King Solomon's Mines

Title: King Solomon’s Mines

Author: H Rider Haggard

Number of pages: 320

Started: 27 December 2008

Finished: 7 January 2008

Opening words:

It is a curious thing that at my age--fifty-five last birthday--I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history. I wonder what sort of a history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other boys are at school I was earning my living as a trader in the old Colony. I have been trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And yet it is only eight months ago that I made my pile. It is a big pile now that I have got it--I don't yet know how big--but I do not think I would go through the last fifteen or sixteen months again for it; no, not if I knew that I should come out safe at the end, pile and all. But then I am a timid man, and dislike violence; moreover, I am almost sick of adventure. I wonder why I am going to write this book: it is not in my line. I am not a literary man, though very devoted to the Old Testament and also to the "Ingoldsby Legends." Let me try to set down my reasons, just to see if I have any.

You can read the book here

Plot summary:

Three men trek to the remote African interior in search of a lost friend - and reach, at the end of a perilous journey, an unknown land cut off from the world, where terrible dangers threaten anyone who ventures near the spectacular diamond mines of King Solomon...


What I thought:

I am pleasantly surprised to say that I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to get going with it, but that was more to do with the Christmas season than the book itself. Each time I read it I found it engaging and a good yarn. The plot was good and had a range of twists and turns that kept a really good pace to the book. A good adventure book that was also a good story and kept me wanting to know how it turned out. Well worth a read and I’d like to read more of his books now.