The Neverending Story by Michael Ende ***

I think everyone finds tries to reincarnate something from their childhood as adults. It rarely works the way you think it will. That was my experience with this book. The Neverending Story was part of the film canon in the Buhler household (along with Amazing Dunks and Basketball Blupers and Tukiki - a movie about an eskimo boy who discovers the real meaning of Christmas), so you have a pretty good idea of what we were raised on.

The book and the movie follow each other almost verbatim until the climax of the movie. Remember at the end, where the narrator says something like, "Bastian had many more adventures in the land of Fantasia [known as "Fantastica" in the book] ... but that's another story"? Well, in the book, they go on to tell that part of the story. I thought I was going to be riveted, but I wasn't. Those stories weren't a part of my childhood memories, and I must really be an adult now, because I couldn't relate to them the way I could to Atreu and Falkor (who arch significantly in the book as opposed to the movie).

I found myself wishing I had just rented the movie off of Netflix and watched it again for my childhood fix. Though, now I can say that I'm one book closer to my 52 for the year, and I can say that I've finally read this book (Spoiler: without getting sucked into it ... sorry to disappoint).

Those of you who have been biting your fingernails at the lack of posts over the next few weeks ... I feel like I should apologize. But, I started this whole thing with the promise that it wouldn't become something I would have to apologize for. This goal (and thereby blog) are only a part of my life. And real life has been a lot more real lately than usual. So, no apology. I'll still make my quota for the year. And, that was the whole point.