Books are not just parchment and ink. Books are not just words strung together, servants of the author's whim. Books are not merely there to teach or even just to be read, but are living, breathing aparati from which any characters may be plucked and drawn into our world, if only in the right hands, by the right tongue. Or so Inkheart will have you believing.

As a child of about 11 or 12 I believed that by reading you saw not only into the author's soul, but into a world secluded, preserved, as if you had dipped your face beneath the surface of a pond to get a better look at the colonies of stones and reeds in the riverbed. I think, perhaps, I got the idea from a passage in The Book of Three where Taran and his friends are crossing The Black Lake and are suddenly sucked into the depths as the lake turns into a swirling black whirlpool and just as Taran thinks he has drowned, he awakens in a grotto where King Eiddileg has his kingdom. Every book was Atlantis to me. But it wasn't just that. There were moments, especially when I started on the Redwall series, that I would come to particularly gruesome or enchantingly beautiful or heartsickeningly romantic passages and I would catch myself, in the darkness of my nightlight, reading aloud as if my toungue could stir the dust into action and project the vivid images of my mind into the air before me.

Childish, perhaps, but I still catch myself doing it. Having read Inkheart I suppose I should count myself lucky to not have the gift of literary manifestation. I first heard about Inkheart when I was watching the previews before another film on dvd. I wasn't entirely keen on the trailer, but Brendan Fraser was in it which made me happy. Then one weekend over the summer I was staying with my aunt and she had rented the film for my cousins. Recalling the trailer, I took time during that dvd's previews to wikipedia it. Turns out not only is it all about books, but it was a book to begin with. Fascinated at the its German origins and the fact that it's the first in a 3-part series, I made a note to seek it out, assuming I liked the film at all.

I did like the film. Quite a bit. And it wasn't just my silly crush on Brendan Fraser, nor my love for Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. The story was special and very reminiscent of many of my childhood favorites. And then there was Paul Bettany. I felt, on seeing him as Dustfinger, that he was the perfect choice for him -- and this was before I'd read the book, or known much about it. Paul Bettany just pulsed to the tune of "I am your literary vision." And it was Paul Bettany as Dustfinger that made me know I had to read the book. That being said, I finally picked it up, and I can happily say that the film stays true enough to the book that I have no real complaints. There are moments, as in any adaptation, where they've cut corners or elaborated to make the audience get closure or perhaps to visually stimulate a little more. But that's the beauty of the book for me, that it IS so visually stimulating. And I was right. Paul Bettany IS Dustfinger. It's uncanny. I was a little disappointed that they'd gone with the Jim Broadbent end of the spectrum for Fenoglio - while I read it, Fenoglio looked more like Larry David. And I love Helen Mirren, but for one thing she's the victim of one of the elaborations of this particular film, but also she looks perfectly fit and capable whereas Elinor is supposed to look like a book addict. She's supposed to be a little chubby. Not Helen Mirren.

But that's enough of that.

Reading the novel made me realize what it was about watching the film that made me think of my other literary favorites. The film just kind of throws it all at you and hopes you stick along for the ride. The novel guides you. Every chapter is a new quote that almost outlines what will happen. Quotes from Peter Pan, The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, The Jungle Book, books that I've read and books that I relate to. Not only that, but The Neverending Story The Princess Bride and Peter Pan are the backbone of Inkheart's frame. In The Neverending Story, Bastian gradually reads himself into Fantasia (the book, in that case, is far more detailed than the film. In The Princess Bride we've got a multilayer issue of the author addressing us and claiming an elderly grandfather who read this book and blah blah blah it's not really important, but in the film Peter Falk makes it all very realistic for young Fred Savage. Peter Pan is the most directly-addressed book within Inkheart in that Tinkerbell ends up playing a role within the story, but even the original is about fairy tales coming true. Wendy tells the stories to her brothers and on an acid-trip-related note, Peter Pan shows up with his fairy and flies around the room and takes them to Neverland and before we know it Wendy is old and regretting her youth but apparently still doing acid because Peter shows up again.

