000 leagues into my pants.
Journey to the center of my heart.
Eigenblogger 