Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
Back when I was just getting into reading as a kid I remember my best friend lending me a copy of this book when I mentioned that I liked Sherlock Holmes
And I did end up enjoying it back then .
The more I read these days the more I’m willing to pay for that feeling where I could pick up any book from the library and enjoy it , all there’s left today is an grumpy soulless reader soul who’s sick of everything
Fast forward to present when I found an audible freebie of this book and me being out of options to read decided why not revisit an old friend .
And right from the beginning I smelled bullshit..
You’re bored and unstimulated and someone comes upto you with a “world-saving mission “ , BUT HAS NO PROOF of anything he has said but will show it tomorrow , just let him sleep AT YOUR FUCKING PLACE , and guess what ?? he ends up getting killed AT YOUR PLACE .. so guess who’s stimulated now ???
And somehow with all this absurdity, the book still manages to be so dry and BORING.
He keeps going to everyone blindly and keeps doing the same ass bullshit he did in the beginning.
And his dry-ass can’t even be entertaining about it.
Note to self : don’t go digging up your old reads
And I did end up enjoying it back then .
The more I read these days the more I’m willing to pay for that feeling where I could pick up any book from the library and enjoy it , all there’s left today is an grumpy soulless reader soul who’s sick of everything
Fast forward to present when I found an audible freebie of this book and me being out of options to read decided why not revisit an old friend .
And right from the beginning I smelled bullshit..
You’re bored and unstimulated and someone comes upto you with a “world-saving mission “ , BUT HAS NO PROOF of anything he has said but will show it tomorrow , just let him sleep AT YOUR FUCKING PLACE , and guess what ?? he ends up getting killed AT YOUR PLACE .. so guess who’s stimulated now ???
And somehow with all this absurdity, the book still manages to be so dry and BORING.
He keeps going to everyone blindly and keeps doing the same ass bullshit he did in the beginning.
And his dry-ass can’t even be entertaining about it.
Note to self : don’t go digging up your old reads
See this review for my thoughts, but I give the book an extra star for good descriptions of the British & Scottish countryside. The plot is outlandish though.
2.5 STARS
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, it was okay. There were elements I enjoyed but I found myself rather underwhelmed throughout. It’s an obvious unhaul for me
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, it was okay. There were elements I enjoyed but I found myself rather underwhelmed throughout. It’s an obvious unhaul for me
I found this a wonderfully readable bit of spy fiction, and surprisingly timeless. Written and published just before WWI, in 1914/15, there is an innocence to the plotline and the character of this Scottish colonial returned to London from Africa only to fall into a spy adventure that from today's post 9/11 world is just too unbelievable. I rather enjoyed it, actually.
While the bones of the plot are much like those in the classic movie and recent Broadway show inspired by it, the details and many characters are often vastly different. This coupled with Buchan's brilliant writing makes this exactly what he describes here -an "elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’– the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible."
Read for 2018 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge as my book that uus basis of a play or musical. Also for 2018 ATY #30. a short book (100 pages).
While the bones of the plot are much like those in the classic movie and recent Broadway show inspired by it, the details and many characters are often vastly different. This coupled with Buchan's brilliant writing makes this exactly what he describes here -an "elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’– the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible."
Read for 2018 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge as my book that uus basis of a play or musical. Also for 2018 ATY #30. a short book (100 pages).
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The 39 Steps by John Buchan is one of the fastest-moving, quickest reads I've had in a long time. It starts out with a bored man and whizzes that man and the reader along through one adventure after another until we reach the grand finale. Is it probable? Is it really likely that so many people would take our hero, Richard Hannay, on faith and trust him implicitly on the spot? Do we think the "permanent secretary to the Foreign Office" and a lead Scotland Yard man would really let an adventurer and an amateur suddenly direct operations at the denouement? Probably not in the real world. But Buchan writes such a good yarn that we're willing to suspend our disbelief and go along with it all.
Hannay has returned to England from the colonies with memories of adventures and enough gold to line his bank account and keep him for a good while. It isn't long before he finds the home country to be a bit tame for his taste. He decides to give London one more day and if nothing in particular happens, then he'll be off again. Well, you know what they say: Be careful what you wish for...
Hannay's upstairs neighbor approaches him that night with a story so bizarre, Hannay immediately believes it. Scudder has discovered a plot that will rock the European world--involving treacherous Germans and assassination plots and he's quite sure that the baddies are on to him.... So he's rustled up a dead body and left it in his place (being sure to make it look like a shooting [disfiguring] suicide) and now he wants Hannay to help hide him for three weeks or so. Just until the big spy show starts. He's decided to trust Hannay becasue "I've been watching you and I reckon you're a cool customer. I reckon, too, that you're an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold hand." Scudder won't be the last one to look Hanny over and decide he's an honest chap.
