Journey to the Center of the Earth in Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

From the Bookshelf of Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die…

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Jules Verne

Start date: February 15, 2016

Finish date: March 15, 2016

Discussion: 1001 Monthly Group Read

Why we're reading this: February 2016 Group Read
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What Members Thought

Oct 31, 2009 Tiffany rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books

Ummm... After I finish reading this book, I'm going to read Leonard Nimoy's Afterword and the entry in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die so someone will tell me what was supposed to be so wonderful about this book.

The concept is certainly one of adventure: journeying to the center of the earth! They'll burn up! What's there? Oh my gosh! The *center* of the *Earth*! But the story, as it's written, is just so ... bland. There are a few paragraphs every now and then that get me going, but for Ummm... After I finish reading this book, I'm going to read Leonard Nimoy's Afterword and the entry in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die so someone will tell me what was supposed to be so wonderful about this book.

The concept is certainly one of adventure: journeying to the center of the earth! They'll burn up! What's there? Oh my gosh! The *center* of the *Earth*! But the story, as it's written, is just so ... bland. There are a few paragraphs every now and then that get me going, but for the most part, it's ... just so bland. And I felt like I must be the only person in the world to think so, since I'd always heard that this is SUCH a great book. But then I started reading the 1-star reviews on 欧宝娱乐, and I realized I wasn't alone (still in the minority, sure, but not alone).

The one redeeming factor to reading this book is thinking about what was happening in the United States (because that's really the only history I can even pretend I know) at the time this story was first published. The Civil War was going on, with all of those old-time uniforms, inadequate battlefield medicine leading to amputations, slavery, black-and-white photos of the war and the dying, "brother fighting brother," etc. Washington (my home) wasn't even a state yet, and the University of Washington (my school) was only three years old, still on a hill in downtown Seattle (not yet moved to its current home). Given all of that, sure, this was (maybe...probably? possibly) a revolutionary book, since the world of science wasn't as advanced as it is now, and we were still taking black-and-white photos that had to be posed for a long time (no color photos taken instantaneously). And this was (possibly? probably? maybe?) the first story to entertain the idea of voyaging to the center of the earth, so maybe all of that perked the readers more than it is perking me today. But me, today... blah.

The story/writing does get better once they really get going underground, and there are some moments when I thought, "O0h!" but there was nothing that made me *want* to keep reading. Even the "Ooh!" scenes were like "Oh, that's intriguing," but nothing like "I have to keep going! What will happen?!?"

I was shocked that I didn't like it! I tried to read it from the point of view -- and appreciate -- that it was groundbreaking in its time, marrying science with a travel narrative, and imagining what the earth is like beneath our feet, but other than that, I was often bored by it! For me, the story doesn't hold up over time, I guess. We've sort of now "been there, done that" with this topic of exploring other places (underground, other planets, uninhabited continents, whatever) that this felt like it doesn't have much to offer today.

And I read the entry in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die before I finished the book (hoping to find the takeaway while I could still appreciate/experience it), as well as Leonard Nimoy's Afterword, and neither really convinced me I *needed* to read this book. So... all in all, it was a waste of time for me, other than being able to mark it off my 1001 Books list. ...more

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Sep 13, 2009 Arianna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I kept feeling like there was going to be more to this book...but there never was. It's an interesting adventure story, with great "theory" on what might actually be found in the center of the earth & how it would be explained by scientific phenomenon, but it just wasn't as...fanciful as I thought it would be. I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything but "science" from Verne. Still, a fun adventure to listen to. ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 hh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, 1001-or-death, reread, sff, 2015

a lot of fun. reader recall: pacing of a story was much different in the 19th century. would love to have an illustrated edition with referential images of the era.

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