It's all about "Bond, James Bond"

On December 30th Amazon/Kindle had a Daily Deal I could not pass up. All of Ian Fleming's James Bond books were offered as eBooks for $1.99/ea. Now I have been a 007 fan for like forever, but had never read the books. Well, how could I pass up a deal like that? So just before midnight, when the offer would expire, I added thirteen of the fourteen books to my Kindles (my old Kindle Keyboard and my newer Kindle Fire). Why not all fourteen books? Well, I had previously added one of the books to my Kindle a few months back, but had never gotten around to reading it.

Now let me back up a bit. I said I'd never read the James Bond books before, but that's not quite true. When I was a school age kid, around the ages of eight to twelve, I used to sneak "those books" out of my dad's top dresser drawer and read as much as I could in a few minutes sitting. You see, my dad read and loved all of Ian Fleming's 007 books, but warned me that I was too young to read them myself.  Well, any parent knows that a warning like that will certainly lead to said child reading those same books.

My dad said the same about the Louis L'Amour books that he read, so I would sneak-read those too, but that's another story for another post. The result, today I own just about every single Louis L'Amour book ever written, all in paperback and to date I've read over half of them.  My dad also said the same about the Zane Grey books he was reading and Zane Grey's books are now among my all time favorite reads.

So maybe the lesson here is to tell your child not to read something, which results in said child becoming a voracious reader who is addicted to books. Well, in retrospect, I don't see the harm in my reading Ian Fleming, Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey as a child. The books are wonderfully written and quite tame when compared to today's YA books.

Sadly, my dad passed away from cancer back in 1996, so I never got a chance to tell him that I used to secretly reads bits of his books. Well, I hope that somehow he's learning about that now.

So back to "Bond, James Bond." The invincible 007 is certainly one of the handsomest, to-die-for heroes ever created by the stroke of a pen. I wonder if Ian Fleming realized that as he wrote the very first book, Casino Royale.

The James Bond books were published between 1953 and 1966, one a year. But 007 didn't make it to the big screen until 1962 with Dr. No, the sixth book in the series. Sadly, Ian Fleming passed away in 1966 and didn't live to see that his unconquerable James Bond would live on forever in his books and on the big screen.

Ian Fleming Author Page and Books on Amazon/Kindle

Ian Fleming (28 May 1908 - 12 Aug 1964) - Wikipedia

Ian Fleming's James Bond, 007 books in order with publication dates:

Casino Royale (1953)
Live and Let Die (1954)
Moonraker (1955)
Diamonds are Forever (1956)
From Russia with Love (1957)
Dr. No (1958)
Goldfinger (1959)
For Your Eyes Only (1960)
Thunderball (1961)
The Spy Who Love Me (1962)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)
You Only Live Twice (1964)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1965)
Octopussy/The Living Daylights (1966)

Note - the last two James Bond books were published posthumously.

On New Year's Eve I started reading the James Bond books. To date, I've read the first three and absolutely loved them. I wrote short reviews for each of those books on Goodreads and will continue to review each one as finished. In my opinion, Ian Fleming was a 5-Star author. Don't for one minute think his books were pulp fiction. Believe me, these books are awesome reads. Written in the '50s and '60s, these books are not politically correct according to today's standards, but don't let that put you off. Just jump in and start reading about "Bond, James Bond."

My Goodreads page with my reviews of Ian Fleming's James Bond books.

Now the other side of the bigger-than-life James Bond character are the 007 movies. I don't need to point out that just about every adult and YA female on the planet has fallen madly in love with James Bond. Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond is, well, to-die-for.  I've loved every actor who played James Bond, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig and everyone in between. Do I have one favorite? Oh, please, don't make me pick just one. Suffice to say, I love them all.

List of James Bond films - Wikipedia

James Bond movies on Amazon

The Official James Bond 007 Website

I've seen all but the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall with Daniel Craig as 007. Due to the holidays, I just haven't had a chance to see that one, but rest assured I will. How could I possibly miss one single James Bond 007 movie? I love every one of them.

My step-father, who passed away a few years ago, loved the James Bond movies and had a collection of all but the latest ones. So when I visited my mom last week, I borrowed that collection. I'm looking forward to watching all the movies as I read the books. It'll be interesting to compare the books and movies. Plus, I can't think of a better way to spend some of the chilly winter days and nights. Of course, I live in Florida where winter is very short, so I need to get busy on my James Bond 007 marathon of books and movies. Sleep? What's that? I have books to read and movies to watch. Catch you all later.