12x12: The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride

by William Goldman

"The Princess Bride" is one of my favorite movies - and let's be honest, one of everyone's favorite movies. I got this book at Barnes & Noble, probably around two or three years ago. All I remember was that it was on sale, and boy do I lack the willpower to say no to a good book on sale. Going into book stores is always dangerous for me, because I'm only too willing to give myself the benefit of the doubt that I'll actually read the book in the near future. Ha. Anyway, like most of the books in this project, I've been wanting to read it for ages, and finally got around to it because of the project!

What I Loved:

• If you love the movie, there's no way not to love the book. The guy who wrote the book wrote the movie's screenplay, and I would say 75% or more of the scenes are word-for-word. In a way, it made me feel like I was cheating, but I loved being able to hear the quick-witted humor in my mind, or watch Cary Elwes/Westley fight Inigo. It was kind of magical!
• The best part of the books, by far, was being able to get the background stories on each of the characters, and each of them fills out so much more because of it! Take Buttercup, for instance: The book goes in-depth about the most beautiful women who came before her, and how she never tried to "be" beautiful until she fell in love with Westley. She's also, parden my language, a lot bitchier in the book, which I loved and hated. It made me wish they could have included more in the movie, but for having to cut it down so much, I was super impressed how true to the book the movie was!
• The writing/author is great! I love how funny the book is. It's intentional, it's witty, it's smart, but it's also really silly.

What I Wasn't Crazy About:

• Through the entire book, starting with the introduction, the author goes into this talk about Florian like it's a real place, and it was SUPER confusing at the start. I literally had to google, "Is Florian a real place?" And I'm presumably smart, so that was really embarassing. The author also pretends that he's just editted this book down from a really long one by a whole different author. But he acts like all of this is real through the entire commentary, and even tells stories about visiting and going to the Cliffs of Insanity. At least for me, this was really distracting, though I can see why he did it. I don't know if it would have been the same book without it, so I guess I can't really complain...

Would I Recommend This Book?

• If you're a fan of the movie (which obviously you are, because you're alive and human), you'll love this book. It's easy to read once you get past the weird stuff with the author's commentary, and you almost get used to it by the end. Overall, I really enjoyed it, but given the choice, I'd probably just watch the movie.

Have you either read this book or watched the movie? Which was your favorite? Why?