Adventures in Books

Adventure stories have been around as long as there have been people. Stories originally told around the camp fires and handed down from father to son getting grander with each generations telling. Legends sprung up from these stories which turned into our modern day mythology. Stories of the adventures of the gods and the children of gods from various cultures have fascinated us and stirred our imaginations from the beginning of time. As civilizations grew more sophisticated the stories started being about regular men and women that go on adventures for adventures sake. Most of us are not lucky enough to be able to go on our own adventures so Adventures in Books is the next best thing. Actually for some people adventures in books are the best thing since they want the excitement of an adventure without having to face the dangers themselves. To many going to town without car breakdown cover insurance is as dangerous an adventure they want to go on personally. I remember when i was a child I really liked reading Zane Grey books. I was truly fascinated with the old west adventures that i could only live in the books about the old west. You probably were not interested in the Old West Adventures that I was but who could deny they did not dream of being a Pirate after reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson or living on a deserted Island after reading Swiss Family Robinson by John David Wyss. It doesn’t matter if you prefer fiction, fantasy or fact there are plenty of books that will take you on an adventure without the dangers of actually going on the adventure yourself.

Adventures In Books : Fiction

While we all know that the adventures in fiction are not real they are exciting to us none the less. Some of the most well know Adventures in Fiction are Treasure Island and Swiss Family Robinson which i already mentioned. Others include Call of the Wild, Moby Dick, Dune, The Hobbit, all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Come to think of it why don’t i summarize some of these books since there may be some that are not familiar with them.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

This is one of the best know adventure stories and definitely is the best know pirate book. Every time you see a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder you are seeing Long John Silver, the Pirate Captain that the Inn keepers son, Jim Hawkins joined up with. There have been several movies based on Treasure Island not to mention all of the spin offs like the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Aye me laddies, you know this book even if you haven’t read it.

Swiss Family Robinson by John David Wyss

Swiss Family Robinsonis a story about this family that was stranded on a desert island as a result of a shipwreck. They are forced to survive with nothing but the natural resources available on the Island and in the ocean. By the end of the book they have created their own paradise.

Call of the Wild by Jack London

I remember reading Call of the Wild when i was around 10 years old. I think it was for a book report but i am not sure. I still remember it though after 40 some odd years. It is written from a dog’s point of view which makes it a little unusual. Buck, the dog in this story, started out as a domesticated dog but had to reacquire his primordial instincts after being thrust into a pack of sled dogs. In time Buck goes from the whimpering pet to the leader of the pack. This is the first Dog eat Dog book that i remember reading.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune is a desert planet with giant worms and people with magical abilities. It tells a story of struggle against a harsh nature and even harsher people trying to remove the Duke and his family that rule the planet. It is the first in a series of books that chronicle the adventures had by Paul Atreides and his descendants. There are a total of six books in this series written by Frank Herbert and of course i have read them all.

The environment suits that they wear recycle your bodies waste into drinkable water. Wouldn’t that be a great idea for a fitness weight loss suit? Of course they did not use it for that. The suit is needed to survive on the desert planet.

The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

A story about Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman set in the 1700′s in New York. Natty is contrasted with the other frontiersman of day by his unwillingness to take Indian scalps.

Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

I am pretty sure most of you have heard of this book if not read it already. It is required reading for most USA public schools or at least it was when i was in school. The story takes place during the Seven Years’ War. This conflict, which lasted from 1756 to 1763, involved all of the major European powers of the period. Natty Bumppo appears in this book also.

Shogun by James Clavell

I have read this book several times. It is set during the Toranaga days of Japan with plenty of political intrigue amongst the various powers in Japan at the time.The Catholic Church vs Protestants and the various European countries trying to gain control of trade with Japan all play a role.

Tai-Pan by James Clavell

This is another book by James Clavell that i have read several times. It chronicles the struggles of the various western trading houses that formed Hong Kong following the end of the first Opium War. The main adversaries are the Tai-Pan house of Struan and the rival house of Brock. Tyler Brock tries to Destroy Dirk Straun by any means possible so he can become the Tai-Pan. Personally i would not let Brock build a chicken coop let alone be The Tai-Pan. Like Shogun, there is plenty of political intrigue mixed in.

