SHARED READ // Treasure Island

[nicky]

The poll has spoken and our group read for this first month of the bookclub will be Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. If you want to join us for this shared read, please, please do so (even if you have already read the book), if not, we are very excited to see what other MERMAY book you choose to share with us !
I myself am rather excited for this read actually. I have only ever read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson and I did very much enjoy it ! Apart from that I find it insanely difficult to find a non-romance related Pirate Story (I do not mind a little romance and love, as that is part of life yadada, but you know what I'm referring to), so I'm excited to read this classic!
If you do happen to have Pirate Book recommendations, do not hesitate to post them here, or you could of course choose a Pirate themed novel for MERMAY ...

Anyways, reading begins May 1st and we cannot wait to start diving into the bookclub properly !

[nicky]

May is finally here and with it begins our bookclub journey ! Have fun :))

[nicky]

I have not yet finished Treasure Island (I'm almost through though), as I had a serious book hangover after finishing another novel. So far though, I have to say that I am really enjoying this read. It reminds me of Dracula a little bit, the story of an adventure that follows "classic" rules. I do sometimes like it when novels follow a certain type of structure and I really like that this is the first real pirate novel ever written (as far as I know). I feel like a child, reading an adventure novel in my treehouse or something.
As I am not that familiar with Pirate-literature, I also love noticing the little tidbits that I only ever heard of in Pirates Of The Carribean (such as the "yo ho and a bottle of rum"-song, Davy Jones etc.).
We'll see how I enjoy the last 70 pages or so :)

[julia]

I have to agree with Caro on most points - Treasure Island was boring me terribly, and I think the only reason I finished it in a timely manner is because I listened to the audiobook and could just do that at work, where I had nothing better to do anyway.

I was quite disappointed that I couldn't like this story. I LOVE pirates and pirate stories and pirate ships and everything pirate-y. I like the sense of adventure that always comes along with the whole pirate concept. Treasure Island, though, was not at all what I imagined. I found the story extremely un-fascinating - I wasn't captivated or intrigued in the least. Everything was so ... obvious, all along. What bothered me even more were the characters. They were flat and unimaginative and I didn't feel anything for any of them. It didn't matter to me who was classified as good or bad, who lived or died, who got the treasure and who didn't. None of it really interested me.

The one thing I did find noteworthy is what Nicky pointed out as well - how songs and characters we know from current pirate classics such as Pirates of the Carribean apparently had their origin so, so much earlier and maybe even found their beginning with Stevenson's novel. That's kind of intriguing.

Apart from that, though, I'm glad I'm through with Treasure Island. Not my cup of tea, sadly!