Monsignor Quixote - Graham Greene

And this is the reason why I was saying that I've probably read too many Graham Greene. Despite the quote from a review from The Spectator on the book's cover, the novel is not Greene's best, or the most absorbing, or adept - it is possibly his most effortless though, as it costs the reader nothing to read it, but I'm afraid it also cost Greene very little to write it.

I probably (well, surely actually) didn't like the picaresque tone of it, but with this I'll probably stop reading Greene novels no matter how much I've loved so many of them*

* That's a blatant lie, I might stop after reading The End of the Affair.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

With my wife and baby daughter gone for six weeks (!!) I decided this period was my best chance to read the thickest book I had on my shelves.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most gripping books I’ve ever read – parts of it reminded me of Stevenson, others of Verne, and I suspect quite a few would have reminded me of Hugo (this remains only a suspicion because, erm, I’ve never actually read any Hugo). The vendetta is at times a bit too prolonged, and I would honestly differentiate between the degree of guilt of Fernando, Danglars, Villefort and Caderousse, but I don’t really hold Dantès responsible for the death of young Edourad de Villefort (much like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dantès plays no role in the outcome of this subplot).

However, for spellbinding that the book is, I really don’t think this is great literature. It’s honestly just a bit too easy to read and to follow (the only intimidating thing being the thickness of it in the end), I never got even remotely confused by the plot or by the characters in it. As one of my colleagues rightfully said, it’s probably just a book that used to be low-brow and that is now considered to be high-brow because of the passage of time and historical setting.  

Watership Down – Richard Adams

When I rescued this book from the “table of unwanted items” in my building it was more beaten up than Bigwig after his big showdown with General Woundwort. It was worth rescuing it. Not that, unsurprisingly, its state improved after being put in my bike bag and taken to work every day this week!

As an adventure book Watership Down is just great. It’s got tales of heroic bravery, suspense and friendship. From that point of view it ranks up there with Treasure Island, Around the World in 80 Days and The Lost World in terms of children’s (or at least young adults’) literature. The problem, though, is that, even in this case, I could have really done without magic and folklore: I didn’t care for the stories passed down from generation to generation of rabbits, and I would have liked Fiver a lot better had he not had extra-sensory perception!

Sure, only bucks appear to have a prominent role and does take very much the back seat, but I really don’t see it as too much of a problem and I don’t read too much of a macho message into it (maybe because I’m a man!). 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

A book that I’ve had on my shelf for ages (clearly!). And, to be honest, had I also owned a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I would have probably started with that (which would have been a bad call, considering that I quickly came to dislike Tom Sawyer in this novel).

Am I at ease with the way in which Jim is portrayed? Not always.

Do I think Huckleberry really escapes civilization? Not fully, just see so many of his moral dilemmas regarding Jim’s future (and past).

Do I think this is a work of art? Absolutely.

Huckleberry Finn combines the sense of adventure of the best Verne, Stevenson and Conan Doyle with what is ultimately a great moral depth (sure, so many of the comments on slavery make – and well they should! – people cringe, but it’s undeniably a step in the right direction for late-19^th century white Americans).

But, to go back to my first few lines, I honestly disliked Tom Sawyer a lot – and I think that all the ordeals he made Jim go through in the last few chapters were just too mean, gratuitous and so not funny. So, despite liking Huckleberry Finn so very much I am not going to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer anytime soon…

Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson

One of the books I postponed reading for, well, about 19 years. The first 4 of those years were because I didn’t feel like reading anything anyway, the following 15 because why reading a book when you already know the story and you are afraid of getting Jethro Tull’s Mother Goose stuck in your head as you read it (“Four and twenty labourers were labouring, And digging up their gold, I don't believe they knew that I was Long John Silver”)?

Well, turns out that you should read this book despite the fact that you already know how it will end because it’s possibly the greatest novel ever written. It combines the sense of adventure of The Lost World or 20.000 Leagues under the Sea with a plot that is ever so slightly less improbable, and Stevenson’s prose is unparalleled – meaning that for me the book ranks up there with Around the World in 80 Days.

As far as bad guys that are actually (maybe possibly) not so-bad (and may have fallen on hard times so might deserve our understanding) Long John Silver is second to none, despite the fact that the narrator is a bit of a know-it-all.

I am not that familiar with contemporary fiction for young-adults, but I really don’t think there is anything that could come even remotely close to this. 

The Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle

When I was a kid I read some of Sherlock Holmes’s stories and kind of liked them, but to me The Lost World was of an entirely different calibre.

