Reading Around the World in Eighty Days for the First Time!

Hello, hello everyone! Today I officially finished reading Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne for the very first time! It was actually nothing like I expected it to be, and I’m excited to share my thoughts on it in this post!

My Interest in the Book

The first and true reason that I decided to read this book was because I own a beautiful old copy of it that I found at a used bookstore. The second and also significant reason that I decided to read it was because it was a required reading book for school.

I purchased a copy of the book a couple years ago because of what good condition it was for its age. As an added bonus, there was an inscription on the front page, gifting the book as a Christmas gift in 1924. This remains one of my favorite discoveries at a used book store. If you aren’t aware, I love old books, and when they have notes from the people who used to own them in the past that’s even better.

But as beautiful as the book was, I admittedly ended up setting it on my shelf with my other gorgeous books that I haven’t had time to pick up again. I don’t know how long it would have stayed there, forgotten, if it hadn’t come up in my school’s reading list. It was the last book for the year, and as soon as I saw the title I felt excited.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book all year long.

A Word on My Expectations

As I said earlier, the expectations I had when beginning this book turned out to be totally off, but not necessarily in a bad way. Although I found myself reading a completely unexpected book I was able to greatly enjoy it anyway.

If you had asked me to describe the plot of Around the World in Eighty Days before reading it I would probably have described an exciting adventure story rooted in wonder and possibly high stakes. That just goes to show you how little I knew of this book when I started it.

The book is not, in fact, what I’d call an exciting adventure story. Rather, it follows a character with the steadiest mannerisms I’ve ever seen. He does not drop everything for adventure, but instead makes a careful prediction about the time it would take to travel around the whole world and come back again. He makes a bet against other men that his beliefs are true, and such is born this fascinating story across the world.

From the very beginning of the book I began to feel that the writing style closely resembled that of G. K. Chesterton. I still feel the same way after finishing the book, and perhaps that will tell you a little bit about what to expect from this book. Maybe your expectations won’t be quite as off track as mine were. 😉

Should This Book be Your Next Read?

I want these posts in which I focus on one specific book to be helpful to you in some way as you read them. That’s why I’m including this short section that will give you a better idea of the intended audience for the book and my recommendation status for it.

This is a classic that I definitely recommend to others. I would suggest it to other people that already have a steady appreciation for reading. This probably isn’t the best book for beginning readers, as I could see it turning people off because of its steady yet sometimes slow pace. This is a good example of a classic that can be enjoyed by both boys and girls, while many classics are not.

It’s also worth mentioning that this is a higher reading level book. While it might be enjoyed by some middle-schoolers, I could definitely see it being appreciated more by high-schoolers.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy that I read this book at last! After such a long time of wanting to read it but not having the initiative, it was so nice to discover what the book is actually about.

Have you ever read Around the World in Eighty Days?