Uggggggghhh. I really wanted to like this book. However, I think I had a completely different view of what it was going to be about, then what it actually was. It was a compilation of pieces of stories that have to do with Adventures at sea. Some of them a little interesting, but most of them quite dull. I was looking for high adventure, hardcore survival, and I guess mainly true stories of grit and determination. I find it kind of disappointing to have such small clips of books in the way that they were presented. It seemed like once I almost got into a story, the clip was ended, and the next one began. Every section was like an anticipation for when the climax would come, in which it never seemed to do.
This is not a nonfiction novel, it is an anthology of short snippets of mostly fiction classics that have to do with the sea. It is not what I wanted, I won’t finish it.
Needed a short audio book that might appeal to my husband as well. This is what I found...I knew it contained excerpts of classics so I feel like I can't hold that against it? I don't read classics very much and I'd rather listen to an entire book... That being said, I knew what I was getting into..Some stories were easier to get into than others. I borrowed this from my library. We loved the Treasure Island excerpt and want to listen to the whole thing.
This audio version has fewer excerpts than the print edition. (I assume this is because of problems securing the audio publication rights to the missing bits. The bits not here tend to be the newer ones.) These classic chapters are good ones, and worth listening to.
I listened to this as a book on tape. It was entertaining and for those who love the sea and pirates, this would be for them. I would find this not as exciting to read. The exerpts from other books were too long and at times, tedious. It did give me a taste of "Moby Dick" and "Treasure Island".
This is a solid book containing selections of older classics as well as what I believe to be the full text of some shorter narratives. I particularly appreciated the revisit to the early chapters of Moby Dick. I didn't read Melville's most known work until my older days but it has been a few years and I have to say I am always surprised by the wit and tenor of Melville's passages. I had no inclination to sitting down to a full reading of the said tomb, having little time for such follies at this juncture in my life, but I found myself very pleased that it was presented here in part. You will also find an excerpt from Treasure Island, the favorite of many a lad and I suspect a reading here may inspire those who have not picked it up to find a copy and finish what is truly a classic. I particularly enjoyed the short story "Philip Ashton's Own Account" the short memoir's of a young man captured by pirates who later escapes and lives for a time on a desert island near Honduras. I have heard this true life tale was the inspiration of subsequent books by Daniel Defoe and having reread Robinson Crusoe more recently really enjoyed reading this tale. It is truly a forgotten piece of history that is worth reading. Some have complained about this book not being as expected, but I feel this is a problem with anthologies in general. I was glad to have read this.