2026 Reading Plan (January Update)

Matt Ries general
Image
They hadn’t been seen in a while so I had to make sure so they didn’t get up to something.

Hello,

January was partially successful as I completed two books, both from my original list, however I’m a little behind for my reading already for the year in both overall and original goals. Let’s look at the stats.

Overall Total: 2/40 (5%)
Original List: 2/30 (6.7%)
Total Pages: 1135 (567.5)

There wasn’t a “best” or “worst” book of the month as both Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Atkinson’s The Fate of the Day were good to near excellent reads, though I was a little critical of Wollstonecraft prolonged discussion on Rousseau overall it was more annoyance than anything else.

I currently reading The Novice’s Tale by Margaret Frazer, the first Sister Frevisse mystery, to provide a change from one war-oriented book to another. I’m reading the supplementary book for my Adult Sabbath School this quarter which is on Philippians and Colossians. I’ve also been reading Ivan T. Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life at home after reading it at work the few days of December, but haven’t progressed as much as I’ve liked due to working on my research, outline, and writing for the alternate history idea I mentioned in December. Due to situations at the other production plants which make Little Debbies, I’ve been working every Saturday night which means I didn’t have a movie night this month to watch Godzilla (2014).

So February will start off with The Novice’s Tale being finished on the 1st and I’ll immediately start reading the next volume of Allan Nevins’s series, The War Becomes Revolution. Next will be The Fall of Hyperion and depending on where in the month it is when I finish that I’ll probably finish off the Ivan T. Sanderson book to complete it then either read Bring Up the Bodies or start the von Gentz book early depending on how close it is to March. I am guaranteed off the weekend of Valentine’s so as of now that is when I’m planning to watch the next Godzilla film.

That’s all I have for this month.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (The Revolutionary Trilogy #2) by Rick Atkinson
The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion #2) by Dan Simmons
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Thomas Cromwell #2)
The Americans, Volume III: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress by James Morris
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (Thomas Cromwell #3)
Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire by James Morris
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat by James Morris
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
A History of Japan to 1334 by George Sansom
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
A History of Japan 1334-1615 by George Sansom
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
A History of Japan 1615-1867 by George Sansom
Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman

History
The War for the Union: War Becomes Revolution 1862-1863 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VI) by Allan Nevins
The War for the Union: The Organized War 1863-1864 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VII) by Allan Nevins
The War for the Union: The Organized War to Victory 1864-1865 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VIII) by Allan Nevins
The Rise of Industrial America: A People’s History of the Post-Reconstruction Era (A People’s History #6) by Page Smith
America Enters The World: A People’s History of the Progressive Era and World War I (A People’s History #7) by Page Smith
Redeeming the Time: A People’s History of the 1920s and the New Deal (A People’s History #8) by Page Smith
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (The Pacific War #1) by Ian W. Toll

Philosophy & Political Science
The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution by Friedrich Von Gentz
On War by Carl Von Clausewitz
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard

*= Home Read
^= Random Insertion

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (The Revolution #2)

Matt Ries Book Review , , , , ,

ImageThe Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

George Washington inspired a Continental Army on the verge of collapse to a ten-day campaign that saved the hope for independence, but the empire was ready strike back again. The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 is the second volume in Rick Atkinson’s The Revolution trilogy following the course of the military, political, and everyday factors that played into course of the American Revolution from the battlefields in America to the palaces of Versailles and Queen’s House leading to battles across the globe.

Navigating through a myriad of locations and through various narrative threads that need to be explored while revealing how each reflects on the other, Atkinson does a stellar job at bringing the complexity of the American Revolution to the reader. The important historical characters are covered, but lesser-known individuals, especially those foreign-born officers that are often unsung, get highlighted when in battle or making a difference for the Continental Army. What is most important throughout the book is how the colonial rebellion on the edge of the war sparked political machinations in the backroom of European palaces to get revenge on Britain or simply put it in its place. While the American Revolution is mostly seen as a land war, the naval aspect is not forgotten though as the book goes on it starts to become a Britain-French centric narrative through John Paul Jones’ cruises around Britain and attacks mainly in Scotland brought the war home to Britain in a way that shocked them almost as much as the thought of a French invasion. Given the numerous decades old books of the American Revolution I’ve read in recent years, this volume covers the same North American material through adding a broader brush to look at everyday life which included the economic realities for both the Continental army and the average citizen no matter their political loyalty. The difference is the thoroughness of Atkinson looking to the British domestic political scene as well as bringing in other European powers’ political and diplomatic moves during these years which resulted in the American Revolution becoming a conflict fought across the global. Honestly, it’s hard to find something important to critique.

