I've never seen the Princess Bride. Sounds like a chick flick.
"Is this a kissing book?"
I thought the same thing when my girlfriend announced we were going to go see it. I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't a chick flick in terms of the ROM COMS that are usually covered under that title, within the first few minutes ( "Killed by Pirates is good") -- maybe its because I was relieved that it wasn't the romcom i expected, or perhaps that misapprehension allowed me to watch the rest without preconceptions, I don't know, but I have loved the movie ever sense.
I loved the book so much I wanted a nice sturdy hardcover of it. Oh. First edition only. Okay, this was before the internet, so I visited every used book store in manhattan ( not kidding) - found one guy who said he could find one for me for a mere $1200. Eventually say it in the "cool and rare" book case in Phoenix on a business trip ( yes, I passed a Used book stare and went in looking for this) and was excited to get my less than fine copy for $300. The editors notes are in red letters ( as some early paperbacks had) and it sits next to Lord of the Rings on my shelf.
.. Its unique. Its written by William Goldman of Butch and Sundance fame, and the book is way better than the movie, but the movie is fun. Its a fairy-tale, and Goldman takes the tropes to ridiculous lengths- its very, very campy ( and i think that is what the people who don't like it are reacting to) . If you go in expecting something serious, you will be disappointed. It has some very fun one-liners that were memes before we names them such.
Goldman spends 60 pages in the book relating his history with it, how his father read it him, how he got it for his son and then discovered it was a long , boring satire of the Florinese Aristocracy and his father only read the good parts, and through out the book he places (often hilarious) editors notes. All of it is bunk - he wrote the whole thing, and the point of the story, while touched on in the movie, but driven fully home in the book, is "Life isn't Fair. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes it is bad. Get over it. " so I think most conservatives would embrace it. They don't.
I read it to my kids the moment they started saying things weren't "fair" and they stopped saying it soon after.