King Solomon’s Mines (H. Rider Haggard)

Sorry dudes, I give this one a thumb down.

Relatively boring story full of attitudes and manners that are objectionable to a modern and enlightened mind. Some parts are fun, and I guess I can see why this is a classic, but if you are a reader who chooses his material based on my recommendations, as I will be from now on, I’d give this one a pass.

Read The Lost World (Doyle) instead, if you’re in the mood for this kind of thing.

But I’ve heard good things about the movie…

First Encounter:
“King Solomon’s Mines” was a nonsense phrase that I’d heard a few times in my youth. Eventually I learned it was the name of a Blues Club but presumed it also referred to something more famous given the contexts I’d vaguely remembered hearing the phrase in. Sometime between childhood and 2017, when I read this book, but probably closer to 2017, I learned that this was a book, “The Most Amazing Book Ever Written,” by some accounts, and the title was a literal reference to Mines, specifically those of King Solomon.

The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne)

Just another Gilligan’s Island rip-off, but with more meandering, and without women or humor. Gilligan is played by an Orangutan and the professor is actually smart enough to know how to build a boat. It’s sort of reminiscent of Master and Commander, in that much of the “action” consists of miasmatic, nerdy explanations of technical operations.

It wasn’t all bad. I did read the whole book, afterall, and for the most part ungrudgingly… but I have to believe that other Jules Verne books are better, because it would be too annoying to realize that classic JV-loving dudes like “Doc” Emmett Brown, Tom Paris, Yuri Gagarin, etc. are just on a totally different plane than me when it comes to inspirational SF literature.

First Encounter:
Some misexecuted desire to read classic authors…

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)

I really liked the first account we hear of Mr. Hyde, and I thought more of such accounts should have been presented, because it was kind of tough to figure out what Mr. Hyde could possibly be doing on his excursions. I wanted to hear of the sick, twisted deeds and of the methods he used to execute them. I wanted to know what secret desires lurked within Jekyll, and maybe in the process see which secret desires I too held. I also kinda wished I didn’t know exactly what was up from the get go, due to the dang old saturation of this story into our popular culture. Due to its quaint length, it was a good book to carry around with me during the night and read in Moroccan Coffee Shops and in the aftermath of sucky parties. And maybe the message was relevant too.

First Encounter:
Obviously all living free persons know this classic tale. I don’t remember how I acquired the small paperback copy I ended up carrying around during my winter break prior to my last semester of college, but I do remember it accompanying me during an adventuresome 1-2 days and nights, the same alluded to previously. Tiny paperbacks that fit in pockets are an amazing thing, particularly when questing.

The Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe)

This is a terrible book for me, because I compulsively empathize with the main character. Though fortunately I’ve never foibled on the same scale, the guilty feelings and sucky attempts at fixing what you accidentally jacked up are absolutely relatable.

By the way, Back to Blood, Wolfe’s latest, is incredibly similar to this book, but with a much lighter story. It’s just Bonfire with a different plot. Wolfe writes exactly the same way, uses the same structures, even employs the same esoteric phrases and allusions (e.g. Jose Marti, information compulsion, todo el mundo, etc.). The phrase “back to blood” appears in the prologue to both books!

This is fine by me, as it was BtB that instilled me with the need to pick this one up. I’m glad I did, even though it’s vicariously ruining my life.

First Enounter:
This book is ingrained into the public consciousness (well, the title of it is, at least), so though I’d heard of it many times, I had no idea what it was about or why. In 2012, I won a Goodreads drawing for Back to Blood, and as mentioned above, it was only the reading of that lesser-known, more modern edition that convinced me to read this.