Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

It's written like a travel log, so the story line often goes from not much happening to exciting.  It wasn't a book that built up to a storyline that stayed exciting til the conclusion.  There were moments of excitement followed by pages of classifying animals.  (Or so it seemed).  Very interesting, and I read that when he wrote it many things that were unknown at the time later became accurate guesses.  I'll admit that I started reading it searching for everything he guessed right about, but it took way too long.  Overall, if you wish to read it just be prepared for all the classifying of animals and then just enjoy the novel.  (Unless you're doing a research project on what was known at the time, what was an accurate guess and what we still don't know or know to be false now, of course).