Book Review: "The Green Mile"

That's right! I read stuff every now and then. Actually, I read quite a lot ever since I met a guy who is a book dude and lives over here in Vietnam and spends a lot of time and money building his library of physical books. I love Kindle as much as the next guy but there is no beating the real thing when it comes to reading. The allure of the Kindle kind of wore off on me after a year or so. I still think it is awesome for travel but if given a choice, I would much rather have a book that is made of paper.

I tend to read now in times that I would normally be doom-scrolling social media like I have done in the past and I am sure the readin' is a lot better for me. Thankfully, my friend with the library has already pre-screened most of the books he lets me borrow so I have a gatekeeper of sorts that is going to help weed out the crap.

I expected "The Green Mile" to be good but I wasn't prepared for how majestically awesome it really is. After finishing it I said "wow" out loud and it is solidified as a top-10 of all time in fiction as far as books I've personally read is concerned. Seriously, it is that amazing.

Unless you've been living under a rock or just for some reason don't like movies, there is a better than average chance that you have already seen the movie starring Tom Hanks. The movie is exceptional as well but normally I don't go and read books after I have seen the film already. I've only violated this "code" of sorts twice and it was with "The Road" and now with "The Green Mile." Most of the time I feel as though the book is much better than the film but i have to say, whoever was in charge of turning "The Green Mile" into a film did quite possibly the best job that someone could have done. The casting was absolutely perfect based on the book and after reading it I really have to admire who was in charge of casting because they absolutely nailed it as far as the characters are concerned.

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I'll leave the movie alone though because I am not here to talk about that. The only thing I wanted to point out is that they must have been very careful to make sure the film represented the book EXACTLY and I appreciate that because the book is a tremendous work of art. I read a lot of Stephen King when I was a kid and those books that I read scared the hell out of me. I can't recall any other times in my life that the written word actually conjured up such nightmarish images in my mind. I had trouble sleeping as a kid because of how incredible a writer Stephen King is but I never really went into his non-horror stuff in much detail. I think this was because as I got older I got busy and then in my late 20's I moved to Thailand, where books in English are really tough to come by.

I read one of the "Tower" books by King and didn't like it. I also didn't like the movie adaptation of said books. With *The Green Mile" on the other hand, this book is absolutely perfect and I can understand why they put so much effort into making a movie out of it.

The book was originally released in parts and this is called a serial-novel. I don't know how many parts it was released in but you will start to notice as you are reading the complete book where the new part of the series was likely begun because it does a "recap" of sorts telling you what you should have already read in the previous book. In this way some of the chapters are a bit annoying because you don't really need a recap of the previous chapter when you are reading. It was kind of like "previously, on the Green Mile" that we would experience if this was a TV show series. Since I was reading the full novel I found those parts of the book kind of annoying and it was a bit lazy on the part of King that a rewrite wasn't done but at the same time, the book is already perfect so there is a strong case for leaving it the way that it is.

If you don't listen to any advice that I give on novels or reading in general or even if you think I am an idiot that should be ignored I would ask that you make an exception this one time. This book is absolutely outstanding and to me it is one of the most perfect pieces of fiction that has ever been written by anyone. It wouldn't be considered a classic or anything like that but for me, I find the classics to actually be quite difficult to read. Don't believe me? Go sit down with "The Count of Monte Cristo" and read 50 pages and see if you have any idea what the hell is going on.

"The Green Mile" is absolutely captivating and I found myself staying awake past my bedtime to read "just one more chapter" only to read another 50 pages. One time I fell asleep while reading and lost my glasses for two whole days because of this. This never happens for me and we have to be dealing with something truly amazing in order for that to happen. I say this as someone who already was intimately familiar with the story because I have seen the film at least a dozen times. The chapters are short so each sitting is low obligation as well.

This book is almost certainly in ever library in the western world so this means you wont even have to pay anything for it either. I bet you can finish this before the due date because honestly, even if you aren't a reader, this one is tough to put down. I'm a bit in awe that I am this enthusiastic about a book but honestly, this thing is just exceptional and I think you would be doing yourself a disservice by not reading it.

Nadi agrees too. See how excited she is when I put the book just near her?