Reading Ludlum’s Bourne books out of order (please no spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Amazon had The Bourne Supremacy on sale today for $2.99 Kindle so I immediately bought it.

It’s number 3 in the series, can I plunge right in or should I definitely read them in order? I can always wait for the first two to go on sale or grab them from a used bookstore or even the library now that it is an option again.

I know there was a set of films based on the books, I’m sure I saw The Bourne Identity but I can’t remember a thing about it.

2

I’m pretty sure all Robert Ludlum books are completely interchangeable and were actually written using a method very similar to Mad Libs. In fact, you can just make up your own as needed, starting with the title:
https://ludlumtitle.blogspot.com

In a cocktail shaker, add:

(1) rogue agent with retrograde amnesia/disavowed by agency/on the run from assassins
(1) damsel in distress
(1) world-spanning conspiracy
(3-5) contacts or information sources who will be killed after giving just enough information to find the next contact
(1 per chapter) street chase/gun fight/break-in/helicopter escape

Shake vigorously and garnish with lemon peel and/or cyanide drops.

Enjoy.

Stranger

3

I’d start with the first, just because the series starts off with an intriguing (and now-classic) premise. I occasionally go back and reread the first few chapters*.

But it ain’t lit-ra-choor, so do whatever you want.

,

*But I do that with a couple of books (like the last two chapters of Ender’s Game)…

4

Supremacy is #2 in the series. Ultimatum is the third. Identity would give you the back story of how he met the wife, and where a major supporting character came from, but in general Supremacy shouldn’t be too confusing on its own.

As for the films, the first one has maybe 15% in common with the novel. For the other two films, the commonality is pretty much limited to the name of the title character.

5

The fictional Jason Bourne’s nemesis in the books was a real-life historical figure, and reality did not play out in accordance with the plot of the books. The villain was not defeated by Jason Bourne and has actually been in prison in France since 1994. So, the movies skipped using that villain and invented their own tale which generally has little relevance to the books.