King Arthur Books

There are several books that deal with the King Arthur story that I have read. They all deal with the honor of Knights of the Round Table and most include sorcery between Merlin and Morgaine among others. Everyone is familiar with the Sword in the Stone put out by Disney and the stories of Knights Questing for the Holy Grail. There have been many movies dealing with the topic which you should be aware of but watching the movies do not give you all of the detail included in the books.

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien

I read the Hobbit about 30 years ago when I was at university. After i finished it i immediately bought and read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. These books were the start of my love affair with the sword and sorcery genre. The Hobbit is a story about Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit that goes on an adventure with a group of Dwarves to steal a Dragon’s treasure and ends up with an invisible ring that he had to contend with Gollum for. As it turns out this is the Ring of Power that Sauron is looking for in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Now there is one thing you have to remember about Hobbits. As a race their main goal is finding the answer to the question how to gain weight fast. in other words eating and making merry. Hobbits are very short and never ask how can i get taller because they know it would do no good. They are not the type to explore or venture very far away from their dinner table if you know what i mean. That makes Bilbo and his nephew Bilbo quite the exception to the rule. I am going to venture a guess and say most of you are familiar with the Lord of the Rings movies but probably had not heard of The Hobbit. There have been a couple of movies based on The Hobbit also but they were not very popular in main stream media. Trust me. If you liked the movies or are interested in Sword and Sorcery books at all read the Hobbit then the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in that order. You will be glad you did.

Conan by Robert E. Howard

The Conan series are another set of sword and sorcery books that i read over and over again. There have been comic books, movies and games built around Conan the Barbarian. Conan is not your typical barbarian. His physique is pure barbarian without using Sole F85 or any other modern day fitness program. He is the thinking mans barbarian. He plans his escapades as much as he can. As a result he went from being a barbarian from the snowy wastelands to a hill tribe chieftain to a buccaneer to an army general and finally a king. He has his own code of honor which includes not killing defenseless people and not forcing a woman to have sex. Come to think of it most of what we would think of as a typical barbarian is against Conan’s code of honor.  Never the less they are very entertaining adventures to read.

Conan has done it all. He started out as a young Cimmerian from the frozen north that was bored with village life so struck south to get some adventure and ended up being the king of one of the most powerful nations. At one point in time he was about as far south as he could get being a pirate with Belit. For a while it was Destination Wedding for Conan and Belit but that ended with her death.

Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour

I know Louis L’Amour best for his westerns from back in my Zane grey reading days. This book however is not a western. It is about a native american pilot that was shot down and captured by the Soviet Union. The story chronicles his escape across Siberia to the Bearing Strait using his wilderness survival skills learned from his ancestors. Luckily he did not have rheumatoid arthritis or he never would have made it.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Who isn’t familiar with Jurassic Park? After all of the movies you have had to been living in a cave the last ten years if you weren’t. The movies got my son interested in dinosaurs and that interest has not waned. He has learned a lot about the real dinosaurs since then. Oh you didn’t know? Yep some of the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park movies, like the velociraptors, are changed to make them more menacing. The idea of a park with dinosaurs is a pretty good one but things go horribly wrong when the computer programmer tries to renegotiate his contract. He must have been in the I need a job now frame of mind when he originally bid the job then wanted more money after he saw the amount of work involved. Since John Hammond was not going to give him more than what was agreed upon the programmer decided to do a little company sabotage and sell the dinosaur DNA to a rival company. This sabotage shut down the power grids and the dinosaurs escaped. That is when the real adventure begins. Maybe it all could have been avoided if Hammond had done a background check on the programmer but then we would not have had a book or movie would we.

