- The Princess Bride is a yearly re-read for me. It’s too perfect of a book not to be.
- The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson
Summary from GoodReads:
Westley … handsome farm boy who risks death and much, much worse for the woman he loves; Inigo … the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father’s death; Fezzik … the Turk, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini … the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he’s foiled by his own perfect logic; Prince Humperdinck … the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen … the evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others;Miracle Max … the King’s ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); The Dread Pirate Roberts … supreme looter and plunderer of the high seas; and, of course, Buttercup … the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in the history of the world.
My Review:
I’ve watched The Princess Bride movie many times a year for, quite frankly, as long as I can remember. It’s one of those movies I grew up loving and grew fonder of as the years went by. It’s so full of quotes, things I use so often even in daily life - as recent as dropping my brother off at his girlfriends (he’s 16 and will never read this so I can tell you all) and yelling out, “Have fun storming the castle!” as he made his way up the driveway he refused to have me drive into.
But as much as I love the movie, I hadn’t picked up the book until a year or so ago. And then.. then, I felt much as Fred Savage’s character must have felt (and much like Goldman describes his own feelings as a boy in the abridged notes) ((If you believe the abridged notes I shall giggle at you)), I fell in love with the book.
I mean – the jacket says the following:
So! Are you ready for Fencing and Fighting? True Love, Strong Hate and Harsh Revenge? A Giant, Lots of Bad Men, Lots of Good Men, plus Rodents of Unusual Size? Not to mention Death, Lies, Truth and Miracles? It’s all here!
Honestly? How could anyone turn that down?
I looked for a picture to put up of my lovely copy my brother got me for Christmas (a collectors 1973 edition – jacket art done by Ruth Sanderson) but couldn’t find one so here is a grainy copy of the book for you to admire.
This isn’t a story to take seriously. It isn’t heavy literature to be discussed with a glass of port in one hand and your nose turned up in the air. It’s a story that thrills and amuses, that has its moments of clarity and moments of confusion. It has everything my inner child craves in a book and it’s for that reason it’s on my yearly re-read list.
If you haven’t read The Princess Bride yet, I encourage you to do so – no I challenge you to. And I dare you not to like it.
Check out these review(s):
I'm a huge fan of the movie too — my family and most of my friends can (and often do!) quote the whole thing. The book was also very good, though (I agree with an above commenter) for somewhat different reasons. Both are witty, romantic, and highly adventurous, but I feel the book has more satire, more clutter (not necessarily a bad thing, as it is entertaining clutter), and is just generally brimming with glorious excess. The movie is beautifully streamlined and has absolutely pitch-perfect performances by the actors, which really brings the whole thing to life. Both are classics. I'll have to review them sometime. (it's actually been awhile since I've seen the movie — up until a 3 or 4 years ago, I'd watch it all the time. Now I'm looking for someone who HASN'T seen it to introduce to it!)
I recently got to introduce my youngest brother to it (and my niece and nephew last year). It becomes an instant favorite (the movie). I'm still working on getting those family members to actually read the book as well!
Good luck with that. +)
P.S. I've never used this "IntenseDebate" thing, which for some reason doesn't link my name to my blog. I assume you can tell which blogger I am (http://twilightswarden.wordpress.com/), since you linked to my "Taliesin" review, but I just thought I'd mention that to be sure.
P.P.S. Do you really read that many books a month? Golly, that's practically speedreading. I need to step up my game! '-)
Odd, there should be a line in the IntenseDebate thing that allows you to input it – but yes, I knew who you were! So glad you came by, I loved your Taliesin review!
And yes, I read that many books, although this year I'm a bit behind the curve. I've been a speed reader since I was about 10 years old. I just can't read books fast enough for me though lol