2009 Reading #8: Kidnapped

[snurri]

1. Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left by Susan Braudy
2. The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
3. From the Files of the Time Rangers by Richard Bowes.
4. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
5. Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural by Jim Steinmeyer.
6. The Days of Rondo by Evelyn Fairbanks.
7. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

8. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. An odd book. The title doesn't encompass much of the story at all, and again the protagonist is somewhat beside the point, a camera for the historical events that Stevenson wanted to write about. I liked it better than Treasure Island, though, because Alan Breck Stewart is hilarious and the Highland dialect is enjoyable.

Comments

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I still can't believe you didn't like Treasure Island. I loved it when I was a kid.

Alan Breck Stewart is great, as is the clan chieftain (can't remember his name) that they stay with.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy Treasure Island, I just didn't love it. I think it's one of those things that are better if you're exposed to them young.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. It was a kid's book, after all. There have been a lot of kids lit I've read as an adult because someone recommended it as a childhood favorite that I was so keen on, though I could see how it would have been great had I read at a younger age.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. The one I get the most flak for--from Haddayr, for one--is A Wrinkle in Time, which I hated. The one that disturbs me most is Ender's Game, which is a creepy, wrong, immoral, disgusting book.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in 6th grade and loved it but I reread it in college and felt kind of lukewarm about it. There were some good moments but, on the whole, it felt a little cold. I've never read nor heard of Ender's Game, though, so I can't say I have an opinion.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

The kid in A Wrinkle in Time, the young one with the weird powers, really creeped me out. That and the overt Christian-ness of it all ruined it for me.

[janradder.livejournal.com]

I think my main problem was that I wasn't a kid anymore. There are a few childhood books I've remembered with fondness as being so detailed and visual and full of wonderful things but when I've reread them as an adult, all of that is missing. I think it's because as kids our imaginations are so much better developed so that when I would read those books, I'd create details that weren't really there, just suggested. That's my theory.

As to AWiT, I liked Charles Wallace and, not having been raised in a Christian home, I didn't get the Christian themes or elements (I also didn't get them in the Narnia books).