AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Jules Verne) - March 31/13

I was actually kind of enjoying this one for a while - the narrative initially moves quickly and is full of quirky characters and occurrences - but as it progresses Verne bogs the story down with dull descriptions of the various places Fogg visits. Stripped of these utterly dull passages, the book probably would've fared a whole lot better. And although the story did improve in its final stretch - with the reveal that Fogg actually won the contest and his marriage to Aouda - I still can't quite recommend this bloated piece of work. ** out of ****