Inkheart ties all of this together into a beautifully woven story about lost love and about treasuring books which, in the end, is what I'm all about. Books are very very powerful things, often with minds of their own. It is important that you treat them with respect and care, and don't go reading them aloud too loudly. If you happen to read a book out loud and begin to smell the sand and heat eminating from its pages, it's time to take a break and then procede with caution, lest you read out one of your villains and then where shall you be? And who shall have taken that villain's place in the world of the novel? ( )

Inkheart is a book about a book. As a young man, Mo realizes he possesses the ability to read things out of books. One night while reading a book titled Inkheart to his wife and baby girl, he accidently read out a villain by the name of Capricorn and his crony Basta, as well as a fire-eater by the name of Dustfinger. The unfortunate side effect was that Mo's wife was sucked into the story, replacing the removal of the characters from the book. Mo spends his life searching for another copy of the book, hoping to save his wife. All the while, Capricorn is working to destroy all of the books so he doesn't have to go back. Mo, his daughter Meggie, and Meggie's aunt Elinor end up being drawn into a violent and dangerous situation when Capricorn decides Mo's talent could bring him riches and power. Mo and his family must fight to survive and stop Capricorn's evil plans.

I found this book in the children's section of the bookstore, in the 7-12 age section. I've got to say, any seven year old who can read this book is impressive! This isn't a hard read, but it's long and has a relatively complex plot! How many seven year olds do you know that can read a plot involving two or three separate storylines going at once?

This book had its pros and its cons. I will start by admitting I made the mistake of seeing the movie first. I didn't think it would so seriously affect my opinion of the book, but it did make it a slightly harder read. I had a tendency to think, "Ok, ok, I know- moving on!" Fortunately, there were enough differences between the movie and the book to make it worth my time. In fact, the entire end of the book was different. I will say this though- the book would be significantly shorter if the author didn't have such a tendency to be so wordy. There were a few times where my mind wandered just because I was bored with the current subject.

I'd give this book a 4/5 overall. It was a really cool story, and what book lover doesn't totally relish the idea of being able to read their favorite stories into life?! Who would I read out? I'd definitely start with Mr. Darcy! The storyline has such a unique foundation, but is able to tap into a desire that so many bookworms would love to have fulfilled. I couldn't imagine possessing the ability to read myself into my favorite stories! I'd be fighting battles alongside Eragon, flirting with danger (aka Eric Northman), and playing quidditch with Harry Potter! How cool would that be?

One thing that really bugged me about the book was the quotes that kicked off each chapter. These quotes were excerpts from other books, usually only a line or two long. I realize they are easily ignored and I could have just started reading the chapter without looking at them, but I like to be thorough. I think the idea is cool, however the excerpts had absolutely nothing to do with the story. I mean, if you're writing a chapter about some prisoners trying to escape, pull a line from another story about escaping imprisonment or something! I read the excerpts and all I could think was, "What in the world does this have to do with what I'm reading?"

I wish there had been more action. It was a lot of conversation and description of setting, with only a few chapters dedicated to anything happening. Oftentimes, it would start with a conversation between characters during the day, and say something like, "They had scoped out the camp during the night." At one point the characters were shot at, and you only hear about it second-hand from another character. Why couldn't we join in on that part?

I did enjoy the story though. It was unique, and I'm tired of books that fall into a mold! I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new sort of adventure. The heroes don't wield swords or guns, but the power of the written word. This book embraces the "a man's pen is mightier than his sword" mantra. Any book lover could sympathize with Elinor, the old woman who sometimes feels more at home in her books than she does in the real world. Check this one out sometime! I don't think you'll be disappointed. ( )

Just... not interesting, not awful- just... boring. Which is unfortunate because the premise isn't bad: A book-loving young girl named Meggie finds out her father is capable of reading books to life when a villain he read out years ago from a novel named Inkheart comes looking for them.

