Eli Bendersky's website Surprisingly, I've never read this book before. I read almost everything else by Verne (at least most of his popular works) but this was somehow missed... so I decided to fill in the hole in my education, without regards of it being a children's book.
The main character, Phileas Fogg undertakes a journey around the world with his servant, wagering to do it in 80 days. Along the way he is considered a robber, rescues a lady from sacrifice in India, sails through many stormy seas, fights indians, crosses collapsing bridges, runs a ship with itself as a fuel and plays a lot of whist.
The story is simple and fun, and shines with Verne's recognizable style - scientific, almost mathematic, with the highest regards for the main characters and full of real-world knowledge.
Phileas Fogg is described brilliantly as a satire of an intelligent English gentlemen - I found the first pages where his life order is described hilarious - such over-emphasized pedantism !
It's funny how far from relevant this book is today. Put air-flight aside for the moment, and even then it's not even close. In Fogg's times there was a single ship a week from Japan to America, two days separated between trains from San Francisco to New York and a simple delay could ruin the whole journey. Indeed, transportation has vastly progressed in the past 100 years.
Anyway, I highly recommend this book as a fun light reading.