Don’t read the book. Don’t read the book!?! ?! The first four words of this novel are a nightmare to me. As I continue on I discover the book referred to is an electronic book and this is how almost everyone reads in M. Clifford’s created world. Okay, this is believable, especially in this day and age where e-readers are becoming more popular. Not my preferred way of reading, but each to their own. However, what these characters don’t know is the government has edited the books, changed words, sentences, paragraphs, even whole chapters. Nightmare number two for me. Authors bare their souls; spend thousands of hours creating a work of art, only to have it altered down the track. How can people know they are even reading the author’s words?! What your grandmother read to you as a child, what became your childhood favourite book, may not be the same book in your adulthood! There is no guarantee you will read the same book to your grandchild; in fact, it’s highly probable you won’t!!
Holden stumbles across a discrepancy whilst in a bar named (you’ll love this) The Library! Holden needs to relieve himself, heads to the bathroom and his life changes. The walls of The Library are covered in pages from books and Holden spies a page from The Catcher in the Rye, his favourite story, but something is amiss, there’s something not quite right. He reads it over and over and realises it’s not exactly the same words he’s been reading for years – it’s different, it’s been changed!
Holden and a band of other literary lovers, paperback passionates, set to sorting this mess out, taking on the big guns and trying to bring the printed word back.
A great story, one which sparks a lot of conversation. It is not totally unbelievable, which is the scary thing. It is the quest of a small group of people to set the truth free, to have a voice and show the world just how far the wool has been pulled over their eyes.
This is one of those books I feel my review could go for pages and pages, so many discussion points and quite a lot of them could very well be relevant today. I won’t go on too much longer though but I will say what a wonderful book to be used in English exams.
I really enjoyed reading The Book, all the way through thinking no, this can’t be! – but also thinking one day this could be. I appreciated being able to read it in paperback and not forced to read it in an electronic format like the characters in this book would have been forced to – albeit in their eyes they weren’t being forced, it was just life how they knew it. It’s a book you will probably read quite quickly. M. Clifford has a great style of writing and I will say even the ability to provoke a tear or three.
My advice – read this book before the words are changed, you don’t want to miss M. Clifford’s original story.
A big thank you to Lori over at The Next Best Book Blog for hosting a competition to win The Book in which I was one of the lucky winners. Thank you to M. Clifford for allowing his book to be part of the competition. Thank you both!!
To read the blurb for The Book click here
Your review on “The Book” Intrigued me enough to pop over to ‘Goodreads’ and add it to my to read shelf.
I also joined TNBBB whilst I was there. Many thanks as always for a review well worth the reading.
Thank you so much for your kind words 🙂