But the characters never seem to ask the obvious questions any reader would ask in the same situation to discover how the mysterious 'Silvertongue' powers work and they're often many steps behind in uncovering the weakly veiled mysteries. They spend days on end sitting around waiting alternately for the bad guys to catch or for good fortune to turn in their favor for them to escape. Ironically this incompetence turns their self-congratulatory love of books almost into a condemnation of bibliophiles (as at least Dustfinger, and especially Farid are capable of holding some wits about them).

The book of Inkheart itself (upon which the plot cruxes) appears by all means to be a trite work all about the various degrees of completely un-nuanced villainy of its characters. Interesting concepts and plot points that *are* brought up- such as the morality of reading out characters, the perverse author's joy of making tragic things happen to good characters, the power of oral vs written storytelling, and Dustfinger's crush on Resa are disappointingly covered only cursorily. The prose especially is humdrum (except, ironically, when it is describing the vividness of Mo's reading), and ultimately the entire novel feels entirely like it's going through the motions. ( )

Annika ( )

Meggie is 12 years old, has a close relationship wth her father and doesn't really miss the mother she cannot remember. A series of adventres involving some of the blackest villains to grace the pages of a children's novel lead her to an understanding of her father's unique gifts and her mother'sdisappearance into a parallel world that is, actually, a story read aloud by her father. The story seems charming and intriguing but the book is simply far too long and incredibly tedious for very long stretches. I can't imagine that it would sustain the interest of a young reader. ( )

I thought the book started out great, but then somewhere around the middle I completely lost interest in it. The characters are kind of boring and the plot drags on much longer than necessary. It took a lot of effort to finish it. I probably would have liked 'Inkheart' better if it had less pages. ( )

I decided to give this book a second chance after seeing the movie and did finish it this time. There are some good ideas here for a YA fantasy and Funke tells a good story. However, somehow I preferred the movie which is rare for me. Funke's other books were more satisfactory.

i love this book. Trust me that any one at any age would love this book. ( )

This book is awesome! I love how it talks about actually traveling into the book! Something i have done many tomes, though not literally! It is full of suspense, and even the occasional romantic scene! ( )

Uninteresting ( )

Imagine book characters, evil ones, literally leaping off the pages into your living room! Meggie learns some magic of her own and challenges the evil Capricorn.

Inkheart is about a twelve year old girl named Meggie who's fathers voice can bring characters from books to the modern world in Italy whenever he reads aloud. Her father, Mo, is scared to read aloud because of the tragedy nine years ago that brought out Dustfinger, Capricorn, and a warrior named Basta but trapped his wife, Theresa, into the world of ink in the book, Inkheart. Nine years later Mo is given a surprise visit from his friend, Dustfinger. Dustfinger tells Mo that Capricorn wants all the copies of Inkheart left in the world. Also that Capricorn wants Mo and his voice to read out more characters out of books. ( )

I saw the movie and didn't really like it. I decided to give the book a try because I liked the plot itself, and wound up intrigued. I agree with those who think it is to long, and that it would be better at about 300 pages. And yet, despite the length, I found it moved at just barely a fast enough pace to keep me interested. My favorites are Dustfinger and Farid. I want a library like Elinor's! ( )

A doorstop of a tome, it's way too long for the story. Meggie isn't interesting enough to make me want to follow her through the convolutions of discovery with Mo and Elinor. I can't believe this took over 500pp to tell!

And yet, and yet...it's aimed at a very different demographic than I am...young girls, it would seem, want long long long books about nothing much, like those hideous Stephenie Meyer warts on the Devil's buttcheeks. So for its target audience, it's a huge improvement over the otherwise available material.

