Apostrophe S

I’ve always been a huge fan of the James Bond films, so it’s a wonder it took me this long to read any of the source material for them, that being the 007 novels by Ian Fleming.

I probably should have started with Casino Royale, but since From Russian With Love was always my favorite of the films, I thought I’d start there.

The book has been catching dust on my shelf for far too long, and I thought it would be a good break from some of the heavy reading I’d been doing of late. (I’m trying to avoid buying new books until I read all the ones I already own.) I must say, the novels give me a whole new respect for James Bond. As much as I like the films, they never let you catch a glimpse inside Bond’s mind. He’s always just a playboy action star. In this book, he’s still somewhat of a playboy, but a rather reluctant one. He has doubts and worries, and internal conflicts. He’s more human as a literary incarnation, and I like that.

Also not present are the cheesy “wink wink” one-liner attitude the film franchise has become known for. There is no “shaken, not stirred” line. (Although this could well appear in other Fleming books I’ve yet to read.) Ian Fleming was a serious writer. He reminds me of Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. Although there are elements of humor, this is still a book of political intrigue, murder for hire, and international espionage. And it’s believable. The perpetrators of the conspiracy to kill Bond are members of the infamous SMERSH organization, which stands for “death to spies” in Russian. It was the soviet murder and assassination squad, and it really existed during the Cold War. (In the film adaptation, it’s SPECTRE who sets the whole deal up. Personally, I never bought into the whole third-party world domination gimick, so going back to government vs. government was very refreshing.)

I like spy stories, especially ones that aren’t exaggerated beyond belief, and this book gives a small glimpse into the complicated channels of the British and Soviet secret services during their heydey, before the satellite and microchip era of spycraft. And it’s not totally made up; Fleming had some experience in the British secret service, so he knows a thing or two about how it really was. A great read. I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

Oh, and let me mention a little bit about my bookmark. Yes, my bookmark. Since I was about 12, I’ve always had an old playing card for a bookmark. I had a 7 of clubs for a long time, probably a 50 to 75 books worth. Maybe over 100. Sadly, I misplaced that bookmark while in college. Probably left it in some textbook when I sold it back. That was very sad. I always wished I had kept track of the books I’d read using that bookmark. Now, I realized after finishing Jarhead that I’d again read a number of books using my replacement, a 7 of spades. It doesn’t have the same history as the 7 of clubs, but it’s getting there. I decided to start writing the titles of the books I read on bookmark, so that in a few years I’ll be able to reflect on my reading history. This may also encourage me to read books one at a time, as I have a bad habit of reading 3 or 4 books at any given time.

I’m starting The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, the fifth book I’ll have read by that author. I’m ready to dive back into that world for a while.