You know how you go into a book thinking you're going to get one thing, then you get it but it's so much better than you were expecting? No? I don't either except that's what happened with Around the World in 80 Days.

I've read A Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Both of which I enjoyed thoroughly but have no real inclination to read again. I went into Around the World expecting the same experience and it was except I forgot how much I enjoy his writing. 

If you wanted to get into the classics but are afraid of nodding off after the first page, then I'd definitely recommend reading Verne first. The action starts within the first few pages and you would get completely sucked into Phileas Fogg's adventure. Verne's characters are good if a bit stereotypical. Fogg is such an eccentric, fussy, overly proper, seemingly unimaginative Englishman, yet I really rooted for him at the end. By contrast, Passepartout, is passionate, reactive and effusive. They are almost caricatures of an English and French man respectively.

This book works well on audio too because the language isn't too ornate and doesn't require extreme attention.