I read this book as part of a BookCrossing ring in 2003. I'd always wanted to read it, having seen the movie a few times and having heard good reviews from several friends over the years.

I completely admit that I skipped the introduction and went straight for the story, then once finished, went back and read the intro. The story was a little difficult to get into at the beginning simply due to the sudden deep immersion in the nadsat slang. A friend of mine in high school had an edition of this book that included a glossary which provided a simple translation between the nadsat slang and proper English, and I was a bit disappointed to find that this particular copy of the book lacked such a handy feature. Still, the slang was not too difficult to comprehend through context, despite its continued ability to distract me because I had some difficulty mentally pronouncing some of the terms while reading.

As for the story itself, use of language aside, I enjoyed it, and was a bit surprised that the story continued on an additonal chapter beyond the conclusion of Kubrick's film version of the story. I preferred the conclusion of the book over that of the movie, for the same reason the author disliked Kubrick's choice in ending the film where he did -- the last chapter really rounds out the story and keeps it from being a tale the purpose of which is to simply incite shock and horror and glorify violence. The final chapter puts the rest of the story into perspective, as a grossly exaggerated commentary on the rebelliousness of youth and the way we change as we grow older, in addition to the more obvious theme of humanity's contradictory urges to both embrace freedom of choice and attempt to resolve problems by removing it.

Very challenging because it's written in a slang dialect created by the author. Interesting. ( )

This was a crazy read. I bit hard to understand at first, but great once I got into it. ( )

I know Burgess doesn't like the idea of writing anything that appears to "moralize," but this novel definitely suffers from the addition of the 21st chapter. The themes that the author seems to be building--on the nature of man, on freedom, on morality--all seem to be reduced to "Oh, those are merely the problems of youth, and will disappear with age" in the final resolution. Very postmodern, very disappointing.

I always advise my friends to read the first 20 chapters, stop and draw conclusions/react, and then read the final chapter to see how one's opinions are changed. ( )

I know, I know it's a good book. Still, it drove me crazy. ( )