Book 7 of 2017 -- The Three Musketeers

Because sometimes you just need to read a classic...

I have actually been working on this for a couple of months now. After all these classic novels are not short. This one, mind you is much more of an escapist adventure tale than something as deep in social commentary as say Les Miserables or Tale of Two Cities.

I had previously seen the 1993 movie version  starring Charlie Sheen and have watched most of the episodes of this TV series. I greatly enjoyed the latter. So I had a familiarity with the characters. However, now that I have read the original novel I am not sure that the writers of those pieces ever read it.

OTOH, the novel lacks the grand climactic fight scene you want for a movie. And to limit oneself to the novel would hardly leave you enough material for an ongoing series...

Sometimes you have to read a classic. And this is a good one to choose.  Next on the list is Dumas' follow-up novel The Man in the Iron Mask.

Book 6 of 2017 -- The Wars

And now the third of my used book store purchases from earlier this year...

If I recall correctly, this book was one of the potential novels for high school English when I was, well, in high school. I know it was in that list at the turn of the century because the copy I bought was a school copy (which makes one wonder how it ended up in a used book store....). For all I know it may still be used in that context.

Timothy Findley is an interesting writer. his characters are complex and intriguing. While on my second internship one of the requirements was that you read at least one of a selection of novels, Findley's Not Wanted On the Voyage (a different approach to the Noah story) was the one I chose to read -- and I encourage folks to read it.

THis is a novel of the Great War. It takes on the horror of the war headfirst and the effects those horrors could have on people (at home and in the trenches). IT leaves you (or at least me) wanting to know more about Lt. Robert Ross, his family, and his comrades.