Wednesday, June 20, 2012

A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • Title:  A Princess of Mars
  • Author:  Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • Borrowed from DC Public Library (e-book)
  • Started: June 13th, 2012
  • Finished: June 18th, 2012
 
Another ERB book, this is the first of the "John Carter" series.  I liked it, but not as much as Tarzan. Still an easy to read adventure story with some good entertaining moments.  I'm curious now to see the recent Disney movie based on this series which did terribly at the box office.  I suspect I'll like it more than I would have, now that I've read the first book and I'm familiar with the premise and characters.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Mauritius Command, by Patrick O'Brian


The first of this series I read in book form as opposed to listening to it as an audio book.  I'm not sure I could have enjoyed this series had I not listened to the first few.  It sounds strange, but the nautical terms are strange enough, and the personalities difficult enough, that it really helped to have listened to the first few "performed" to get the feel and understanding for these.  They take much longer to listed to than to read, but the audio books are really well done.  Having a few behind me made it much easier, and much more enjoyable to read this fourth book in the series.

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson


Playing catch-up with books I should have read decades ago, and I know I've at least read parts of this one as a kid.  But I can tell you I never read the whole thing, or even much of it, although I might have been assigned to do so in school.

Well again it was my loss, as much fun as the disney movie may be this book was better.  A fun adventure story I can imagine all of the fun backyard play this must have inspired in boys around the world over the years.  Makes me want to get on a schooner and search for buried treasure myself.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson


I'd always wanted to read this one which is probably more of a novella or short story than a full on novel.  I didn't love it like I thought I would, still it was a solid, fun read and I can certainly see it having a big impact back when it was published.  Glad I have finally caught up with this one.

Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs


This is an example of a book I guess I always knew was a book, but I was so accustomed to the TV shows & movies that I never gave reading the original much thought.  My loss, as this was an excellent story and you can see why Tarzan became so popular.  A very fun adventure story, with all the dangers and wonders you'd expect.  I suspect I'll read several more of these, as well as other Burroughs stories over the next few years.  Can't believe I'd never read this one until now.