Hannay agrees and Scudder assumes the persona of a British officer in need of a rest. Our hero's good will is rewarded by coming home one evening to find Scudder dead--"skewered to the floor." The place has been ransacked and it's obvious that someone was looking for the little black notebook where Scudder kept all his secrets. Hannay figures that A. The baddies will assume that Scudder told him all and B. The police will assume that he killed his guest. So, our hero decides to get while the getting is good--conveniently finding the black notebook while he's gathering up supplies to take with him.
Beginning with an impersonation of the milkman, Hannay makes his way from London to the Scottish countryside and back to London again--impersonating all sorts of folks along the way (a born actor as well as adventurer) and somehow always coming across folks who are near enough his size to borrow clothes left and right. He also manages to decipher Scudder's notebook--which is in code, of course--and further decipher what is meant by the "thirty-nine steps" as well as see through the disguises of the opposition. All while the Foreign Office johnnies sit back and admire. [I did mention that this was improbable....] They let him direct operations to lay a trap for the bad guys and Hannay is right in the thick of things as our story wraps up.
As improbable as the story is, it's a pretty darn good tale. Lots of action--from car and airplane chases, to impersonations, to a capture and an escape. Hannay trundling across country by train and car and bicycle...and even on hands and knees. Hiding in thorn thickets and dovecotes. Blowing up store rooms. And it's all good clean fun in a good old-fashioned thriller. Three and a half stars--almost four.
This review first appeared on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reprinting any portion. Thanks.
Hannay has returned to England from the colonies with memories of adventures and enough gold to line his bank account and keep him for a good while. It isn't long before he finds the home country to be a bit tame for his taste. He decides to give London one more day and if nothing in particular happens, then he'll be off again. Well, you know what they say: Be careful what you wish for...
Hannay's upstairs neighbor approaches him that night with a story so bizarre, Hannay immediately believes it. Scudder has discovered a plot that will rock the European world--involving treacherous Germans and assassination plots and he's quite sure that the baddies are on to him.... So he's rustled up a dead body and left it in his place (being sure to make it look like a shooting [disfiguring] suicide) and now he wants Hannay to help hide him for three weeks or so. Just until the big spy show starts. He's decided to trust Hannay becasue "I've been watching you and I reckon you're a cool customer. I reckon, too, that you're an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold hand." Scudder won't be the last one to look Hanny over and decide he's an honest chap.
Hannay agrees and Scudder assumes the persona of a British officer in need of a rest. Our hero's good will is rewarded by coming home one evening to find Scudder dead--"skewered to the floor." The place has been ransacked and it's obvious that someone was looking for the little black notebook where Scudder kept all his secrets. Hannay figures that A. The baddies will assume that Scudder told him all and B. The police will assume that he killed his guest. So, our hero decides to get while the getting is good--conveniently finding the black notebook while he's gathering up supplies to take with him.
Beginning with an impersonation of the milkman, Hannay makes his way from London to the Scottish countryside and back to London again--impersonating all sorts of folks along the way (a born actor as well as adventurer) and somehow always coming across folks who are near enough his size to borrow clothes left and right. He also manages to decipher Scudder's notebook--which is in code, of course--and further decipher what is meant by the "thirty-nine steps" as well as see through the disguises of the opposition. All while the Foreign Office johnnies sit back and admire. [I did mention that this was improbable....] They let him direct operations to lay a trap for the bad guys and Hannay is right in the thick of things as our story wraps up.
As improbable as the story is, it's a pretty darn good tale. Lots of action--from car and airplane chases, to impersonations, to a capture and an escape. Hannay trundling across country by train and car and bicycle...and even on hands and knees. Hiding in thorn thickets and dovecotes. Blowing up store rooms. And it's all good clean fun in a good old-fashioned thriller. Three and a half stars--almost four.
This review first appeared on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reprinting any portion. Thanks.
Really good, exciting story. I enjoyed it a lot.
Read my full review on my website www.the-book-tower.blogspot.co.uk
Read my full review on my website www.the-book-tower.blogspot.co.uk
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I feel bitterly let down by this novel. Both the British Guardian and the BBC listed this book as one of the top 100 (the Guardian) or 200 (BBC) books written in English.
It is very much a "boys own" adventure written in 1915. The melodramatic action runs along at a fast pace, with a great deal of implausible coincidences. I am sure that it influenced a great many later thrillers etc., but it is not itself a great book.
It is very much a "boys own" adventure written in 1915. The melodramatic action runs along at a fast pace, with a great deal of implausible coincidences. I am sure that it influenced a great many later thrillers etc., but it is not itself a great book.
the story doesnt come off as credible, (too lucky, to ready to believe things, etc) and the narrator doesnt come off as real. who flees wanted for murder without a drop of anxiety or worry that their life is over forever? But its worth reading for its influence as the first spy thriller. and its short and not boring. so worth the read. (Actually being chased down by the airplane only happens in the Hitchcock movie though.)