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clar2d2 's review for:
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
Where do I begin?
As you can see, I rated this book 5 stars, though it was less because of the actual book (though the book was fantastic) and more because of my experience with this book.
I read this book for the first time when I was 13-15 years old. I took 2 years to read this book back then and really struggled through it - because I had certain expectations due to what I'd seen of the musical, because my reading taste was so different (I actually disliked fantasy at the time, which is ridiculous), and because I was so much less mature of a reader.
It's because of that bad first impression of the book that I'd been putting off rereading it for the last 6 or 7 years, even though I know I'm a totally different type of reader now. I felt bad for not getting around to it sooner, but now I'm kind of glad I delayed it.
So much has happened since I was 15.
I got to watch the actual musical. I fell in love with the fantasy genre in books. I started going to university. I even had philosophy class back in high school soon after I finished Wicked the first time.
Those were all things that made my experience of this book the second time around so great, because they allowed me to interact with this book so much more than I do with books normally.
I used almost an entire pad of sticky notes on this book, just because I had so many things to say, and they weren't just notes like "Wow" or "Haha" which I'm sometimes guilty of with other books. I spent a lot of time comparing this with the musical, comparing this experience with my first experience reading it, connecting ideas and events in this book to discussions from class or my experience at university, taking in the cultures, politics and religions present in this fantasy world, and just generally thinking a lot.
Overall, I consider this a favorite book of mine because of my experience with it - reading it once and struggling, then reading it again and being able to feel like I truly made the most out of my reading experience, which isn't something I get to say often at all.
Now, time to somehow record everything I marked and wrote on these sticky notes so I can return this book to the library.
As you can see, I rated this book 5 stars, though it was less because of the actual book (though the book was fantastic) and more because of my experience with this book.
I read this book for the first time when I was 13-15 years old. I took 2 years to read this book back then and really struggled through it - because I had certain expectations due to what I'd seen of the musical, because my reading taste was so different (I actually disliked fantasy at the time, which is ridiculous), and because I was so much less mature of a reader.
It's because of that bad first impression of the book that I'd been putting off rereading it for the last 6 or 7 years, even though I know I'm a totally different type of reader now. I felt bad for not getting around to it sooner, but now I'm kind of glad I delayed it.
So much has happened since I was 15.
I got to watch the actual musical. I fell in love with the fantasy genre in books. I started going to university. I even had philosophy class back in high school soon after I finished Wicked the first time.
Those were all things that made my experience of this book the second time around so great, because they allowed me to interact with this book so much more than I do with books normally.
I used almost an entire pad of sticky notes on this book, just because I had so many things to say, and they weren't just notes like "Wow" or "Haha" which I'm sometimes guilty of with other books. I spent a lot of time comparing this with the musical, comparing this experience with my first experience reading it, connecting ideas and events in this book to discussions from class or my experience at university, taking in the cultures, politics and religions present in this fantasy world, and just generally thinking a lot.
Overall, I consider this a favorite book of mine because of my experience with it - reading it once and struggling, then reading it again and being able to feel like I truly made the most out of my reading experience, which isn't something I get to say often at all.
Now, time to somehow record everything I marked and wrote on these sticky notes so I can return this book to the library.