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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
This is one beautiful book. I read it as a child, probably the same age as Samuel Clemens when he experienced many of the moments recounted here. What swept me away was his depiction of the mighty Mississippi, and the time he spent on its waters. Highly recommended.
Life on the Mississippi is one of those books that has stuck with me from the time when I was first discovering my love of books. I first read it in 7th grade (21 years ago). As it was the year before I started my book diary, I can't pinpoint when with any greater accuracy. Rereading the book was like visiting with a long lost friend. I surprised myself at how well I remembered the "good bits."
A vacation tour up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Paul, detailed in the second half of the book, serves as the inspiration for his memoir about his training and career as a riverboat pilot. Besides his own training, he outlines the history of the river, it's geography, geology and its fickle nature. The piloting and river bits are my favorite parts of the book.
Twain also includes some tall tales and sketches about the people who live and work along the river. There are also essays on the changing political and economic climate along the Mississippi. By themselves, these asides are humorous but they breakup the flow of the book.
A vacation tour up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Paul, detailed in the second half of the book, serves as the inspiration for his memoir about his training and career as a riverboat pilot. Besides his own training, he outlines the history of the river, it's geography, geology and its fickle nature. The piloting and river bits are my favorite parts of the book.
Twain also includes some tall tales and sketches about the people who live and work along the river. There are also essays on the changing political and economic climate along the Mississippi. By themselves, these asides are humorous but they breakup the flow of the book.
By turns, this book served as a travelogue, a history of the Mississippi, and as a source for Twain's reminiscences of his life as a steamboat pilot on the same river in the antebellum era. Of all these functions, I enjoyed most reading about Twain's return to the Mississippi in the early 1880s and his younger days working on steamboats from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans. Only the latter part of the Appendix I felt was a little superfluous and out-of-place. It pains me to say that as a Mark Twain fan, but that was one part of the book that held little appeal for me.
Large part travelogue, but offers a unique view into the old meanderings of the Mississippi River and the process of surrounding culture shifting just as the river itself and industrial development shifts.
Mark Twain enjoys spinning a yarn; the stories he collects and recants along the way make the book enjoyable and quite funny in an old fashioned sort of worldview and storytelling way. I enjoyed the look into the culture of the day and the take on humor which I can't recognize existing in modern life.
The particular details, facts and some of the histories of the riverside towns made it tough to get through all 384 pages but it ultimately rewards as a unique time-capsule that I wouldn't have known much about otherwise in modern life.
Mark Twain enjoys spinning a yarn; the stories he collects and recants along the way make the book enjoyable and quite funny in an old fashioned sort of worldview and storytelling way. I enjoyed the look into the culture of the day and the take on humor which I can't recognize existing in modern life.
The particular details, facts and some of the histories of the riverside towns made it tough to get through all 384 pages but it ultimately rewards as a unique time-capsule that I wouldn't have known much about otherwise in modern life.
Recently, I participated in a writers' workshop. It took place in an inn that actually floats on the Missouri River. For five days, I was to be hypnotized by the river's ever-flowing current. I thought of Mark Twain, an author whose books I have never read. What better time could there be to acquaint myself with Twain? What better work than one about the river?
While the Missouri River is not the Mississippi, it is nevertheless far more impressive than my native Kansas River, a wide stream populated with massive sandbars and piles of driftwood. No ships navigate my river. I'm not sure they ever did. In Life on the Mississippi, Twain paints a portrait of a time when many ships paddled lazily up and down the rivers. Full of anecdotes about his time as a young river boat pilot, Twain's love for the river and its boats is evident. Fortunately, I had the pleasure of reading the first half of this book in the days before, during, and immediately after my river sojourn. Aside from Twain's signature humor, Life on the Mississippi bristled with the life of the river—its sounds and smells. I was glad to have this book as a companion during my own exploration of the river. I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much at any other time.
The second half of Life on the Mississippi loses its magic. From humorous tales of his own experience on the river, Twain switches to the tales of others, statistics, and random observations. Some of these have to do with the Mississippi. Some do not. Basically, Twain was let loose to follow whatever tangents he wanted in this book and the results were underwhelming. There were some great stories within these pages, but most of it was as dry as the Kansas River.
While the Missouri River is not the Mississippi, it is nevertheless far more impressive than my native Kansas River, a wide stream populated with massive sandbars and piles of driftwood. No ships navigate my river. I'm not sure they ever did. In Life on the Mississippi, Twain paints a portrait of a time when many ships paddled lazily up and down the rivers. Full of anecdotes about his time as a young river boat pilot, Twain's love for the river and its boats is evident. Fortunately, I had the pleasure of reading the first half of this book in the days before, during, and immediately after my river sojourn. Aside from Twain's signature humor, Life on the Mississippi bristled with the life of the river—its sounds and smells. I was glad to have this book as a companion during my own exploration of the river. I don't think I would've enjoyed it nearly as much at any other time.
The second half of Life on the Mississippi loses its magic. From humorous tales of his own experience on the river, Twain switches to the tales of others, statistics, and random observations. Some of these have to do with the Mississippi. Some do not. Basically, Twain was let loose to follow whatever tangents he wanted in this book and the results were underwhelming. There were some great stories within these pages, but most of it was as dry as the Kansas River.
I really enjoyed parts of this book. Twain was definitely very skilled at telling humorous stories, and it sounds like steamboats on the Mississippi river were a great source for that. I especially enjoyed the stories of being trained to become a steamboat pilot, which I was a little disappointed to find wasn't going to be the majority of the book, but there was still plenty of fodder in the later return trip up the river. I do prefer books with an extended plot, generally, but I for the most part did enjoy this book, aside from a few sections that I had a hard time getting too interested in.
"Old Times On The Mississippi" (chapters 4-17) is amazing. The rest is filler because the publisher didn't think the original was long enough.
https://ilayreading.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/life-on-the-mississippi/
read this for social studies/us history in 8th grade - incredibly boring.