The Fate of the Day reveals how events turn a colonial rebellion into a global conflict in an engaging way by Rick Atkinson and being the middle volume of a planned trilogy on American Revolution it makes you look forward to see all the various factors that bring it to a conclusion in the final when it is written.

The British Are Coming

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Matt Ries Book Review ,

ImageA Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

As the rights of man were debated across Europe due to the revolutions in America and France, the other half of the population appeared to be forgotten about especially when French National Assembly was presented a report that women should almost expect a “domestic education”. A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft is an answer not only to that report to the French National Assembly and to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile where he also covered the education of women.

Through 255 pages of text Wollstonecraft examined the current dominate methods of educating women, criticism of those methods and other proposed methods, and finally putting forth her own argument for giving women a rational education. The key to her argument for Wollstonecraft is that women as mothers will be the first educators their children have before they are handed to professionals who’ll advance their learning, given their position women should be given a proper education to fulfill this role and if their husband were to pass, a proper education would allow them to ensure her family’s well-being until her children have grown up as well as secure her own well-being in her old age. Wollstonecraft proposed a national education system in which both boys and girls and from all social classes would learn together in their early years before separating to more specific education for their duties—though if a child of a lower social class were to be particularly gifted he should be sponsored by the government to further his education and thus benefit the whole nation. One of the major criticisms that Wollstonecraft had was that if women continued to be treated as mere future property of their husbands with an education only for that end instead of as “companions” of their husbands, as future mothers, and possible heads of household if unforeseen circumstances arose. Wollstonecraft continually brought up Rousseau’s suggestions for the education of women and attacked them, to the point where it was becoming repetitive and beyond what was needed, which she somewhat acknowledged late in the essay. Another critique I had about the essay was that Wollstonecraft decided to write it after reading the 1791 report on education by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord that he presented to the French National Assembly that she disagreed with, yet she barely mentioned its existence even when discussing her counterproposals to it. However, even with those criticisms this is an important philosophical essay as well as political theory, which acknowledges that women are important for the body politic and whose education is important for the well-being of the next generation and that all children should receive the same education as provided by the state in their early years.

A Vindication of the Rights of Women is one of the two important works by Mary Wollstonecraft; its influence would be delayed but still be important in the two centuries after her death.

2026 Reading Plan

Matt Ries general

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Happy New Year,

The clock has struck midnight at an internationally agreed upon moment in the Earth’s journey around the sun to indicate the start of a new year, so it’s time to make plans to helpfully get completed before the next time the Earth is at this point in it’s continual circling of a giant ball of plasma heated by nuclear fusion that baths the planet in radiation. If you read my last post for 2025 you know that last year while I achieved my overall goal of 40 books, I didn’t complete my original list of books while also reading few books and pages than 2024.

So like the last several years I once again divided my 30 original list books into normal and special sections. The 18 books, which includes the five books from last year’s original list, in the normal section are half history/nonfiction and the other half are fiction of some type. The special section contains 12 books divided between seven “big” history and five philosophy/political science books respectfully, which I’ll read one a month.

I once again plan to have 10 “home” reads to get to my overall goal of 40 books. These books will either be religious, graphic novels, and whatever else I have on my shelves that is on my master reading list needing to be marked as done. Also depending on my mood or simply I bought a book that is a part of one of the long term series I’ve been reading (i.e. Dirk Pitt, Brandon Sanderson, etc.), I might simply insert a book into my “normal” rotation right after buying it. And my intention is to continue doing Godzilla and other kaiju/monster film reviews each month, but given that I completed the Bond franchise last year I’ve still to decide on which franchise is to take it’s place.

