Wondering why I have never read this classic before? This has made it to my 5 star rating and I don’t give that rating to many books. This is an exemplary piece of work, a book to emulate as a writer. It is beautifully written with complex, descriptive language that complements the flow of the story. So imaginative and clever and provides commentary on society, and shares the importance of books, knowledge, free will, free speech, and individuality without sounding like a political rant. Wow. I absolutely LOVE this book.
Here are three of my favorite quotes from the book, although there are so many more that also illustrate why I love this so much.
“‘Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic that any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that,’ he said, ‘shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.'”
"Thousands on the roads, the abandoned railtracks, tonight, bums on the outside, libraries inside. It wasn't planned, at first. Each man had a book he wanted to remember, and did. Then, over a period of twenty years or so, we met each other, travelling, and got the loose network together and set out a plan. The most important single thing we had to pound into ourselves was that we were not important, we mustn't be pedants; we were not to feel superior to anyone else in the world. We're nothing more than dust-jackets for books, of no significance otherwise.
“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”
I HIGHLY recommend this book to all types of readers regardless of age or gender or format. I opted for the audio book and if you’re going to go this route you HAVE to choose the version read by Tim Robbins because he adds so much character and depth to the prose that it made the experience even better.