Review: Tarzan: books vs. movies
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 6, 2013
As a kid and young adult, I watched all the Tarzan movies as well as read all the Tarzan books.The books showed the intelligence and wide-ranging knowledge of John Clayton aka Tarzan.The movies (Weissmueller and Crabbe)show excellent vine swinging, high dives and swimming but Tarzan talks as if he were 3-6 years old in stilted sentences.The movies are enjoyable; but the books are fantastic since Burroughs leaves your senses to feel and imagine being nearby like a fly on the wall.The books are also timeless; even though I know there are no undiscovered areas of the world today, when I read Tarzan I do not perceive a time frame since technology is not used or needed, often.  I only remember the telegram used in one book (today's children may not know what that is).I have the books (over 50) like others, as well as 30+ kindle books by ERB.  The typos and mis-edits are frustrating since they do disrupt the flow of action while your mind makes corrections.Should you read the Tarzan series - emphatically YES.  But if you can't get the books, like many of us did in the 60's and 70's, do get the kindle versions.Additionally, I recommend getting his other series (moon, mars, venus; also timeless) as well as independent books (can be dated but still enjoyable to read).For books written, some over a century ago, I am not sure one would call them classics, but I re-read them every decade or so just to let my mind wander.You may wonder about the 3-star rating.  The typos due to mis-edits and bad scanning are the reasons why I downgrade.In fact, if you do a search on Edgar Rice Burroughs at the Kindle store, there are over 2 dozen free copies of his books.