"In Search of the Castaways" is one of Verne's lesser-known books, but it's a good read. The basic plot is that a chance discovery of a partially illegible message in a bottle found in a shark's stomach leads to a search for shipwrecked sailors across South America, Australia, and New Zealand (the message specified the latitude, but not the longitude of the shipwreck) with numerous adventures en-route. Basically, it's a travelogue with adventures thrown in.

The characters in this book were very popular, and Verne re-introducted them in "The Mysterious Island", which is itself a sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas", so ideally this book should be read in between "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" and "The Mysterious Island".

The PG version of this book was in a horrible state (eg with fragments of page footers remaining in the text) and needed major work to make it readable.

Enjoy!

EDIT: 17 Feb 2010

Major editing work done on the book (although a lot of improvements could still be made). Added a cover image. Uploaded v2.


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Oh I wish I had known to read "In Search of the Castaways" first. So far I have read Vern in this order, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, Around the Moon. Chronologically what would be the best way to read Vern?

Most of his books are standalone and can be read in any order. The only other "linked" books that I can think of are "Robur the Conquerer" and its sequel "The Master of the World".

I also read the Master of the World would that have spoilt Robur the Conquerer then?

"Robur the Conquerer" is still well worth reading, but it would certainly have been better to read it before "Master of the World". Some of the references in "MoW" wouldn't have made much sense to you if you hadn't read the earlier book.

Major editing work done on the book (although a lot of improvements could still be made). Added a cover image. Uploaded v2.