What is it, BTW, that leads adolescent females down these primrose paths of tedium? My daughter loooved the Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time" crapola, and I think she still reads them (I'm afraid to ask). If Inkheart had weighed in at 300pp or so, it would have been a much more exciting book. Is there some double-X-chromosome disorder that prevents y'all from liking excitement?

Inquiring minds want to know. ( )

This was one of the best books I ever read, so I thought for sure this book's average rating would be at least a 4, but somehow it is not at this level? ( )

love it ( )

Meggie, 12, and her father, Mo, share a love of books. In fact, their house is full of books. But, despite their constant reading, Mo will never read out loud to Meggie. She wonders why until one day a stranger, Dustfinger, shows up at their house and Meggie discovers the awful truth. When reading out loud, Mo has the ability to read characters out of the book and into real life. Unfortunately, he has no control over which character he reads out and one terrible day when Meggie is 3, he reads out a terrible villain, Capricorn, out of a novel called "Inkheart". As if that wasn't bad enough, Mo inadvertently reads his wife, Teresa, into the book. Nine years later, Dustfinger warns Mo that Capricorn is looking for him because he wants Mo to read more evil characters out of "Inkheart". Mo and Meggie go on the run, but it's not long before Capricorn catches up with Mo, Meggie, Dustfinger and Meggie's Aunt Elinor. When Meggie finds out that she too can read characters out of books, she is in even more danger.

"Inkheart" is a charming fantasy. Cornelia Funke is a gifted writer and readers will be instantly drawn into Meggie's world. The premise of being able to read characters out of books is an intriguing one and Funke utilizes it fully. The characters are well written: Meggie is an engaging heroine; Mo is a loving, if somewhat unreliable father; Elinor is better at dealing with books than people, but grows as a character as the book moves along. Dustfinger is perhaps the most interesting and human character, he is neither totally good nor bad, but, read into the "real" world he longs to return to the world of "Inkheart" and will do anything, even betray his friends, to achieve that goal.

"Inkheart" does have some flaws. One flaw is it's length, at 534 pages the size of the book may put off young readers and those that start it may lose interest along the way. Funke could easily have cut out some minor characters and scenes (Tinker Bell was especially annoying). Also, although Mo reads characters into stories as he is reading characters out of them, Funke seems to forget that at times and uses it only when it is needed as a plot device. Finally, a character that is mute is suddenly able to scream, a development that pulled me right out of the story.

Those minor points aside, "Inkheart" is a wonderful fantasy for young and old alike. ( )

This book was ok. It is a very different book, not your average fiction story. A girl finds out her father has a special talent- when he reads books out loud he can bring the characters to life. The girl finds out later in the book, she too has this ability. After releasing an evil charater from a book, they must fight to get the characters back into the book. Its a series, "Inkheart Trilogy." I give this book a 7.8 out of 10. ( )

I could definitely tell how much Cornelia Funke loves books. Reading Inkheart was like one long love letter to books. She also likes descriptive sentences. There were so many good ones.

This was certainly a page turner, because I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how Mo, Meggie, and Fenoglio were going to solve the problem of the characters from the book. I was almost disappointed when the book came to an end because it was such an enjoyable journey.

Minor quibble, I wish Funke had put more details of the area in the book. At times I completely forgot the story was taking place in Europe. ( )

This was the audio book for a long family trip and was a definite success. I hadn't expected to like it. I had read one previous book by Cornelia Funke, The Thief Lord, and the best I could say about it was, "well, it was OK." This story, on the other hand, had all of us engaged from the get go and, even though we were all pretty sure we could predict a happy ending, we stayed tuned right up to the end.

The concepts and plots were original, the writing and pacing flowed very smoothly (my big complaint about The Thief Lord) and the characters were generally appealing. I think the kids would probably give it four stars in my rating system. I can only give it 3½ because I did have two problems with it. They didn't really interfere with enjoying the story, but they did float across my mind several times while I was listening.

