Getting this collection of this great author recognized worldwide for his futuristic vision in terms of the stories he wrote and the great adventures he imagined was one of the best moments of my life, not because it was a great adventure to buy them, but because of how happy it made me feel to see how my collection was growing and how excited I was waiting for the release of the next issue, plus he was the first author I read when I plunged into the world of reading and he stole my heart with his stories. Let me tell you the story!

It was around 2015 when I felt a desire to start reading adventure books, those kind of stories that steal your heart and leave you thinking for several days of how shocking they were for you. It was at that time when the newspaper La Nación Argentina launched a TV advertisement announcing the launch of the complete Jules Verne collection and the first thing that caught my attention was the design of the cover, hardcover with a very visually striking drawing and just hit the target, I was looking for adventure books and my mom mentioned that Jules Verne was an author of that genre, so I decided to start my passion for reading with this author without knowing that it would become my favorite and the one that caused me the most impact.

The first book they launched was “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” which, unfortunately, I did not get to buy because they were quickly sold out at the newsstands and it was very difficult to get it, months later I would get it at a good price through Mercado Libre as well as other issues that were also difficult to get, especially the first ones, but as always, Mercado Libre saved the needs of every buyer and I could complete my collection that way, or so I thought until recently, below I will tell you why my collection is not complete. Here I also want to mention that I went through many magazine stands and several entire book fairs trying to get “20,000 leagues”, but as I said, it was Mercado Libre who gave me the opportunity to have it.

The first book I bought was “Captain Grant's Children II” and yes, I missed the first part, but don't worry, I got it a few days later and I started to get into the world of Jules Verne. When I read this trilogy, which by the way is my favorite and the one I loved the most, I became addicted to his stories and it was thanks to this trilogy that I decided to complete the collection because at first I had planned to buy only a few, but that changed completely with this beautiful story full of adventures. Here I fell in love for the first time with a literary character, Paganel, what a charmingly distracted character, anyone would come to love him if they read the things he did for mere distraction and how he made me laugh. With this trilogy began my adventure to get all the books that La Nación would release, at first they came out every two weeks, then they were weekly and I went every Wednesday super happy to the newsstand to buy the next issue, even the kiosker already knew me and brought me and kept the books exclusively for me, every Wednesday he waited for me with the book and told me “here is your book”, what a nice memory!

I spent hours and hours reading his beautiful adventures, in almost three years I had read the entire collection, in total there were 59 books according to the list of the newspaper La Nacion and it took me about a year to buy them all, always at the same newsstand because we had already agreed that he would bring them to me because there was a time when they were no longer available at the newsstands in my neighborhood. Apparently sales had fallen and they were no longer available, so I agreed with this man to keep asking for them and I would be there every Wednesday to take them to him, as long as I was not busy, I would still go another day and he would have them waiting for me. What I really liked was to feel that new book smell when I opened them from their packaging, some of them still have that smell and every time I smell them I am transported back 10 years ago when I was excited to complete the collection.

I said that there were 59 books, I was guided by the official list of the newspaper La Nacion to know how many I was missing and which ones were only listed up to number 59, but recently, when I decided to show my collection in the community, I went back to investigate the number of books that had been released and I was surprised to find that I was missing 6 books, from 60 to 65, with titles that I did not know and my pocker face was such that I even laughed because 10 years later I come to find out that my collection that I thought was beautifully complete, was incomplete. Nowadays I can't buy them, they are super expensive, but at least I keep the beautiful memories and the enormous happiness that the previous books gave me and for that reason and much more Jules Verne is my favorite author.