GONE WITH THE WIND IS FINISHED!!!!

Oh sweet heavens I finally finished it!  I figured if I didn't get it done before my class started that it wasn't going to be finished until this winter, so I sucked it up and put in the last big push to get through it.  It's been such an easy read, it's just that it is so long and to find the time this summer has been very few and far between with all of our running around and working on the house.

So my opinion of it:  It deserves every bit of it's recognition in being one of the greatest books ever written.  It was so well-crafted, so intricately detailed and the growth of each character so genuinely expressed that you felt like you were there with them re-living the entire story.  The love story between Scarlett and Rhett is so genius that it just captivates you even further through your reading.  He's always there to save the day, put her in her place, and cause a stir.  I think that's possibly why Rhett ended up being my favorite character. 

While Mom was visiting before Labor day, she brought the DVD with her and we watched it during one of my sick days that the weather wasn't that wonderful.  Usually it's clear cut as to whether I like the book or the movie better, but there is positively no way that I could choose my favorite.  As far as character portrayals from the book to the big screen, I thought they were spot on with both Rhett and Scarlett.  I liked Mammy so much more in the movie, but I think a lot of that had to do with it being difficult to read her dialogue in the book, so in my head she talked really slow.  Just the opposite in the movie, and she was funny!  I like Melanie a lot more in the movie as well, but that's because she was the character in the book that annoyed me most.  The movie displayed Melanie in a way that didn't annoy me, as it showed her less timid and feeble than how the book always made her out to be.

I know that 1448 pages sounds daunting, that you could read 4-5 books in the time it would take you to read this one, but I'm telling you that it is worth the time and the energy.  You're drawn in in the first 10 pages and it's really hard at times to pull yourself away.  The last 200 or so pages are just nail-biter after nail-biter and makes me wish that there was a follow-up novel because there are so many loose ends.

Wonder what to read next......