The Princess Bride

I grew up enjoying this movie with my sister and while I vaguely knew of its origin as a book, I never really thought about reading it, as I have never seen it prominently displayed in any bookstore. Somehow I believed this was because the movie was better (which I should have known was a lie based on every book and movie combo ever! and which I will continue to prove with upcoming books).  It was on my trip to New York earlier this year on one of our many bookstore outings that I stumbled on The Princess Bride in its book form. The kind man behind the register leaned over the counter and told me I was holding an excellent book. I bought it.

This book was mesmerizing. Most pages were word for word what happens in the movie, which even though William Goldman wrote the book and the screenplay for the movie is still surprising. It just shows what an amazing book it is that there was almost no changes from page to screen, just some cuts to character backgrounds. The major differences are the stories of Inigo and Fez growing up and more insight to Prince Humperdinck's pit of despair, which has many deadly animals on the upper levels. There is a wonderfully funny part of the book where Inigo and Fez are coming to save the man in black from the pit of despair and they work together to somehow defeat or avoid all the deadly animals in order to reach Westley in the torture chamber at the bottom. Heartwarming and adventurous just like the movie, with even more hilarity and stories.

Later my best friend Morgan got the book As You Wish and loaned it to me when she remembered that I had recently read The Princess Bride. It only took a couple of days to finish and was hysterical as well as insightful. The book is a written by Cary Elwes but has many excerpts from Robert Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, William Goldman as well as other cast and crew members. The on set anecdotes such as Billy Crystal and Carol Kane doing character improvisation so funny people had to leave so no one on set would laugh brought lightness and fun while the intense fencing training for Inigo and Westley's duel showed the dedication and hard work put into the film. Throughout the book you could sense the camaraderie between those who worked on the movie and their fondness of the story itself. You also realize how many many stunts they did in this movie that you didn't realize was a heck of a lot of trouble. 

They were both amazing and I cannot wait to re-watch this movie. Wonderful additions to any library. 

Up Next: Howl's Moving Castle