From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)

Richard Adams

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 28, 2020

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: Group Pick for Feb '20 - Modern Classic/Popular…more
[close] Group Pick for Feb '20 - Modern Classic/Popular

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What Members Thought

Jul 06, 2015 Kacie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-book, i-own-a-copy

!!! Oh I loved this book. Wonderful story telling. Great characters. Exciting adventure. Would highly recommend.

I have heard of the title and I know many high-schoolers have read it, but I had no idea what "Watership Down" is (it's a location...the name of a "down" in the English countryside).

I also wondered if it was like Animal Farm. Or uh, Peter Rabbit?

Nah. The rabbits can communicate and have some of their own adorable lapine words and can sort of communicate with other creatures.

A review I !!! Oh I loved this book. Wonderful story telling. Great characters. Exciting adventure. Would highly recommend.

I have heard of the title and I know many high-schoolers have read it, but I had no idea what "Watership Down" is (it's a location...the name of a "down" in the English countryside).

I also wondered if it was like Animal Farm. Or uh, Peter Rabbit?

Nah. The rabbits can communicate and have some of their own adorable lapine words and can sort of communicate with other creatures.

A review I read upon completion suggests Watership Down is an allegory to many themes, and also has parallels with the Odyssey. I haven't read the Odyssey (yet) so I can't comment.

In the intro to the latest edition, the author states it isn't meant to have greater meaning -- it's just a story he made up for his daughters, who then urged him to write it down.

I plan to read this one again some day, hopefully to my children, or maybe read it all separately and then discuss later. Probably middle school-high school ages, or at least late elementary. I can't quite say. There is some violence at times (yes, bunnies can fight!) and I know my little ones would be scared at times.

Not sure how well an older child would be able to grasp it, but I think it's a story that works for adults and hopefully youngers on some level. (Oh and reminder to self, I read much of the book while holding a sick baby A.).

It took me a few chapters to get into it, and I almost gave it up about a quarter of the way in because I thought it was moving a bit slow and I wasn't sure where the story was going. Stay with it. I feel the last 3/4 are rewarding, and you may not even feel the way I did about the beginning.

I really enjoyed the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. They were so fitting and just an extra treat. Also, I enjoyed the folktales told within. I understand there is a follow-up to Watership Down, Tales from Watership Down and I plan to read it.

Totally see why this is considered a modern classic.

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