Around the World in 80 Days

Yep, another Jules Verne book. What can I say? I like what the man wrote plus I could cross another book off the LXG list.
This has been done as a movie plenty of times, none of which did I bother to watch.
Anyway, parts of it are annoying, but then again something about every book I read annoys me.
You can't help but like Phillius Fogg, wealthy guy with too much time on his hands. He makes a bet with the men in his club after seeing a timetable in the newspaper outlining a trip around the globe in 80 days. He bets half of his forutne on it, planning to use the rest to get around the world.
I'm begining to think Verne was an amateur anthropologist because of how well he portrayed other cultures. The parts in India are particularly good. I was fascinated by the thing in India where the widow was about to be burned so that she could accompany her husband to the after life, apparently they believe that you can't part even after death. Fun, fun, fun. Oh don't worry Fogg and his manservant save her, with their guide. Um I feel kinda bad that I don't remember their names...
All in all the book was very good and if I remember correctly, some woman a few years after it came out, followed the exact same route for a column for her newspaper, she made it in 79 days. (that's from my 11th grade English regents, so I don't know how accurate it is).

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

For a lawyer turned one of the first sci-fi authors, he did a very good job.
Originally, I tried to read this for my French Four class in high school. I got through the first chapter. Mostly because I had better, faster paced books out of the library at the same time. Plus it was a hard cover in one of the many fonts that just gives me a head ache. As well as the fact that I really hated French homework, (I did just enough to pass).
So when Alpert, the French teacher, said we had to read something by a French author, genius that I am, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and read a book on my very long list of LXG books to read.
Bad plan. I got a seventy five on the final based on said book, and read the first chapter.
Last summer, in the 'give-the-library-ten-cents-for-an-eight-dollar-book' sale, I found a grubby, old paper back copy of the book. Needless to say I bought it.
I don't like hardcover books, I always feel guilty writing in the margins, paperbacks no such issues. They all end up in hard shape from being stuck in my tiny little purses for extended amounts of time anyway.
Yeah back to the book, it was really good. i'm talking full five stars here. At least once you got to Nemo and his submarine thinger there.
Verne who had little real experience with marine life except what was in French museums at the time did an amazing job with his underseas world. One thing that can be said about 19th century books is that the detail is amazing. somtimes it's a bad thing (Dracula) in the case of 20,000, it's a VERY good thing.