Happy Birthday to Jules Verne, the man who invented the future! (As well as the kind of supervillians James Bond would later fight).
Some of the less-read novels are even more 'stonishing than titles most folks know, including far-out, impossible things like helicopter-flying Middle East terrorists, which we all know could never, ever happen. Er.... (City in the Sahara, so maybe not "Middle East" exactly.)
Most of the Verne books are available via Kindle now, and many if not all are free.
ReplyDeleteMe, I love reading them, and Wells, as well. Kindle and Amazon have lost money on me. I have hundreds of books and I haven't paid for but about three all told.
i suggest visiting the Google main site (not any iGoogle page) and playing with the joystick on the right. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the Issac Asimov story, wherein he tells of answering his father re: What author are you reading? Asimov (Russian-born NY kid) responds: Joolz Voyn. It took his classically-educated Russian-emigre father a while to understand he meant Yule Vehrn. Who, of course, was Asimov's hero.
ReplyDeleteVerne describes how to make gun cotton in both The Mysterious Island and From the Earth to the Moon. For a 10 year old with a chemistry set (What were my parents thinking?!?) it was manna from heaven.
ReplyDeleteMom was that much closer to her ever pending nervous breakdown. Dad just made sure I wore eye and ear protection and didn't clog the drains. Thanks Dad!
You has gotta read Book One "Into the Niger Bend" before you can reads Book Two "The City in the Sahara".
ReplyDeleteKitteh
True, true. I have both.
ReplyDelete