The Sea and the Jungle: An Englishman in Amazonia

Perhaps I had too high an expectation going into this book.
The opening of the blurb on the back cover was so appealing:
“Suppose you were a quiet, respectable, sedentary business or professional man, and the captain of a tramp steamer bound to South America and up the Amazon suddenly dropped into your peaceful office, invited you to go along with him, got your acceptance by a clever trick, and had you at sea before you could stop to think — wouldn't you expect to find ‘something doing'?”

The book didn't really grip me, instead I found myself zoning out.

Other reviewers provided high praise, so perhaps my lack of enjoyment was environmental - too tired, too much going on at work this week, to take it in and absorb the subtleties of the book.

Originally published in 1912, we are provided with the story of the authors travel by ship from London to Brazil, and on up the Amazon River and a tributary, the Madeira River to such exotic towns as Para and Porto Velho , and excursions further afield by foot and mule. For me too much was made of the voyage to Brazil - around 85 pages.

For me the narrative contained too many of the authors sideline thoughts, which he expanded on into paragraph after paragraph of unnecessary information. Never a fan of long paragraphs, here we are regularly treated to 3/4 page ones, which also contributed to my zoning out I think.

Perhaps some of the more interesting parts of this book for me were the recounting of stories from other people. Being something of a novelty in Porto Velho, the author was sought out by various men exploring or working in what was at that time a wilderness. There stories they passed on are recounted by the author.

Overall, only 3 stars from me.