The Cruise of the Snark by Jack London

The beginning of this book is amazing.  Jack London delves into the reason why he has decided to sail around the world.  He lists all his theories and all the problems in building and funding  the 45ft Snark. It is so detailed and exact that you understand the term best laid plans of mice and men.  I'm thoroughly impressed by detail oriented people.  God bless list makers and accountants.  I do not live in detail and lists (says the man who is writing a blog about 501 books!) and get turned on by people that envision a project from seed to tree.

As I go through this book it is failing to keep my interest.  Almost 40% of the book is either about building the Snark or about the first destination of the boat (Hawaii).  While there are still some lovely passages, the author starts to write about eating deep sea turtles and the joys of catching and eating Dolphin my interest wavers.  It could be my 21st century mind creeping in but I am not a fan of eating Dolphin or Turtles.  Call me old fashioned. 

As I delved deeper into the book it has continued to disappoint me.  Some of the strengths I liked in the beginning were the things that really let me down.  For starters there is a part in the book where Mr. London describes how he figured out his latitude and longitude.  He drones on for almost 20 pages.  In the end I've had to stop reading the book so I still don't know how the rest of the trip went.  Maybe I'll come back to it.....maybe not.  It has driven me crazy.

This is a book for you trainspotters out there.  I'm not one of you. 5/10

My next book is:

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I read this book when I was a kid.  Or at least I thought I had.  As I am reading/re-reading I'm not remembering much of it.  I've seen TV and movie adaptions of course but the story feels new to me which was a nice surprise.  Huck of course is resourceful and funny.  Some of the hijinks's are great and his planning and escaping near danger is what gives this book its classic nature. 

The one problem I am having with is his companion Jim.  I'm not put off by the repeated use of n-word.  As much as I hate it now I understand that when Twain was writing it was common practice to write characters in such a way.  It's his speech that is throwing me off.  Maybe it's my 21 century brain that is having trouble figuring it out.

Huck Fin really is an incredible character.  Twain really nailed it with this one.  Such a clever little chap.  Always has mischief in his mind.  Sometimes his mischief leads to bad results but most of the time he is just having some fun.  This is a book that all kids should read.  Huck keeps getting in jams with very narrow escapes.  He meets all sorts of interesting people on the river.  Give this to your child right now!