The Modern Library 100 Best Novels Challenge discussion

January 2010

Watership Down

Post comments here!

I finally have the library book, now to start it in the next few days.

I'm halfway through this book. Is anyone else reading it at the moment? I'm having a bit of a struggle with some of it...anyone else? Or are you all loving it?

Lynn wrote: "I'm halfway through this book. Is anyone else reading it at the moment? I'm having a bit of a struggle with some of it...anyone else? Or are you all loving it?"

Glad someone else is having problems. Really having to force myself to read this. Don't think I do talking animals.

Vikz wrote: "Glad someone else is having problems. Really having to force..."

I figured everyone else would be loving it because it has such a huge number of 4 and 5 star reviews. The fact that it's a story about talking animals doesn't bother me much, it's that the storyline doesn't seem to really go anywhere yet. So Vikz, we struggle along...(At least there's someone to struggle with!)

Oh, this is hard. I love fantasy like Tolkien and Lewis. I was looking forward to this book...but I just couldn't get into it. The characters didn't grab me. It was a story about rabbits moving around because of development and I couldn't see a goal it was going to, other than fighting for a new warren and finding does. The descriptive parts were really well done, but the story itself just...well...just wasn't all that great. I went online to check the background on it, and apparently the author had told his kids stories in the car and this was a combination of the stories. I had to give it 2 stars (though I'm sure his kids loved the stories!).

I'm pretty sure I tried to read this one back when I was in H.S. (about 30 years ago), and just couldn't get into it at all. Looking back, I figured it was because I was too young to understand it then. Maybe it was just not reader friendly though... I don't have a copy of this book, so maybe I'll give it a miss.

I started it, but dropped it in favor of other book commitments that have proved more absorbing. Little male rabbits trying to figure out how to get the courage to leave the warren, and move away from a mysterious fear... hmm...

Has anyone else read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH? Watership Down reminds me of the Rats of Nimh, but I remember loving Nimh when I was younger and haven't been captured by the rabbits yet.

What does it say that I was more captivated by Rats than Rabbits? :)

I'm still fairly early into Watership Down (page 100 or so), but I'm more okay with it than I thought I'd be. I guess I'm one of the few people who never could get into "The Hobbitt". And, other than Charlotte's Web, I don't think I've ever read a book with talking animals. Tried and failed three or four times. But this is working for me. We have several rabbits that hang around our house, so maybe its easy for me to visualize though them.

John, I'm with you! So far, I like the book. I really didn't expect to and have put off reading it. (It was the last in my pile of library books.) Hopefully, it'll continue to hold my attention.

I loved this book. I read it over the weekend. I hated it in jr year in HS (16 years ago). I couldn't get past the "Lapine"language and such. However, I must have been in the mood for this type of book because I couldn't get enough. I could see the rabbits from a realistic vantage point and the fictional rabbit world that was created AND the human societies and civilizations they were portraying. I was totally invested in the lives and struggles of these little guys. By the end of the book, I was satisfied entirely.

I also loved this book. I, too, remember reading it many years ago, and while I have re-read many books from childhood, I hadn't tackled this one because I recalled it as being very sad. I was wrong. It is touching and inspiring, and the rabbit characters were as fully formed as any human characters I've read. I'm glad this group inspired me to read it again.

I'm really surprised, but I loved this book. I didn't expect to like it much, because a story about talking rabbits just seemed sorta juvenile. I caught myself chuckling as I visualized these rabbits traversing the countryside and managing all the trials they faced. By the end of the story, this family of rabbits seemed like a real family of people. I'm glad I gave this book a chance.

Ok, my only complaint about Watership is: "is it really necessary to tell us about all the times one of the rabbits 'pass hraka"?

S**t happens! :P