I am finally finalizing my list of books for the reading challenges I signed up for this year. My first draft of books for few of the challenges so far is here.

I have started on one of the books, a classic read years ago – Jules Verne’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea‘

For Book Beginnings Friday, here are the first couple of lines from the book
‘The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and
puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to
mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the
public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were
particularly excited’

I went through a Jules Verne phase when I was about 10 or 11, I think, and read as many of his books I could find in the local library and the library at school of our tiny town, and my favorite of his books ended up becoming ‘The Mysterious Island’! Some of what he wrote in his books – of futuristic tools, inventions, and more, in this book as well as others are no longer science fiction today but realities and I am in awe of his imagination and vision. I am definitely going to enjoy revisiting his world.