The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion #2) by Dan Simmons
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (The Revolutionary Trilogy #2) by Rick Atkinson
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Thomas Cromwell #2) –>From 2025
The Americans, Volume III: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin –>From 2025
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin –>From 2025
Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress by James Morris –>From 2025
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (Thomas Cromwell #3) –>From 2025
Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire by James Morris
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat by James Morris
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
A History of Japan to 1334 by George Sansom
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
A History of Japan 1334-1615 by George Sansom
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
A History of Japan 1615-1867 by George Sansom
Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman

History
The War for the Union: War Becomes Revolution 1862-1863 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VI) by Allan Nevins
The War for the Union: The Organized War 1863-1864 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VII) by Allan Nevins
The War for the Union: The Organized War to Victory 1864-1865 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. VIII) by Allan Nevins
The Rise of Industrial America: A People’s History of the Post-Reconstruction Era (A People’s History #6) by Page Smith
America Enters The World: A People’s History of the Progressive Era and World War I (A People’s History #7) by Page Smith
Redeeming the Time: A People’s History of the 1920s and the New Deal (A People’s History #8) by Page Smith
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (The Pacific War #1) by Ian W. Toll

Philosophy & Political Science
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution Compared with the Origin and Principles of the French Revolution by Friedrich Von Gentz
On War by Carl Von Clausewitz
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard

2025 Reading Plan (December Update)

Matt Ries general
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Taken on November 27

Hello,

December was a very good reading month as I completed five books, of which one was from my original list, ending my year strong though not achieving in getting all my original list completed. Let’s look at the stats for the year.

Overall Total: 45/40 (113%)
Original List: 25/30 (83%)
Total Pages: 18285 (406.3)

The best book of the month was the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds tie-in novel Towards the Night, if a tie-in novel has a story a fan would love to see on screen then it has succeeded. None of the other books I completed this month were bad, they just didn’t rise to Towards the Night‘s overall quality. With that said, I understand why Jules Verne’s Fantastic Voyages are considered classics and I can tell historian Allan Nevins’ chronicle of the U.S. Civil War is going to be very good.

I wrote the review for Godzilla (1998), but unfortunately due to needing to work some Saturday nights–to make up in advance for work being closed the majority of Christmas week-and getting the nice wonderful “Crud” the week before Christmas and needing an antibiotic because it caused a sinus infection I wasn’t in the mood to watch another film staring the famous kaiju. I complete the supplemental book for the Adult Sabbath School related to the Book of Joshua, an excellent 13 weeks of weekly studies.

Taking a quick look back at the year, I feel off in the number of books and pages from 2024. I think my lack of home reading was the main reason for this; I attribute it to working on various alternate history story ideas whether researching, testing my scenarios for plausibility in various AI engines (Note: AI can be a tool for critiquing historical counterfactuals if your word the prompt correctly, but it takes trial and error to make actual constructive criticism and not affirmation criticism; Note 2: If I ever post my alternate history writing, everything will 100% mine and nothing produced by AI), or actually writing based on an alternate history idea. Everything related to alternate history stuff also effected when I wrote reviews for both books and movies, so reading wasn’t the only casualty.

So tomorrow I’ll post my 2026 Reading Plan, so look out for that. Thanks for following this year and see you next year.

January
Where God and I Meet: The Sanctuary by Martin Preobstle*
The Shaping of America: A People’s History of the Young Republic (A People’s History #3) by Page Smith
Lore Olympus Volume Four by Rachel Smythe*
February
The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin
Jeremiah: The Prophet of Crisis by Timothy Joseph Golden*
The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
March
The Book of Job by Ricardo Graham*
Lore Olympus Volume Five by Rachel Smythe*
The Nation Comes of Age: A People’s History of the Ante-Bellum Years (A People’s History #4) by Page Smith
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie^
April
Ordeal of the Union: Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847-1852 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. I) by Allan Nevins
May
The Creators by Daniel J. Boorstin
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Star Wars Adventures, Vol. 3: Endangered by Delilah S. Dawson & Sholly Fisch*
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
Asylum (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds #2) by Una McCormack^
June
Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852-1857 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. II) by Allan Nevins
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie^
The Kinderhook Creature and Beyond: A Personal Reminiscence by Bruce G. Hallenbeck^
How to Study Prophecy by Shawn Boonstra*
The Seekers by Daniel J. Boorstin
July
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
The Aryan Myth by Leon Poliakov
Contact by Carl Sagan
August
The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. III) by Allan Nevins
Lake Worth Monster: The True Story of the Greer Island Goatman by Lyle Blackburn^
Norse Mythology by Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer*
A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman
September
Political Writings of Immanuel Kant
Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell #1) by Hilary Mantel
Exodus: God’s Saving Presence by Jiri Moskala*
October
The Americans, Volume I: The Colonial Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson*
The Emergence of Lincoln: Prologue to Civil War 1859-1861 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. IV) by Allan Nevins
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
November
The Americans, Volume II: The National Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
Trial by Fire: A People’s History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (A People’s History #5) by Page Smith
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Volume 1) by Otis Frampton*
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne^
The War for the Union: The Improvised War 1861-1862 (Ordeal of the Union Vol. V) by Allan Nevins
Toward the Night (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds #3) by James Swallow^
Lessons of Faith from Joshua by Barna Magyarosi*
This Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling by Keith Elliot Greenberg*

