Finished rereading Murder on the Orient Express last night. Really a good read, definitely well-structured, and lends itself to fine ensemble acting when dramatized, but the closing paragraphs were quite lame. It was a letdown to go through the entire novel and then read Poirot's last line without knowing what everyone else's reaction was. As such, the screen versions had more punch.

Loved Albert Finney in the big-screen version.

Will start revisiting a boyhood adventure and reread the complete and unabridged Treasure Island tonight. My memory is hazy, but I recall thinking how the comic-book and movie versions seemed wrong to depict Jim Hawkins as a LITTLE boy, and that it would have been more credible to depict the "lad" as at least 18 years old. It is difficult to imagine a little boy accomplishing all that he did in the novel, all the way from dealing with pirates to assisting naval officials.

I am uncertain as to which to trace my fondness for Treasure Island to: watching my first play (Treasure Island, when I was in Prep at Ateneo Grade School) or viewing for the first time Norman Rockwell's enchanted book illustrations. I even like thinking, at age 69, that M.'s cafe is the neighborhood tavern and that it is a Filipino version of the Admiral Benbow Inn.