The Notebook

Okay, so when this book was recommended to me, I'll admit I was apprehensive. Huge mistake. I'm a huge reader, and it's hard for me to take longer than 1 week to read a book. So, you can imagine how hard it is to pick a FAVORITE. Not in this case. The notebook is one of my favourite books of all time. You feel transported into this magical world as Noah reads his journal to his dear wife to try to get her to remember him (I won't give any spoilers). As a writer myself, Nicolas Sparks has given me skills and tools I never knew before. All in all, you really should read this book if you are looking for a good romance that keeps you on edge.I would recommend this book for ages 13 and up, for there are some scenes which may not be sutible for younger children. Also, this book was made into an amazing movie.On a side note, if you enjoy this book, continue the story by reading The Wedding, the fabulous sequel to The Notebook.

I'm not exactly a man's man, but when The Notebook movie came out, I tossed it off as a "chick flick" and more or less vowed to never investigate the story contained within. Well, that was years ago now, and life has a way of changing you, as the characters in this book discover. My wife loves the movie, so I decided to get a bit of variety in my reading diet, and I'm glad I did. The Notebook is a beautiful, wonderful little book that really gets down to the heart of love. Love, as it turns out, has no boundaries. Nor does it bend to our wills. We love who we love, and I'm getting too old now to believe anything else. This was a great read, and I hope you find it as emotional and satisfying as I did.

I watched "Great American Reads" this week and one section was dedicated to this book, which everyone who read it absolutely loved. I knew it was about a woman with Alzheimer's and obviously that intrigued me. I was also looking for another quick read, still recovering from the Kavanaugh debacle. So I ordered it and finished it in one sitting.I don't know what to say about this book. It's a lovely love story--the kind of forever after love that everyone hopes to have, fraught with first love, heartbreak, and reuniting, but tinged with the tragedy of Alzheimer's. My problem is that the Alzheimer's just didn't ring true. I know everyone is different but Allie, who suffers from Alzheimer's after nearly 50 years of marriage, seems not to be able to recognize the love of her life, but accepts him as a new friend and their story is fresh whenever he tells it...but though she does not know his name or who he is, she has lost none of the ability to speak eloquently and that is SO contrary to what I am experiencing with my mother that I just couldn't believe that part of it. The letter she writes to Noah as they are about to enter a senior facility, knowing that her symptoms will inevitably become worse, was so perfect that it could not possibly have been written by someone whose Alzheimer's had progressed to the point of needing to move to a facility.

I wanted to read a romance. And The Notebook, a romantic novella so famous it is an Internet meme for romance and gender politics, was 1.99 on Kindle.There’s a lot to like about The Notebook. It portrays a universe that we don’t actually live in, a faith, a worldview, a set of beliefs—and you can let yourself believe it for a while. It declares that nostalgia, cliche, and life lived as a summary, with a soft lens filter, is the best kind of life.I don’t agree. I think life is actually much, much better than how it is depicted in The Notebook. Life is far more vibrant, with hot sauce and meaningless moments and the prickle of seal whiskers. The Notebook universe only has room for summary, cliche, and edges so rounded they aren’t edges anymore. There are no scenes in the Notebook, just a series of memories.Still, I read the whole thing, and cried at least once. So there you go. If you want to sing and pray in that church, you can. You don’t have to be a believer. It’s available.

Sparks is the king of Schmaltz. It is that simple. But unlike other authors in the romance/love story genre, he does inject enough reality into the narratives that characters are real, and the romances are not the entirety of the book. In this novel (and yes, film) he gives us an overview of the life of a couple who fell in love during one of the most turbulent times for those we refer to as "the greatest generation" (read WWII era 20 somethings) and is set in his preferred location (the south). The depth of the characters and the fact that we are not limited to seeing them at their youthful and vital extremes, delivers a larger messages about love, relationships and dedication. It is schmaltz, but it is a tonic for those of us who occasionally would like to leave behind the current world and our own cynicism to enjoy something different.

I love The Notebook film so much (probably like most women!). It’s hard to describe why maybe because it is a feel-good movie along with being utterly heartbreaking. It is so full of emotion and the perfect Romantic film!So, I decided to give the book a read; I hadn’t even realised it was based on a book until I was doing the research for my Reading Challenge ‘a book made into a movie you’ve already seen’. I’m not a big lover of reading the book after seeing the film; I’d much rather do it the other way around. I figured, though, I couldn’t go much wrong with this choice and it only being 215 pages if it were terrible it wouldn’t take me long to read! I definitely couldn’t go wrong with the book; it was just as amazing as the film.The two run very well in parallel; there isn’t a lot different between the two, other than the order it is all presented to you. In the film it is more chronological, we see Allie and Noah meet, forced apart and the reunion etc. However, in the book, it is a little more reminiscing involved, so the timeline isn’t as fluid. I can certainly see why certain things were adapted for cinematic storytelling. It wasn’t hard to follow everything in the book, though. It all flowed well but wouldn’t have translated to the big screen if it had followed the same chapter to scene etc. It was so lovely to read this and be able to visualise how everything and everybody looked based on the film. I’ve seen it so many times everything is very familiar. I thought I would be bored reading it knowing how it ended and everything that was going to happen but this wasn’t the case at all. It entrances you just as much as the film does. The characters are wonderful, the story enlightening and tragic. It was beautifully written, and I am tempted to read the follow on story of Noah and Allie’s children. So very happy that I chose this book for this category of the Reading Challenge and that I gave a book after a movie a chance! It wasn’t anywhere near as bad and experience as I’d expected! More was the case with this book of a feeling of visiting old friends!

I'm not usually a fan of the whole romance book thing. But for some reason this author seems to make it in my opinion that bit easier to read and more enjoyable.So I thought this book was very well written, easy to follow and very moving . I found it very difficult to put down from the start. In a way I also found it a bit inspirational, as it shows us that we need to follow our hearts no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what your background is or what part of society you are in either rich or poor, the only thing that matters is what's in the inside of you.I would highly recommend this book . I would also recommend you have some tissues near by

Watched the film several times and the book certainly didnt disappoint. So beautifully written. Very uplifting but terribly sad; not many books bring me to tears but i cried several times reading this. My first Nicolas Sparks, there will be many more.

I bought the book because I fell in love with the film and watched it several times. I have never read any of Nicholas Sparks' books. There was a bit more information about Noah and Allie but not much. The story line as portrayed in the film was infinitely superior to the book. It read like a magazine story...a bit tacky...which was a disappointment after the amazing portrayal of their summer love of 1940. 3 stars is the max I can give it......

As this is a famous book I was expecting it to be amazing, but I did not find it so. It is also a very short book, I was only 74% through when it came to the end. The rest was extracts from his other books. It is a very simple tale of a man remembering their early love and then marriage now that they are elderly and in a home. I was unmoved by the romance, and I usually love a good romance, I'm not sure why, it just didn't do it for me.