The Booket List

Disappointing.

Day 18: A book that disappointed you.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

I’m going to be honest… the thing with this decision is that I am completely not objective in this decision. I had seen the movie from 1987 (you know the one, with Robin Wright as Buttercup and Cary Elwes as Westley and it’s one of the best movies ever made? Yeah?) so many times before I realised that there was a book to go with it. I got it for Christmas one year and could not contain my excitement - if the movie was so good, imagine how amazing the book will be!!

Oh, how wrong I was.

Look, the book is not terrible - after all, it inspired a movie that is really excellent and probably one of the biggest cult hits in all of film history. But a lot of the tension is not built, and not just because I knew what was coming. I can usually separate the novel from the film anyway, so even though I had a picture of how the characters looked, that wasn’t the issue. The novel just didn’t grab me. It feels like a good section of it was written to tell a real-life autobiography that completely interrupted the narrative - even though the bio was also fictional, it was abrasive and didn’t feel like it fitted. Goldman is a great writer - he worked on the screenplay adaptation of this, as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Good Will Hunting amongst others, but that doesn’t make this good. I will say that I really liked the book version of Prince Humperdinck. He’s hilarious, and I loved the relationship between him and his stepmother. But it wasn’t enough. Maybe it’s just because I had such high expectations and I was so excited to read it, but it was a disappointment on so many levels that the novel has now just been sitting on my shelf and gathering dust for a few years. Pity.

All About the Ladies

Day 16: Favourite Female Character.

I wish that I was more decisive with my answers. Again, here’s a shortlist of three:

Jane Eyre, from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I love this book - it will probably make more appearances on this list, if I’m honest. With everything that happens in the narrative of this story, I really feel like Jane is the glue that holds the plot together and propels it forward. Even though she was orphaned and raised at first by a woman who detested her and later at the hideous Victorian boarding school, she has this incredible presence about her and just feels so real, even in her Gothic world of secrets and ghosts.

Lisbeth Salander, from Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo(and the Millennium series). I found this book to be unputdownable, and while that might be in part due to the amazing plot and partly to do with having a little bit of a literary crush on Mikael Blomkvist, a large part of the fascination was because of Lisbeth. She is amazingly created - even though she’s odd, with a photographic memory and lacking a large chunk of normal social skills, there is something that is inherently interesting about her. I don’t know, she’s just cool.

Liesel Meminger, from Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. Before I begin, I’ll just mention that I hate child protagonists. I don’t know why, but I’m also ridiculously intolerant of children in real life. This is the main reason why I put off reading The Book Thief for so long. Eventually I got around to reading it, and couldn’t put it down. Liesel is so innocent, but also an old soul, and I like that while it’s about her, she’s not the narrative voice. She’s gutsy and inquisitive, and my heart broke for her in the novel. So much love for that little girl, she’s perfect.

(Honourable mentions to Juliet Ashton from The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Pie Society, Amber Salpone from The Chocolate Run, Emma Morley from One Day and Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair)