Scottish Adventure

Encouraged by my recent success in reading, and subsequent loving, of Stoker's Dracula, I decided to try another of pretty much the same period. Thus began my new love affair with Robert Louis Stevenson! Here's what I found:
Title: Kidnapped
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
My start date: 8/22/10
My finish date: 8/27/10
Book Count: 44/100

I absolutely loved this book! It took me several days to complete, which was disappointing having had a string of "book-a-day" reads lately, however the added time had nothing to do with the difficulty in reading the story. It was entirely related to the unfortunate fact that my usually free schedule was interrupted that week for an unexpected funereal trip to California during which time even my inflight reading was waived when I was stuck with a talker from gate to gate. (PS, if you are one of those people, realize that a person who is trying to read on an airplane would not rather talk to you, they would rather continue with their book.) Also, if you are superstitious, which I am, it is interesting to note that I was stuck for the duration of this trip on book number 44, which is the Chinese number associated with death. Weird. Anyway...

Stevenson writes great adventure. In this case, he even managed to weave fairly accurate history into a great adventure. I loved the characters, I loved the Scottish dialect (which, I'm not going to lie, I had started using in my head by the end), and Stevenson's passion for his country is so richly evident that I could not help but love the setting. Remember when you are ten and pirates and treasure and camping and adventure were the height of your imagination? Or, if you are around my age, remember when the movie The Goonies was the coolest thing? Stevenson's writing will take you back to that age. I absolutely love it.

A little additional thought on my part and I remembered that Stevenson is responsible for bringing us such greats as Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as well. I can't wait to read them now.

Yay for late 19th century adventure novels!

Keep Reading!
Sarah