Although the movie has been widely seen, I don’t know many people who’ve actually read the book. It’s a favorite of mine. The writing style itself is eloquent yet not exaggerated. The momentum of the story carries you along, chapter to chapter, and when you’re not reading it, you’re thinking about it.

For those who’ve only seen the movie… read the book. There is so much material that was left out of the hour and a half version, especially when it comes to the ending.

The strangest, and probably most alluring, part of this book is that although the movie made Hannibal into a monster (albeit a charming one), you may actually come to like him in the book.

If you give a shit about what’s going on in your world around you, this is an extremely powerful and moving story. Although Hollywood has vamped it up a bit by adding big names (although every one played their part phenomenally), the core of the story remains true. And that is: there are real people mining real conflict diamonds using real child soldiers and splitting up real families. And these diamonds have gotten into the mix with the non-conflict ones… who can tell?

It makes you look at the fundamental greed that seems to be a part of every culture, and what happens when that greed motivates us to inhumane acts towards each other.

This movie will make you want to step up and start doing something to help out, in any cause, or at least that was the affect on me. I’m just hoping that sort of inspiration doesn’t die as soon as the movie lands in the old section of the rental pile.

He’s a wonderful writer and I’m truly enjoying the story, but God, it’s taking me a long time to get anywhere with this book. Why? Probably because it’s three or more stories in one (apparently, as the book goes on they all connect in some amazing way) and I’m the kind of person who likes to figure everything out… so three stories is kind of heavy on my brain.

Not too mention that it’s a consuming book to read, meaning that it’s hard to digest the full meaning of it if I have any distractions around me. It’s definitely not light reading, and I like that but lately it’s been hard to find that kind of quiet time these days.

So, it’s been on my nightstand, untouched, for the past week or so. I’ll get back to it. I hate leaving things unfinished… especially a book.