Make sure you have time when you start these books. It is highly technical and descriptive, not to mention bloody, violent and tense. They do NOT follow the movies. The movies are just based on the  behind the novels. Still very good. I saw the movie first and then began the novels after the 2nd Bourne movie came out.

Great plots, good characterization (though with some parts that seem out of character), but the writing is very poor.

Too long-winded (especially the first book, The Bourne Identity), poor pacing at times, repetitious in places, particularly in the interior monologue, which doesn't come across as authentic. Tries to give a sense of what the amnesia is like, but fails.

I almost gave up on it part way through the first book. If anyone but a big name author had submitted it, it never would have seen the light of day.

The first book is definitely the most entertaining, but all are good reads. I like how Ludlum portrays government officials and bureaucracies. Its amusing. You can definitely tell that these books were written during the cold war. Yes, these books are better than the movies. Yes, the movies are different than the books.

I read them before seeing the movies, so I loved them. They are nothing like the movies made from them. There is a lot of serious violence and some language.

intense. you just can't stop reading it

Iloooove all books written by robert ludlum! they are a "racy" read! the bourne series are my favorites! and was amazed when they FINALLY made a film out of it! Because I read most of my ludlum books back when i was still in college and the early years when i started working (late 80's to early 90's). he has a lot actually...matarese cirle trevayne, holcroft covenant..etc etc. read them all!

Ok so actually I am still in need of reading the last book in the Trilogy but the first two were good. Nothing like the movies really, but good all the same. There is a little profanity in the first and more in the second.

This trilogy later ended with a fourth book tells the story of one Jason Bourne and what he went through. These books are not at all like the movie trilogy that was created not long ago, they are much much better. I advise caution to those who don't enjoy reading foul language and violence. Other than that little disclaimer these three books were amazing.

Good not Great

This book was good not great. The action and espionage was easier to follow than Supremacy, but it dragged. The story could have ended much sooner. All in all still a good and exciting read and somewhat satisfying ending to the series by Ludlum.

First of all it's really, really heavy and awkward to read in bed (I do most of mine there) especially at both ends of the trilogy.
So, The Bourne Identity is pretty good, it gets down to action soon and is engaging and usually fast moving. The drawbacks are the constant flashbacks to Bourne's training/brainwashing which become repetitive and then annoying. I found the development of the love interest a bit too fast, unbelievable even, and the language used between the two cloying and at odd with the rest of the novel.
Then there's The Bourne Supremacy which I find badly written. It's so hard to follow with all the different characters not being memorable when first introduced, despite very lengthy and, I think unnecessary blogs which therefore become unrecognisable when mentioned later. Then there are the various twists and turns which I also find unnecessary and tedious. I really wanted to finish this part and ended up recognising the beginnings of the filler so skimmed or even skipped over whole pages to get back to the actual action.
And then we get to The Bourne Ultimatum which is even worse than the Supremacy for the same reasons with the added "attraction" of what appears to be comedy, especially when we get to the island. The last 200 pages or so are really, really hard to plough through. It's like a very unenjoyable marathon and I rather thing that Ludlum was not really enthused about writing at this point.
The last 200 pages or so were just so hard to get through even while skipping large chunks of contrived twists and turns. I was so glad to finally finish it.

First Book: A good read, though I found his writing style slightly annoy, esp with dialogue. Pretty gripping though.
Second Book: Not so good. Only halfway through...

Another one I failed to finish. Partly because I tried to read right after watching the movies. Of course they're totally different stories and because I loved the character portrayed by Matt Damon I just couldn't get into the book.

However after reading the reviews I don't think I gave it a fair shot and as it's several years since the films I think I'll give it another try.