Tonight's Reader Advisory class is all about Adventure. I've been taxing my brain trying to remember any books I have read that could be classified as Adventure, and outside of books that are now considered to be literary classics (as opposed to popular fiction), I can't really recall a single title that I would classify this way. Although after talking with Krafty last night I now realize that I've seen a lot of Adventure movies.

For this week's class I read The Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler, the first book in the Dirk Pitt series. On a quiet Sunday afternoon on the tiny Greek island of Thasos a vintage World War I fighter plane swoops out of the sky and launches an attack on Brady Field, a U.S. Air Force base. In a matter of minutes the base is nearly decimated. By mere chance rescue comes in the form of Dirk Pitt, a Surface Security Officer with NUMA. Dirk has come to the Aegean Sea to investigate possible sabotage on the First Attempt, a research ship looking for a rare fish that could possibly be a missing evolutionary link. Could the attack on Brady Field have anything to do with the strange happenings on the First Attempt? If so, why would anyone want to stop researchers from looking for a fish? Dirk knows there is a connection, and he'll stop at nothing to find out what it is. Non-stop action and enough thrills to keep a rollercoaster junkie happy, The Mediterranean Caper is highly recommended to all adventure fans, especially those who dreamed of one day growing up to be Indiana Jones.

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself liking The Mediterranean Caper, and definitely plan on reading more books in the series. I loved the camaraderie between him and his friend Al, and I'm dying to see how Dirk Pitt evolves as a character. Color me surprised. I didn't really expect to be this excited about the book when I started reading it.

I have two ugly questions for my students this week. First, many of the books that were recommended for this genre could easily be classified as mystery, suspense, or thriller. Keeping this mind, is it possible that Adventure is a genre label that is past its prime? Second, books classified as Adventure have an overwhelming dude factor: the lead character almost always is a strong, action oriented male while any female characters have little to no characterization and are generally window dressing. Considering this, would it be fair to say that Adventure is marketed towards a male audience as Romance is market towards a female audience?

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