Casino Royale Observations
I'm not gonna say this is a review because it isn't too in-depth, more just a smattering of thoughts about the book Casino Royale and how it relates to the film.

For the introduction to James Bond, it's a great book. Breeze to read and thrilling all the way through, I will most likely read it again at some point in my life.

The prose oozes style, you can tell where most of the extravagance of the films came from with these humble beginnings. The casual sexism was to a pretty appalling degree though, almost as bad as an ice pick to the forehead.



Like the film, the book centers around a pivotal card game to crush a red agent. Unlike the film which pussied out and made it a poker game, the book is all about what real James Bond's play: Baccarat. I found this game utterly fascinating, and completely thrilling in that I almost missed my train stop because I was so into it. The filmmakers were idiots for changing the game, it's an insult to the audience.

And lastly there was some interesting stuff about secret organizations which the films merely touch on, SPECTRE and so forth. There was more detail about these organizations in this one book than in all the films combined, and one thing I like more than secrets are the ones that are organized so I'm looking forward to that stuff unravelling as the books go on.

This book is trash entertainment with a stroke of genius that elevated it to eventually being a cultural icon. Recommended. On the Bus.