The Princess Bride by William Goldman
A confession: I've never been exposed to this book in any way, shape or form. I never read it before this, and I've never seen the movie. Prior to reading this book, the only exposure I had to The Princess Bride was "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." completely out of context.
Having read the book, I can see why it was such a hit. It took almost every fairy tale trope and flipped it upside down, from when Buttercup leaves her true love in the Fire Swamp ("I can live without love") to her true love actually dying in Chapter Six or so, to the lack of truly happy ending.
I also genuinely love the Inigo and Fezzik relationship to each other - I like that you can see their characters so well, and I like how they help each other and protect each other ("Fool, fool, back to the beginning is the rule").
Overall, though, I can't say that I can't wait to see the movie. I liked the book and it was an enjoyable read, but I almost feel like it was over-hyped to me beforehand. It was a great story and book and I did like it - but I feel no real inclination to spend two hours watching the movie, so I clearly didn't like it as much as, say, The Hunger Games. I now understand why everyone quotes "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" but at the end of the day, reading this book wasn't an entirely fun experience for me. I didn't care that much about what came next, and I felt like I was reading it just to become more familiar with my own culture. Reading The Princess Bride felt more like a cultural obligation rather than something I personally wanted to do. I'll probably never re-read it, and I'll probably forget major plot points of it rather quickly - the enjoyment I experienced from the book came more from an academic sort of analysis rather than living through the story.
A confession: I've never been exposed to this book in any way, shape or form. I never read it before this, and I've never seen the movie. Prior to reading this book, the only exposure I had to The Princess Bride was "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." completely out of context.
Having read the book, I can see why it was such a hit. It took almost every fairy tale trope and flipped it upside down, from when Buttercup leaves her true love in the Fire Swamp ("I can live without love") to her true love actually dying in Chapter Six or so, to the lack of truly happy ending.
I also genuinely love the Inigo and Fezzik relationship to each other - I like that you can see their characters so well, and I like how they help each other and protect each other ("Fool, fool, back to the beginning is the rule").
Overall, though, I can't say that I can't wait to see the movie. I liked the book and it was an enjoyable read, but I almost feel like it was over-hyped to me beforehand. It was a great story and book and I did like it - but I feel no real inclination to spend two hours watching the movie, so I clearly didn't like it as much as, say, The Hunger Games. I now understand why everyone quotes "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" but at the end of the day, reading this book wasn't an entirely fun experience for me. I didn't care that much about what came next, and I felt like I was reading it just to become more familiar with my own culture. Reading The Princess Bride felt more like a cultural obligation rather than something I personally wanted to do. I'll probably never re-read it, and I'll probably forget major plot points of it rather quickly - the enjoyment I experienced from the book came more from an academic sort of analysis rather than living through the story.
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