Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe.

Plot:
Robinson Crusoe has no luck with being a sailor. After being shipwrecked twice already, he takes over a plantation in Brazil. But he becomes greedy and takes on another sea voyage – only to end up shipwrecked all alone on a deserted island. He sets up shop there and tries to make himself as comfortable as possible while he waits for rescue for decades.

I read Robinson Crusoe for the first time during my school exchange in Brazil, over 10 years ago. Back then I thought it was pretty boring, though I basically accredited that to the fact that I read the book in Portuguese and maybe didn’t understand it that well. So, when we were given the book to read for one of my uni courses, I saw the perfect opportunity to try again. Unfortunately my opinion wasn’t changed in the slightest by reading it in English.

Robinson Crusoe is just freaking boring. He describes everything in minute detail and really, I didn’t care about the way he planted his corn or made his pottery or how he built stuff.

I only finished the book because I thought that I’d keep reading until Friday shows up. The thing is, though: he only shows up after 24 years of Robinson being alone on the island and then there’s only 100 more pages or so. (Also, I practiced my speed-reading, which I’m really not good at.)

And those 24 years alone on that island? You feel them in real-time. You could say that that’s a stroke of genius as you experience what the character experiences, but unless you want to experience 24 years of sanctimonious bullshit and loneliness, you might want to skip it all.

Summarising: should be only read for its historic value, if at all.