Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne Part 1

I'm currently reading the aforementioned novel, which is totally out of character. This is NOT the kind of book I'm accustomed to reading. I usually select exciting novels, I suppose, that are more contemporary. I don't usually pick up the books that are severely old and have those tiny pocket-book editions that look remarkably like the ones you read in Honors Humanities. A friend recommended Around the World in 80 Days...well, actually, the exact words were: "You might think it's kind of boring" but hey, I registered it as a suggested read, so I went and procured the book today. It's going well so far. I'm not too far in(but it's hard to know when you're "far in" when the book's only about 160 pages or so), but I do like it. It's European and exotic and inexplicably suspenseful in a completely novel fashion. I mean, there's the Dan Brown suspense where Langdon's on the verge of some horrible end, and then there's the Jules Verne AW80D suspense, where you have this quaint, complacent and utterly BORING man named Phileas Fogg traveling the globe in order to win a wager set against him by some fellow card-players. At least, I think "whist" refers to some kind of a card game. I've had bad experiences with card games so I'll just leave it at that. Anyhow, where I'm situated, Fogg is currently riding an elephant in order to recover from a "foreseen obstacle" in the form of an incomplete railroad track! See what I mean? If that isn't brilliantly spontaneous, I don't know what is! Verne also paints a delightful image of all the regions that Fogg and his valet, ---to be continued.