Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

This book is one of those that falls into the ripping yarns category which means you get sucked into the tale and before you know it the minutes have passed and your lunch break is over. The short chapters are one of the reasons why it feels like the book is flying by but it is mainly because the plot is based around this race around the world and that pace infects the reader.

Highlights from chapters VI to XI
With a detective on his tail Fogg manages to land at Suez and set off for India. The detective pumps Passepartout for information and concludes that because of the mysterious journey and the amount of money Fogg is carrying he is the bank robber but he has to continue to dog his progress because no arrest warrant has arrived.

The detective gets a breakthrough when Passepartout goes into a temple with shoes on and breaks the law about respecting Indian religious customs and decides to use that as a way of arresting the party, which meanwhile is on a train to Bombay to catch a boat. They are going along without a care in the world when suddenly the track runs out and the two days Fogg has made up because the boat was quick look like being lost but they pay for an elephant to take them through the jungle to where the line starts again.

More tomorrow…