Bookshelf: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

As you all know by know, I love classic books. I've read a lot of different authors but I have just finished my first Jules Verne. I don't know why I put it off for so long, I think it must have been a combination of my bad memory and long list of books people keeping telling me I must read. I'm just happy I finally got around to it.

My overall reaction to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is that it is fantastic. Verne had a lot of imagination going into it and a knack for story telling. That doesn't mean I loved everything about the book, but overall it was a great read. If you like science fiction that isn't space ships and time travel, or if you're a fan of steampunk, I highly recommend this book.

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Now, I just want to take the time here to clarify something that I found a bit confusing: the title. At first glance, I (and I'm sure many others) thought that the title was saying that Captain Nemo's magnificent ship would be able to dive to a depth of 20,000 leagues. As I knew next to nothing about how deep the Earth's oceans are, I had no problem thinking that. But after reading the book (and some research), I found out that the deepest part of the ocean (Mariana Trench) is only 10.911 kilometers deep, which is equivalent to 1.96 leagues. Obviously, unless Verne had a great imagination, the Nautilus would not be able to reach that deep. Actually, the title means that, throughout the entirety of this story, the Nautilus would travel a total of 20,000 leagues (111,120 kilometers) while being under the ocean's surface (aka "Under the Sea). This is by no means a rant that Verne should have given his book a clearer title, just a bit of confusion I'd like to clear up.

Enough of little technicalities, let's talk about the book as a whole. I won't include any spoilers here, so some of this might seem a bit vague. I'd say come back and read this again right after reading the book to see if you agree with my opinions.

First, I'd like to cover what I loved about the book. As I've probably mentioned before, I love good description. I'm a very visual person and enjoy a lengthy description about how the landscape looks. Jules Verne does this very well. He gives a lot of description of the wonders of the ocean: the terrain, the fish and critters, the interior and exterior of the submarine. I could see it all in my mind. Of course, if you don't like pages of description, I'd saw it does get a little draggy after a while (more on this later). Also, I thought the basic premise of the story, as well as the initial set-up, was great. The idea of travelling around the world's oceans and discovering all the fantastic sights and animals is a great idea, but Verne adds another layer of tension and excitement by making our three companions prisoners on the Nautilus. The set up for the encounter with Captain Nemo's ship was done well. I thought it was very interesting that Verne decided to make the false assumption of a destructive animal a global affair, even into a hunting competition. That made the reveal of the man-made ship that more fantastic, especially since the only people that knew this information would never see humanity again. The characters were great as well. They felt fleshed out and different from each other. Even though some of them definitely had some similarities of interest between them, after just a few chapters you could look back on what the character said or did and think, "Yes, that is definitely what ____ would do." The characters also kept the plot going and always brought something to the table. Finally, just the imagination of Verne is wonderful. From the great speed of the Nuatilus to descriptions of parts of the globe that were still a great mystery. Verne was able to bring all of this to life and made it seem real.

Of course, I didn't love all of the book. I believe that all books (with the very rare exception) have their low points. Even if I can't find anything wrong with a book, someone else will. For me, I found some of Verne's description annoying and boring. Me? Find description boring? Yes, if it happens to be dry scientific classification of animals with names I can hardly pronounce. Verne, with his love of science, felt the need to go on and on about the specific species and classification of many animals. After a while (half a page or so), it got very boring and tiring. I even skipped some of them entirely, and I usually hate skipping any part of a book. But it was not just animal classifications that got to me, Verne also talked in length about latitude and longitude, mathematics, and dry geography. It was a good thing most of these were discussed separately from each other, otherwise I would have skipped a lot more.  Another thing, I felt that many of the events that occurred in the story that were intended to be high points were resolved too quickly. I have a few in mind, but I won't include any here to avoid spoilers. I just felt that the main reason I was reading was to find out how our three companions would escape Captain Nemo's ship, not for the events in between. Also, I felt the ending fell a bit short. Instead of telling us exactly what happened, the point of view character falls unconscious and later the other characters can't tell him what happend. They don't know how they escaped, so the readers are left in the dark. I just felt that there was no pay-off for the amount of anticipation I had going into seeing them escape.

Once again, I'd like to say that I did greatly enjoy this book, even with it's short comings. Overall, it was a great reading experience and an interesting story. If you love classics as much as I do, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is a must.

Bookshelf: Oldies but Goodies

I love classic books. Most of the time, given the choice between a new best seller or an old-time classic, I'll lunge for the old musty book. I'm not sure why, but I think part of it is the style of writing. The elevated voice of the words and sentences really resonates with me (and so do the longevity of the sentences. Gotta love those commas!). So I've made a small list of some of my favourite classic novels. It is by no means a complete list, but just a small sliver.