The rather minor one is that I absolutely hate it when one character says to another, "I've figured things out...but I don't want to tell you, yet." And then, of course, they are unable to do so later when that knowledge would have been useful. It's simply a too-artificial way of creating suspense.

The second, larger problem is that the relationship between Meggie and her father, Mo, lacked a little something. We were told that it was very loving and very close. However, I didn't really see that demonstrated. If I hadn't been told many times how much he adored her, I would have thought him a rather distant and stern father.

Still, despite that, the story had enough going for it to make me glad I listened to it and determined to pick up the sequel, Inkspell. ( )

What a lovely book, full of villains and suspense and paens to the wonder and magic of books. ( )

Full of magic and adventure. one of the kinds that proves how much different could be a book from its motion pictures! I read the book after my son so that we'll watch its movie together. In my opinion, if you haven't read the book, you can not follow the movie or at least it would n't give you what the book intended to give you after reading it!

Great, complex characters and good adventure story.

I had my first taste of Cornelia Funke's writing when I read "The Thief Lord" several years ago. After reading this novel, this first impression has only been strengthened tenfold. Funke creates an incredibly imaginative and exciting world in this novel. The story moved along at an excellent pace. I found it hard at times to put the novel down. If the other two books in the "Inkheart" series are as good as the first, I'll be doing a lot more reading over the summer. ( )

If you think I'm a grinch for giving this book three stars, then you'll be furious when I tell you that I really wanted to just give it two, but somewhere in my three-sizes-too-small heart, I felt compelled to recognize some of the creativity in this and so I've conceded a star.

Inkheart opens on Meggie, a twelve year old girl raised by her father (whose name is Mortimer and rather than call him Dad, she calls him Mo) in a house where books cover every inch of available space. Mo repairs books for a living and when he's not repairing them, he's reading them. Meggie has also inherited the reading gene, and even sleeps with a book under her pillow, so it can whisper a story into her ear. And while we're told by Meggie everything that would suggest this is a cozy home and loving (albeit small) family where they keep no secrets from each other, we're immediately thrust into events that put all of this on its ear.

Meggie sees a man looking up at the house in the middle of the night and while her father mocks her for imagining things, when he sees for himself, he recognizes him and lets the man in. His name is Dustfinger and he calls Meggie's father "Silvertongue." What results is Mo futilely spending a lot of time trying to hide things from Meggie. He even tries to ditch Dustfinger and take Meggie to her great-aunt Elinor's home, but he's forced to bring him along. (The book obsession runs in the blood on both sides of the family, evidently, because Elinor's home is more like a library, with incredibly valuable books under lock and key.) But of course, the truth eventually comes out to reveal that Meggie's father has kept much bigger secrets from her than she ever thought possible.

Mortimer is called "Silvertongue" by Dustfinger because he has a wondrous and terrible gift: when Mortimer reads aloud from books, things happen. More specifically, items from the story he is reading are conjured out of thin air and characters are literally brought to life -- but the price for such transport seems to be that items from this world would disappear into the story. Nine years ago, while he was reading a book called Inkheart to Meggie's mother, Mortimer accidentally brought three men from the book to life... Dustfinger and two villains named Capricorn and Basta. And if this wasn't terrible enough, Meggie's mother was taken in to the book. Despite many attempts, Mo could never read Teresa out of the book and so he was left alone with their baby daughter.

For the past nine years, Dustfinger survived in the world by performing tricks like a gypsy... eating fire and juggling at carnivals, but he still remains homesick for the world in the book, even though he can never bear to read the book's ending to discover his fate. Capricorn, meanwhile, built up an army of henchmen in this world and desperately wants to capture Mortimer and use his skills for his own purposes. Sure, Capricorn found some other guy who could read things out of books, but they never quite turned out well, and so he wants Silvertongue to read out an evil that would make Capricorn all-powerful. In addition, Capricorn has been collecting copies of Inkheart, so Mo might have the only copy that is not already in Capricorn's possession. Without Inkheart to read from, Mo has no hope of ever rescuing Teresa from the book. And so now, Dustfinger has apparently arrived to warn Mortimer that Capricorn knows his latest hiding spot... but no one realizes (the all too obvious fact) that Dustfinger has betrayed them... in many ways.

