#11 The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Skip it.  The film is one of my favorite of all time.  Don't wreck it with the book.  I have spoken to others that liked the book too but it did nothing for me.  It is partly Goldman's writing style and his narcissistic NEED to put himself into his book.  About half of the the book is a fictional account of him abridging the original work by a ..fictitious.. S Morgenstern.  To his credit he does say at the beginning that if you just want to read about Westley and Buttercup and the whole gang - just read the normal text and ignore everything in italics.  DO THIS.   There are some nifty tidbits that are not in the film.. but all the sludge about Goldman himself making an abridged version for his ..fictitious.. son is lame and boring.  It's not about YOU, dingus.