"Never read the Princess Bride, the book," she said.

"I'm sorry?" As in come again. As in, what?

"The book. Don't read it. It's awful compared to the movie. So much darker."

Telling me not to read something pretty well guarantees I'm going to read it. I might even be tempted to read it at you. Aggressively.

So I am here to report that the novel, upon which the movie is based, is in no way awful and it's certainly not awful compared to the movie. It's better than the movie, as all books are. In this case, the movie is so faithfully adapted that everything that's in the book that's not in the movie comes across as simultaneously hilarious, charming, and amazing. The 30th anniversary edition comes with two introductions, plus the preface that Goldman uses to establish the intergenerational metanarrative. Then, the real story starts. He "interrupts" Morgenstern regularly to provide hilarious commentary on his own exegesis as well as the things he might have done different had he been the one to write the story. It's a hoot. And that doesn't count the additional stories shunted into the later editions, wherein Stephen King is a character.

You should definitely read The Princess Bride the book. At someone. Aggressively!