To the Hesitating Purchaser

I figured I should probably add a book review today for those who come to this here location for something other than economic analysis.  Come to think of it, I’d be surprised if anyone came to this blog for economic analysis.  Maybe I should add more comments on the economy and bill myself as an economic blogger.  I think I might make twice as much income from this blog if it was about economics.  (Yes, twice as much income still won’t enable me to put anything in one of those “leave a penny” plastic containers next to cash registers.  (Isn’t the existence of those things, by the way, proof that the penny is obsolete.  Does anyone care about getting a penny.  Anyone?))

I am once again behind in my book reviews, and the rambling in the preceding paragraph means you will have to wait until later for the review of a spy novel about Russia I had planned to write when I started typing, and instead you will get a review of:

Treasure Island  (by Stevenson, but you knew that)

Despite its title, you will learn nothing about how to find treasure in this book.  I am not sure what made me want to reread this novel.  The idea occurred to me a few months ago, and I ignored it—after all, I’ve read this novel multiple times.  But, the desire kept haunting me, until I finally gave in and reread it.  I liked it.  Don’t ask me why.  It’s not particularly well-written or plotted (especially when you already know the plot).  Long John Silver is the only character even remotely two-dimensional, and he is not terribly well-developed,  The story is improbable in the extreme.  And yet, I enjoyed reading it.  Again.

I still have the copy my aunt gave me when I was a lad.  The dust jacket is long gone, but otherwise the book is still in good shape.  Then again, come to think of it, maybe it didn’t have a dust jacket—it may have once had one of those slip cases.  Now I am not sure.  At any rate, the best part about reading a book you have had for close to four decades is how much the story and the pictures match—it’s odd to think about reading a copy of this book with different pictures.  So, I hereby declare that the copy of Treasure Island published by Grosset & Dunlap as part of the Illustrated Junior Library with illustrations by Norman Price (1974 printing of an edition with a 1947 copyright) is the single best copy of this book ever made, and I don’t plan to ever look at any other copy to tempt me away from my True Love.

I don’t think I ever got one of my kids to read this book.  Sigh.  Yet another Paternal Failing.