Monday, November 3, 2008

Around the World in 80 Days (or Less)

Jules Verne wrote a book entitled Around the World in 80 Days. Many people know it mainly from the movie versions, but it basically tells the tale of a man who makes a bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days. Since this is set in 1872 (the book came out in 1873) the adventures of Phileas Fogg as he sets out from London and travels around the world would have seemed marvelous to his time.

My husband is a big fan of Jules Verne and is a member of the North American Jules Verne Society (he was a board member and newsletter editor in past years). We collect Verne books and like to watch Verne movies.

He heard about an interesting project where a man in Portugal who owned a nice early copy of Around the World in 80 Days wanted to ship his book around the world in 80 days or less. In fact, he wanted to have various fans get the book, sign it, take pictures of it with important landmarks in the area, and then mail it to the next destination and see how quickly the book can get around the world.

We will be the American West Coast stop for the book. It has just left England and is heading to France. It should be fun to participate in this little project.

The blog following the progress of the book is in Portuguese and English and contains pictures of the different stops as they are sent in.
http://jvernept.blogspot.com/search/label/Around%20the%20World

I'll post info about the project again when we receive the book.

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