This is a great book about a man named Gulliver who shipwrecks into a town called Lilliput after his business fails. This book takes you along the long and crazy journey that Gulliver encounters during his time in Lilliput. This is a great book to read when talking about fantasy books/fairy tale books! You could use this book to give students inspiration, and you could turn this into a writer's workshop! The students can write about their own fantasy journey and share them with the class! ( )

I’ve been curious about this book for a long time—ever since I first heard about it, I think. Near the beginning of last year, I decided I ought to just start working through some of the old classics I’ve always wanted to read and never got to, and decided to start this one. This took me over a year to read by itself, so I’m not sure how well my goal of getting through other books is going to go…. Regardless, I’m glad I took the time to read this one.

Gulliver’s Travels is, to put it in a few words, wildly imaginative. All the way through, I was marveling at Jonathan Swift’s ability to come up with one more crazy scenario…which was then succeeded by another even crazier scenario, and then another one after that! The way he looks at the world, too, is quite interesting; in some ways, this book is a satirical analysis of the current English culture in which Swift found himself. I’d be fascinated to research what was going on in history at the time this book was written, because I feel like world events could have easily had a say in what happened in this story.

I’m glad I read this book. It’s interesting to read a piece of literature that has been influencing generations for close to 300 years now, and I’m sure some of the ideas put forth in this story have sparked many new creative ideas for other stories we come across today. Unusual, varying from light fantasy to some mild sci-fi, this collection of four stories was intriguing, ridiculous, and often a lot of fun to imagine as I read through them. I’m glad I read this book, even though it took me so long to get through it, was wordier than I anticipated, and was slightly depressing at the end. I doubt I’d ever read it again, but I’m glad I got through it once. ( )

3.3

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This initially had some good moments - it was interesting thinking about the differences in scale between Gulliver, the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians - but it grew more and more tedious and the misogyny more and more apparent. The points about human shortcomings and political corruption and so on were made, and then made again, and then made a third time. Glad it's over. ( )