Maybe it’s because this week I’ll be going to Crystal Palace to check out the 19^th century dinosaur sculptures, or maybe because the novel reminded me of my youthful love for those creatures, but I loved The Lost World with passion. Sure, the characters are all so representative of authentic 19^th century English values (something with which I am still very much struggling in post-referendum Britain), and many of these features are just offensive by today’s standards (nowadays you don’t quite assert your masculinity by firing guns, at least in theory, and women are allowed on adventurous expeditions, at least at times), but the four heroes all remain charming in their own ways.

I suspect that the book falls into the “young adults” category – and I’m sadly out of it now! – but one thing that really surprised me is that, at the end of the day, it’s really not dated…

Michael Strogoff – Jules Verne

My grandma taught me how to read when I was 4. By the time I was 5 I was a boring kid reading scientific publications on dinosaurs and wild animals. By the time I was 6 and in elementary school most people around me had also learned how to read, so I stopped and, essentially, didn’t open a book until I was 14.

Because of my long literature-free years, I am now often forced to embarrassingly catch up on books that I wish I had read in my early teens, like Michael Strogoff. I half-heartedly read 20.000 Leagues under the Sea when I was 12 (one of the few books that I was forced to read in that period and, because of the mood I was in, I think it’s best if I don’t write anything about how I felt towards Captain Nemo then), I later loved Around the World in 80 Days, but Michael Strogoff was the Jules Verne book that intrigued me the most (that said, I managed to postpone reading it until now although I had asked for it as a Christmas present probably 10 years ago).

It was a delightful read despite the fact that, more than Around the World in 80 Days, the novel is so extremely dated (its national stereotypes, its depiction of women, nationalism, courage, morality etc.) – but my edition still had the old 19^th century illustrations which made me tingly inside, and I must say I actually had goosebumps when Michael carries Nadja towards Irkutsk. It was also interesting to look at how quickly each event was described: with one hit Michael kills a bear, with one jump he runs away and so on and so forth – all those actions are described in one quick line, whereas in a 20^th century adventure they would probably last for a few epic pages.

Also, I’ve probably loved the book because it finally gave me an idea of the geography of some of those mysterious territories in the top-right corner of the Risk board…

Puerto Escondido – Pino Cacucci

I read this book after watching a travel program on Mexico in which Cacucci was gallivanting around the country with a couple of Italian comedians. Now that I think about it, there isn’t much to say about the novel: it’s just a series of wacky adventures that lead the main character to end up in the Mexican village of Puerto Escondido.

It’s just that – not a masterpiece, not a work of great literature – but it’s absolutely lovely, and isn’t this what reading (at times, not always!) should be about?

Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne

When I was a kid, I didn’t really read. Which meant that by the time I was 14 or so I had to catch up on the books that a good reader is meant to have read in middle-school. I read this novel while on my bizarre first holiday, in Venice and with a friend of mine who was somehow not interested in visiting every single church and museum in the city (I was really boring when I was 14, probably more so than I am now...). Surprisingly, our friendship has never been the same since...

This book surpassed my expectations. By a lot. For a few days I wished I was Passepartout and had a side-kick as nice as Phileas Phogg (sorry, that’s the pecking order for me...). And the end of the novel, with the incomprehension regarding time zones, is still absolutely priceless.

I really wish I could go back in time and force 11-year old me to read this book then. However, if I had to pick only one book to force-feed to my younger self, it would probably be the one above...

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

I read this book while playing spot the difference between the novel and Apocalypse Now. That was fun. I had already realized that Conrad’s writing is not dated, but this book confirmed it. True, there are passages that are fairly dull, mostly in the lead-up to the actual expedition up the Congo, but this is understandable if not expectable.

The novel is still unsettling, probably like Conrad’s life must have been. The fact that the boat is floating up the Congo and not the Nung to me makes it even more obscure and mysterious. However, I wish I had the liberty of picturing Kurtz and Marlow without the faces of Brando and Sheen.

Also, it’s kind of a shame that there is no talk of surfing in the book, but hey, you can’t have everything...

The Shadow Line – Joseph Conrad

I always thought my first Conrad book would have been Heart of Darkness – not sure whether it was because that’s the one my high-school teacher was always talking about or because I had my mind blown by Apocalypse Now when I was 14. Instead, I ended up reading this first because it was picked as one of the 103 (random number, I know) most significant books of the 20^th century by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica – a wonderful collection that no doubt inspired me to read more.

I assumed Conrad’s writing would be dated, but at the end of the day if Verne’s adventurous stories aren’t dated for young adults (and oh they aren’t), why should Conrad’s be for supposed-to-be real adults? The Shadow Line is still a surprisingly enjoyable book, with its journey of self-discovery not made any less interesting by the passing of time.