February's recommendation: The Princess Bride: S. Morganstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: The "Good Parts" Version, abridged by William Goldman.
Yes, I know I recommended The Silent Gondoliers just last month. Hush.
You may have seen the movie. In fact, if you haven't, go away, you philistine. But I imagine there are some among you who have not, for whatever reason, read the book.
I'll freely admit that I prefer the movie, in large part because I'd seen it at least a dozen times before I ever read the book. In the places where the movie follows the book, I generally prefer the movie versions of events (the Pit of Despair instead of the Zoo of Death, etc). But the book -- ah, the book, my friends, includes things that never made it into the movie. Like the discussion of how Buttercup came to be ranked as the most beautiful woman in the world. Or the failed attempt to engage Prince Humperdinck to Princess Noreena of Guilder. Or Fezzik's story. Or Inigo's -- you get it in the movie, in summary, but oh, it cannot compare to the story as it is told in the book.
Plus, of course, William Goldman's editorial comments, letting you know what he's cutting out from the original Morganstern text and why. And a lengthy, lengthy Introduction, which lets you know that the kid Fred Savage was playing in the movie was actually Goldman himself, only it wasn't his grandfather reading him the story, it was his father, when little Billy Goldman was bedridden with pneumonia. And, if you pick up the 25th Anniversary Edition (which is what's sitting on my desk at present), you also get an additional introduction, describing how the movie came to be made, and then following the text, another bit by Goldman explaining what comes after that, namely the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby: S. Morganstern's Glorious Examination of Courage Matched Against the Death of the Heart, which Goldman was/is working on abridging.
Me, I'm not much for sequels, but the Unexplained Inigo Fragment in there is pure beauty.
Everything I said about The Silent Gondoliers goes double for this book -- well, the bits about the style, anyway. Not so much about the Venice and the singing. From the notes about how this was before Europe but after stew (but everything's after stew), to Yeste's melodramatics over the swords he could not make, to the technical explanation of the exact differences between lightning sand and Snow Sand (and the movie got it wrong; it was Snow Sand Buttercup fell into), I adore this book.
And it reads out loud brilliantly.
Out loud or silently to yourself -- go read it.