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The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
This is by far my favourite classic (so far at least!). I love H.G. Wells. His books are amazing in both imagination and writing style. In addition to being an exciting novel about time travel, The Time Machine also has an interesting theme about social structures. It's also interesting to see Wells take on the future of mankind. While it's not exactly post-apocalyptic, the decline of humanity is definitely there. I personally find it a refreshing change from the modern apocalyptic trends with nuclear fallout and such. Here, we don't know why humanity fell and only see the last remnants of the event that triggered the decline. I also suggest checking out The Invisible Man (which is rather hilarious) and The War of the Worlds.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Yep, you knew it was going to be on here. I won't spend too much time on this one, but I will say that Stoker is great at maintaining interest and suspense. Even though everyone knows the story, the little clues that mount up to the reveal of the vampire really tease at the reader. It is a great mystery. Also, Stoker's descriptions are amazing.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
This one is also a no-brainer classic. I actually read this for the first time this summer (waaaaay too long of a put off on my part) and it was great. I liked how Shelley makes Dr. Frankenstein very intriguing, especially his obsession and later regret of creating such a monster. Also, the character of the monster is fully fleshed out, not a cardboard cutout that is often seen in film adaptations of the book. I personally found the monster a little whinny, but that's just me.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
These two are crazy and creative. Definitely don't read one and not the other! I love how wacky and random everything is in these books and how Alice somehow makes them out to be incredibly normal. She is an unusual girl herself. These books are fun, incredibly silly, and also include catchy poetry. What's not to love?

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I love this book. A lot. It's funny because the first time I read this book (in high school) I hated it while I was reading it. Then, the moment I finished it, I loved it. The way all the parts that seem independent all mix together throughout the story is amazing. Also, all the characters are fascinating and unusual in some way. The very character arc that Sidney undergoes is wonderful and really made the book for me. Rereading it is a lot of fun when you know where all the characters eventually end up.

The Odyssey by Homer
This one is really old! Also, not actually written by Homer, just written down first by him (actually, he was telling it aloud and someone else was writing it down, but anyway). This story is amazing and much better than the Iliad, which I find incredibly boring at parts. It is an adventuring and exploring tale, also including some troubles Odysseus faces once he gets home. I am a huge fan of Greek mythology and I really love how Athene just decides to help Odysseus out because he is clever like herself. Wonderful story. Also, if you want to watch a very loose adaptation of the Odyssey, watch O Brother Where Art Thou? It's a very very loose adaptation but entertaining (plus George Clooney, so what's really to complain about?).

That's enough of a list for now, but I will post more books later on (currently in the middle of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea). And not just classics. I don't just read stuff that was written one hundred years ago ;)

E-books vs. Physical Books: Why the Format Shouldn't Matter

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I was reading this article which talked about the time old topic of e-books vs. physical books. By now, this argument has been exhausted. Readers are divided into those who love e-books and those who think they are the worst invention of all time (okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea). Of course, there are those who fall in the middle but they don't tend to be in the forefront of the argument. Me personally, I love physical books because they're easier for me to read–my eyes tend to get tired after reading from a screen for a little bit–and I also find that I can remember what I've read better when reading from a book than from a screen. But in my opinion, the argument in regards to the future of writing and reading is irrelevant. The people that say that e-books are ruining the future of reading are silly. E-books are just another form of reading. I think that the old fashioned printed book will never completely disappear, but even if they were to, that would not stop readers from reading. Even those who hate e-books with a burning passion and swear they will never ever buy a Kindle or Nook would be forced to if all the physical books in the world were suddenly destroyed. Why? Because readers can live without physical books, but they can't live without reading.

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The thing is, readers will always read. There are many reasons why people are drawn to fiction: as an escape from the drudgery of regular life, for recreation, to allow their minds to become one with a fantastical and make-believe world. The types of people who enjoy reading will always find ways to read. Sure, there are many people who don't read outside of school or work (I honestly can't figure out how they keep themselves from getting bored), but I think that the number of people like that aren't getting any larger or smaller. It has nothing to do with TV, movies, video games, the Internet or what have you. It has to do with the personality. And that goes for readers as well. That's why books will survive, in one form or another. And it shouldn't matter whether you read on a screen or from a page. What matters is that the stories will still be there.

Now, this also raises the interesting topic of where the future of fiction and literature is going content-wise; whether we'll end up with more unique, thought-provoking stories or books akin to Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey. That is a whole other topic, something that may be very controversial, and I'll leave that to another post. I just wanted to try to convince the people ranting about the doom of the book to set aside their blind love for the physical book and consider the e-book. Once again, I'm personally not a fan and if I can avoid reading an e-book, I certainly will. But, I don't think they are bad or good. They're just different. And the format of the book does not change the contents of the book. The story is still there, it may just look different. And the story is what truly matters.