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So I just finished reading Watership Down by Richard Adams. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although at times it seemed a little long. Sometimes the format made the story drag a little, but the adventure and excitement kept me riveted through the end.

I liked the Lapine vocabulary, and after the first hundred pages or so you don't even notice it! It's like you get pulled in to their world, although I wondered many times if the rabbits were far too humanized, despite the author's efforts to constantly refer to rabbit habits and tendencies.

The personalities were endearing, and oddly enough, there was very little hurt, anger or evil in the book except General Woundwort, who's very essence of evil seemed to be making up for the lack of evil in every single other character in the whole book. There is not just one really evil person in the world or even in a county, so it seemed odd that the rest of the rabbits were so good and honorable. Maybe it was because of the desire to survive that they all stuck together like they did.

I would recommend this as a children or adult book, and found similarities in the grandeur and fantastic elements to The Life of Pi, which was also a fun and imaginative read.

Any thoughts, comments, questions or ideas? Would love to hear them!

therewaseden wrote:So I just finished reading Watership Down by Richard Adams. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although at times it seemed a little long. Sometimes the format made the story drag a little, but the adventure and excitement kept me riveted through the end.

The last ~150 pages were awesome. I don't think I shut the book once Bigwig went to Efrafa.

therewaseden wrote:I liked the Lapine vocabulary, and after the first hundred pages or so you don't even notice it! It's like you get pulled in to their world, although I wondered many times if the rabbits were far too humanized, despite the author's efforts to constantly refer to rabbit habits and tendencies.

The personalities were endearing, and oddly enough, there was very little hurt, anger or evil in the book except General Woundwort, who's very essence of evil seemed to be making up for the lack of evil in every single other character in the whole book. There is not just one really evil person in the world or even in a county, so it seemed odd that the rest of the rabbits were so good and honorable. Maybe it was because of the desire to survive that they all stuck together like they did.

I agree. The biggest theme of the book is survival. The rabbits have "a thousand enemies" and must always use their cunning to survive. Because everything else in the world is tryinhg to destroy them the rabbits don't see each other as enemies or threats. It's only the rabbits in power at Efrafa who feel the need to control and kill other rabbits. The rabbits at the warren of snares were, to a lesser extent, evil in a way because they had lost their way. They were willing to lose a rabbit now and then in exchange for good food and safety from elil.

therewaseden wrote:I would recommend this as a children or adult book, and found similarities in the grandeur and fantastic elements to The Life of Pi, which was also a fun and imaginative read.

Any thoughts, comments, questions or ideas? Would love to hear them!

I also loved The Life of Pi it's another great story that involves animals. There's a book that I had to read for a class by Barbara Gowdy called The White Bone and it is almost exactly like Watership Down in every way except it involves elephants. You might enjoy it if you liked WD.