Karl's Reading List

Published by Puffin Books/Penguin Group: London, England: 1994 (1990). First published in French, 1872. My second Jules Verne book on this blog. I began reading this one, was surprised by the level of humour involved, and decided to keep it to read with Elise once our previous book had been finished. I'm glad I did. Most of us probably have some idea of the plot of Eighty Days , probably through having seen a movie version - the most recent one being the Jackie Chan one - and there are certainly a number of the major beats of those films in the book. But, as is the case with many adaptations of older adventure books, a movie is developed to be more 'cinematic', and therefore bigger in scale than its source material. In terms of Eighty Days, that means that the movie versions cram in more locations and more modes of transport, whereas the book mostly focusses on passenger liner ships and trains. Phileas Fogg also has carefully plotted his course to be the most direct route ...

Published by Arrow Books: London, 2018 (2017). This collection of short stories, published to celebrate 40 years since the release of A New Hope (aka the original Star Wars movie) retells scenes from that movie from the perspective of 40 minor (or greater canon) characters from the film itself. Story perspectives include those of more well-known figures such as Greedo, Obi-Wan, and even Yoda, Lando and the force-ghost of Qui-Gonn, as well as far more obscure ones, such as one of the Jawas, members of the Cantina Band, and the trash-monster from the Death Star. Each story is told by a different author or authors, and therefore the stories range in genre from comedic to dramatic, to a parody of Shakespeare (the latter being the contribution of Ian Doescher, who has also produced full-length parody 'plays' of Stars Wars in Shakespearean form elsewhere ). It would take too long to review each of the 40 stories, but as with any short story collection, some are good, and others are j...

Published by W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd, London, 1978. This is the true story of the various criminals who combined to commit 'The Great Train Robbery' of 1963. We meet the main players and follow their lives as they enter the criminal world, learn why they turned to crime, and what eventually led to their decision to rob a night mail train. The life of crime is not glamourised - we learn very early on that most of their robberies don't pay off - and yet the criminals are seen in a slightly heroic manner. When everything begins to unravel following the robbery, the author points out how few things actually gave them away, and it is interesting to wonder how things could have gone differently and more successfully if the robbers had been slightly more 'fortunate'. There are elements of this story that I find fascinating to read in a non-fiction book, elements such as fake identities, secret plastic surgeries, and corrupt cops. This gives the work an odd 'a...

Published by Penguin Classics: London, England, 2000. First published 1840-1841. I remember seeing an adaptation of this book at some point, fairly low budget I think, and from that adaptation only remembered the outcome of one particular storyline. Knowing that a particular plot would end in a particular outcome made reading the book an interesting experience, wondering how exactly events would lead to the outcome I remembered, and would have the same prevalent tragic emotion throughout as the adaptation seemed to have.  But reading Dickens is not at all like watching Dickens. So often a straight adaptation of the plot of a Dickens book leads to a movie that is somewhat bleak and depressing, whereas reading Dickens gives fuller scope to the satire and humour of his writing, even in the midst of tragic events. I really enjoyed this book. I am a big Dickens fan (I'm sure this is neither the first nor last time I've said that) but this one is now among my favourit...