Moved to 2026
Bring up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell #2) by Hilary Mantel
The Americans, Volume III: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Heaven’s Command: An Imperial Progress by James Morris
The Mirror and the Light (Thomas Cromwell #3) by Hilary Mantel

*= Home Read
^= Random Insertion

This Book is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling

Matt Ries Book Review ,

ImageThis Book Is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling by Keith Elliot Greenberg
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

All Elite Wrestling put out an official book looking back at its first five years of existence, you know what that means. This Book is All Elite: The Inside Story of All Elite Wrestling by Keith Elliot Greenberg & All Elite Wrestling reveals how the wrestling promotion began and developed over its first five years through interviews with cast and crew along with a dazzling number of photographs to reveal moments in the ring and backstage.

When it debut on TNT in October 2019, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) broke the near two-decade monopoly that had existed since the demise of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) yet as explained in the book it took more than a billionaire wanting to start his own promotion, it needed the right circumstances in the industry and media connections to get on a well-known platform. Through 218 pages, Greenberg chronicles how AEW came about but how it developed and rose to meet challenges, most notably the pandemic in front of no crowds, during its first five years of existence through quotes from talent and crew as well as detailing what transpired from 2018 to the end of 2024. Save for the last few pages, the book is chronological with the only deviation being Greenberg’s decision to end the book with AEW’s biggest moment, All In 2023 in front of over 81000 attendees in Wembley Stadium. While not directly addressing some of the more controversial moments—the assaults by one individual against coworkers on multiple occasions—of the promotion, the unaddressed reasons for some individuals leaving or being away are telling. While the page is over 200 pages long, its coffee table format means that images take up more space than words and so while a chronicle, it’s not in-depth. Overall, it can be said the book is meant for the promotion’s fans than for a general audience, which frankly is what AEW is known for, adhering to and focusing on keeping its core audience.

This Book is All Elite chronicles through interviews, retelling, and photographs the journey of All Elite Wrestling from idea to a year’s long airing weekly television show.

Lessons of Faith From Joshua

Matt Ries Book Review ,

ImageLessons of Faith from Joshua by Barna Magyarosi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The battle of Jericho is one of the most well-known stories from the Bible, yet while it is the most famous incident recorded in the book of Joshua it’s on the tip of the iceberg for importance in said book. Lessons of Faith from Joshua by Barna Magyarosi is the supplemental book of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study (4th Quarter 2025) covering the first book of the Bible after the Pentateuch as Israel went to conquer the Promised Land. Over the course of 128 pages divided into 13 chapters along with an introduction, Magyarosi covers the entire book of Joshua bringing out important lesson that not only Israel learned and were to retain but could also be applied for us today. Though a supplementary book for a 13-week Sabbath School lesson, this book can also be used when reading the book of Joshua on your own to enhance your understanding.

Seventh-day Adventist

Toward the Night (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds #3)

Matt Ries Book Review ,

ImageToward the Night by James Swallow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A planet circling a star that is suddenly acting erratic causing the inhabitants to deal with it in a radical solution, one that will eventually get the attention of Starfleet not once but twice. Toward the Night by James Swallow is the third book featuring the characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in a novelization surrounding one of the latest Star Trek series.

