Here is a range of great adventure novels that I have read, and want to read, from over the years.
In the Introduction to the "Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction," critic Don D'Ammassa defines the genre as follows:
".. An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist's ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action. Adventure stories almost always move quickly, and the pace of the plot is at least as important as characterization, setting, and other elements of creative work."
(Don D'Ammassa, "Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction," Facts on File Library of World Literature, Infobase Publishing, 2009 (pp. vii-viii).