For the rest of the book, Mo, Meggie, Elinor and Dustfinger are captured, escape, and are captured again by Capricorn and his henchmen, with Basta at the forefront. A host of villainous characters are at his disposal and our good guys are desperate to discover a way to thwart Capricorn while still keeping a copy of Inkheart safe. Over the course of the story, we pick up a few other characters, including a boy conjured from A Thousand and One Arabian Nights, a mute woman brought out of Inkheart who looks suspiciously familiar, and the author of Inkheart himself who feels responsible for the men he created out of ink and paper.

On the positive side, I'm generally approving of any book that promotes literature in such a way. There's something about being a child who loves books reading a book about people who love books... it makes you sense the true value and magic of the written word. And the idea of someone who can read things out of books is good enough... but the fact that there is a price to be paid for it is even better. And hey, I have to give points to any book that quotes The Princess Bride.

But as far as my grievances go, there's a big problem that I have with the adult characters in general. Rather than have scenes demonstrate things about these characters and their attributes, we're TOLD everything about them. We certainly understand that Meggie is utterly devoted to Mo, but I didn't actually feel as though Mo was really all that overly fond of his daughter. He must be, sure -- he knew his responsibility and took care of her, but we didn't get many scenes yielding evidence of tender father-daughter affection. The bad guys talk about how he's so besotted with his daughter so she's great bait for drawing him to Capricorn, and we're told (mostly by Meggie) how close they are, but the scenes in the book were mostly scenes where Mo is supposedly doing something out of character... using a stern voice or keeping secrets. His face was also supposed to be an open book, but unless it was just that confusion for all of this muddled him so much, I didn't see him as a very well-defined character with very obvious emotions. We're also told that the bag guys are evil but they didn't seem so bad to me. It's a case of their bark being worse than their bite. Was this because we were trying to spare kids from having nightmares? It's not like the whole book wasn't spent with characters running in fear. Or perhaps we were relying on the reader to be so appalled by the burning of a library... but that's not the same kind of evil as was attributed to Capricorn and Basta. Elinor's character has a different problem... she started out as a character who was much more abrasive in the beginning and ended up as someone we were supposed to love, but the switch didn't make much sense to me. Meggie is fairly strong as a twelve year old bookworm, so I don't find much fault with her character (aside from her name, which I want to be Maggie every time I write it out). As for Dustfinger... well, I think he got off lightly once you realize the extent of his betrayal. Hardly excusable, even if he's homesick and sad. I'm not quite sure why we still view him as a "good guy" in the end.

I was fidgety and somewhat annoyed through most of this book, and I read it over the course of two days (a) because even if it's thick, it's a kid's book and the type is large and (b) because I didn't want to spend more time on it. Things seemed only somewhat dark (and while you knew things would end well, the feeling of things was rather bleak in terms of landscape and lack of character banter) and I didn't get enough of a fall from grace feeling to believe the world was ever better than the one that included Capricorn. A reunion scene at the end of the book seemed to be a bit lacking, though everything ended with a tidy bow. Sure, it's a children's book, but I was under the impression that the writing was really trying to explain to kids that the world is dangerous beyond super-villains, and then everything seems a-okay? Hm. I have mixed feelings about cutting this book some slack given its intended audience, but I also feel like there's clearly talent in these pages, and so the issues I have seem the result of some sloppy ideas. We could have spent more time on character development and less time running through hills only to be captured again. Alas. I doubt I'll be reading the sequels to this one any time soon, but knowing me and my obsession with finishing things completely, I might end up doing so in the future. But in paperback -- at least I've learned my lesson there. ( )