As a TV character once said, I’ve lost the will to scold. (Temporarily, of course. I can always muster some effort to talk smack. This book knows what it did, and I’m fighting back.)There must be two editions of this book - the one Nastya and I buddy read and the one everyone else did. Because you gotta be kidding me, right? Because the only good thing I can say about it is that despite seeming endless it actually managed to reach the finish line right when I was losing hope that I’d ever see ...

I have owned the copy of this book I just finished since 1997!I originally got it for a school project and only finished the first part of it (Oops!).Now, years later, I read it as part of a Goodreads book club that focuses of reading books on “Must Read” lists. I am glad I had the extra motivation, or it may have been another 20+ years before I would have finally completed it!I see many sing the praises of this book. It is a classic novel of Arthurian legend that many swear by. When looking at ...

It's a classic for a reason. Wonderful story. Great characters. Clearly bar raising for its time.

Dnf @ page 417

Sorry folks, I’ve been reading this for over 6 months and I can’t bring myself to pick it up anymore 😔

I’ll give 3 stars for the pages I have read, I understand that this is the original King Arthur story but it’s just so long and so heavy, so I’m gonna pass.

“They made me see that the world was beautiful if you were beautiful, and that you couldn't get unless you gave. And you had to give without wanting to get.” ― T.H. White, The Once and Future King I loved it and my two brats (11 & 13) absolutely enjoyed it, even if many of the jokes, the funky anachronistic blending of the Medieval with the Modern, might have floated a bit over their tiny wee heads.Anyway, I think White perfectly captured the magic, power, fears and the joy of both youth and...

In case anyone is wondering: I picked this book up for a re-read because of one throwaway line in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal . I haven't read this since high school, but I remember loving it almost giddily as a tween. Since it's a big monster of a book, I took a steak knife to it, as I often do, and cut it in half so I could carry it about and read it on the subway without breaking my back. Here's the new cover I put on my DIY'd "vol 2," from Vice magazine. I find it creepy & r...

3.5 Stars Way back when, I took a college class in Arthurian literature. This book was not included in the course which had us read just about everything else written about the legendary king. By the end of the semester I was sick of King Arthur, the round table, the Holy Grail and knights in general; as a consequence, I didn’t bother reading this book until now. Before I finally picked it up I assumed it would be something like Camelot (a crappy musical); I heard Lerner and Lowe based the music...

Seriously, how do you review the pinnacle of all fantasy? You can argue with me, but that, in my opinion, is what The Once and Future King is. Sure, the evil enchantresses are stout and grumpy, the magical castles are made out of food, the lily maids are fat and of a certain age, and the knights in shining armor refer to one another as ‘old chap’s. Oh and did I mention that King Arthur’s nickname is ‘the Wart’? Somehow, T.H. White takes the legend, undresses it, and gives it a new kind of dignit...

This book terrified me, on many levels. It's 667 pages long, to begin with. It's been a while since I read a serious chunkster like that (besides Harry Potter, which somehow in my mind doesn't really count...).Besides that, I am just not a fan of "Authur" stories, despite my deep love of the Disney movie The Sword and the Stone, of course. Ever since I saw the musical "Camelot" in the theater when I was in high school, the story just didn't appeal to me. Then my book club chose this as our month...

I carried a quote from this book around in my purse for decades. In my original version of the book, it is on page 111 and begins, "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour t...