Thursday, 14 October 2010

45. Treasure Island Stevenson

I actually read this book about two months ago now and while the notes I made for the blog are still in existence I would be lying if I could tell you completely what they actually mean!!

I suppose the first thing I should mention here is that I love reading teenage/children's fiction. I am one of these sad people who have read (and sort of enjoyed) Twilight, I queued at midnight for 4 of the Harry Potter books and on my bookshelves books by Blackman, Marsden and several other authors of that ilk. I therefore had an inkling that I was going to enjoy Treasure Island.

Enjoy it I most certainly did.

In fact what I have found with this challenge is that many of the books I have read this far have similar story lines to others on the list. In this instance Treasure Island reminds me a lot of the Hornblower book reviewed below. What I am also finding with this is that I tend to enjoy one much more than the other.

Treasure Island stomps all over Hornblower.

For me I think this is linked to the idea of what books for kids tend to do - use simple English! While with Hornblower you had to read the book with a nautical dictionary to hand, Treasure Island kept things simple. So what if you didn't know what a yard-arm was, or which mast was which - it was the story that was much more important. In investing time to describe the characters and story line in actual English it really was a very enjoyable read.

Perhaps it doesn't quite have the deep and powerful meaning that can be discovered in others on the list - but it terms of pure enjoyment (and perhaps a little escapism) Treasure Island fits the bill perfectly.

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