Taking place between the second season episodes “Among the Lotus Eaters” and “Charades”, the book follows the crew of the Enterprise as it tracks down a distress signal from century-lost early Federation vessel in a disputed system between the Federation and Klingon Empire only to find a chronological enigma. I don’t know if there is a record for the number of cliché plot-of-the-week thrown into one story, but this has to be up for consideration as there is a new alien civilization, mysterious derelict starship, mysterious orb, time travel and not ruining the timeline, finding hardboiled shipwreck survivors, long lost family member who isn’t what you imagined, deadly planet in two different time frames, and fighting Klingons just off the top of my head. If this was a single 60-minute episode, it would be bad, but thankful this is in a book allowing all these cliches to meld together in a great narrative scope conceived and executed by James Swallows. Using numerous points of view from the show’s main characters as well as those created for the story, Swallow does a good job bringing the show characters onto the page and bring forth engaging new characters for them to interact with. Of the three books of the Strange New Worlds line, this is easily the best not only in story but in how the author brings all the characters across.

Toward the Night is an example of a media tie-in novel that uses its medium for maximum potential to bring an entertaining story that would be too much for a single episode to the reader for their enjoyment.

Star Trek

The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862

Matt Ries Book Review , , , ,

ImageThe War for the Union: The Improvised War, 1861-62 by Allan Nevins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a conflict that seemed to be destined to occur for years, but neither side was particularly ready for when it happened even though one side had been preaching for while to be independent and didn’t prepare. The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 is the fifth book of Allan Nevin’s Ordeal of the Union series as the war that appeared inevitable after secession start but in a haphazard fashion that leaves both sides scrambling to raise, arm, and supply men while fighting one another.

Through 416 pages of text, Nevins details the lead up to and the fallout of the firing of Ft. Sumter that resulted in Lincoln’s call for volunteers which sent almost half of the border states into the Confederacy and how both sides figured out how to fight a war. As Nevins expertly relates while contemporary feeling—from both sides—demanded fighting, logistically it wasn’t so simple as arming men and getting them arms to fight with and supplies to live on were a challenge early on. The challenges, especially with political considerations for Lincoln, to getting raised troops to where they were needed and how state governments more than the underdeveloped U.S. government were essential early on. Nevins focuses on fighting when it needs to, but this volume is dedicated to revealing about how unorganized either side was to even fight and thus why 1861 is comparatively bloodless. The struggle to get arms and supplies leading to both sides contracting foreign contractors is enlightening and Nevins analysis on how both sides did was very informative. Besides the arming and logistics information, Nevins goes into the political maneuvering that was new to me especially in Missouri and how the Blair family cost the Federal war effort three-years of guerilla warfare due to their machinations when the state could have been firmly pacified by the end of the year. Nevins also goes into how each side, though mainly the Federals, squandered opportunities to get easy victories that would quiet public demand for action and improved strategic lines for defense of important areas even if the lines moved a few miles. Overall, this volume while “light” on fighting shows the forgotten importance of supplies and logistics when it comes to warfare in this period.

The War for the Union, Volume I: The Improvised War, 1861-1862 reveals how two political factions switched from talking to fighting and Allan Nevins reveals the complicated transition that took place to bring it about.

Around the World in Eighty Days

Matt Ries Book Review ,

ImageAround The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second half of the 19th Century saw the world shrink for those living and fantastic speculation began to be put forth about how long it would take with improved modes of transportation to go around the Earth. Around the World in Eighty Days is one of Jules Verne’s most well-known works that follows the adventurous journey of Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout along with Detective Dix and Aouda who join them under various circumstances.

In a short 208 pages, Verne introduces us to our two protagonists, sets up the fantastical journey, and allows us to follow along they and additional companions attempt to get around the Earth within a specific timeframe. I wasn’t expecting the characters to be a layered, but I was surprised we had as much insight into a few of them as we did. The journey itself is filled with cliched scenes of riding an elephant in India, a Native American attack on a train while crossing the Great Plains, as well as characters—well one most of the time—doing things like the locals. The main protagonist is very English, the love interest has a tragic backstory and fawns over her rescuer, the comedic sidekick does funny stuff, and the letter-of-the-law police detective antagonist is honorable though mistaken; all the boxes were checked. Honestly, this was a quick fun read and is a classic for a reason.

Around the World in Eighty Days provides an enjoyable experience when reading, it’s a classic adventure tale chalk full of stock characters and cliché scenes but fit the time and became timeless just for that reason.