The Odyssey by Homer

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer and is one of the first great adventure stories. Following the fall of Troy, Odysseus begins his journey home to Ithaca  kredittkort but is thwarted in his efforts when an angry Poseidon throws him off course, beginning a timeless adventure that is as good now as it was when written nearly 3000 years ago.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

For those that know the diameter of the earth, the 20,000 leagues refers to the distance traveled not the depth. This story was published in 1870 and tells of traveling under the ocean in a submarine. None of them had diverticulitis as far as i know.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

I am pretty sure this is another book that everyone is already familiar with. For those of you that are not the adventure starts out as a bet on how many days it takes to go around the world. His book on Travel Phrases must have came in really handy since English speaking natives would have been very difficult to find at that time.They traveled by steamer and rail but the are many side adventures that occur during the trip. I won’t tell you if he wins the bet or not but i will tell you he gets the girl with his cigarette electronique.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers was first published in a series of newspapers in 1844. Since then it has been made into books, movies, comics, cartoons, and games. The latest release that I know of would be Barbie and the Three Musketeers. Even though you probably have not read the book you have to know the “One for All and All for One” phrase that was made famous by this story.

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Peter Pan is another Character that was made famous by Walt Disney but he first appeared in print in ”The Little White Bird”, a 1902 novel oddly enough written by Barrie for adults instead of kids. After which Peter Pan appeared in a few plays and a Novel of his own. Disney made him famous by producing the animated version in 1953. There have been many other adaptations since then. Peter Pan is the story of the adventures of the boy who never grew up. He was pursued by Captain Hook, befriended by Tinker Bell, had a crew of lost boys and even had adventures with Wendy are her siblings. Peter Pan is a must read for any one that dreams of never growing up and playing games every day.

The Sea Wolf by jack London

 

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

 

Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This is s must read if you haven’t read it already. There are many lessons that mark Twain teaches using the adventures of Tom and Huck.I will never forget the way Tom convinced Ben that whitewashing the fence was fun. If you really think about it many chores can be perceived as fun if you don’t think of them as chores. Of course this only works if it is not something that you have to do every day.

“There were some that believed he would be President, yet, if he escaped hanging.” This is one of my favorite quotes because it is so true of many of our presidents. I am not sure if they deserved hanging before they became president but many of them did after they became president.

“whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.” This is one of my other favorite quotes. The simple act of caring what other people think of you places shackles on you. There are people that do things saying that they do not care what society thinks but then get angry when people stare at them. There was one guy in my store buying a book on “How To Take Care Of A Tattoo”  that had tattoos all over his face then got angry when people stared at him. I replied that he knew people were going to stare before he got the tattoos so if he did not like people staring then he should not have gotten the tattoos.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Me Tarzan! You Jane! The story about the baby lost in the jungle and raised by Apes. So many movies and animations made from this story a person would have had to have been raised in the jungle himself not to know of this story. Hasn’t everyone as a kid swung on a rope and yelled AHHAHAHAHAH pretending they were Tarzan?

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

A collection of stories suitable for the young adventurer, these timeless tales make the perfect bedside stories for a young boy. The best known because they were popularized by Disney are the accounts of the life of Mowgli, the young boy raised by wolves.

Adventures in Books : Business

Marketing in the Age of Google

Getting a website noticed now a days can be quite an adventure if you don’t know how to SEO your website properly. It would like trying to find an Island in the ocean without a compass or stars.

Adventures in Books : Photography

Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories by Glen Johnson

Getting married and planning a wedding is adventure enough without having to worry about hiring Wedding Photographers. This book will help you know what questions to ask when hiring the perfect photographer to chronicle the special day.

I am not sure if an ir camera would be appropriate for wedding photos but it might be a cool idea.

All of these Books are available in the Kindle. (Don’t forget to get kindle covers to protect your investment.)

******If you are lucky you will be able to get all of these books at a warehouse sale. However you obtain the books you read, whether it be from the book store, from the library, the local Book Adventure Club or borrowed from a friend, just remember: 

having your adventures in books on a weekly basis will keep you brain active and your imagination alive.