I have to begin this with a loud mention of my friend, Billy.

I have known Billy and his family for nearly ten years.
When I first had the honor of spending time with he and his family, he always had with him a thick, gray bound, hardcover book he would carefully read, eagerly comment on, then slide back into it's appointed place on the bookshelf.
There was no title on the front of the book, and while the spine of the book was in great shape, whatever title had been stitched/printed on the spine of the book had long since worn off from wear, travel or just plain admiration.

Billy only told me snippets of the story he was reading within that book, but when he did tell, there was something so certain and determined in his face that was only trumped by the happiness in his eyes over how much he enjoyed that hardcover, gray book.

Billy mentioned small adventured of Pellinore, Lancelot and Gawain.
He mentioned places I'd heard of before - Cornwall, Tintagel and Camelot.
He would mention the Round Table, and I, of course, would nod and think, "Well, that's all neat. King Arthur, the sword in the stone, the Lady in the Lake, Lancelot messing around with the Queen and that Merlin guy in the purple, triangle wizard's hat. Yeah, I got this."

Billy would always tell me, "You should read this book."
"Yeah, I will," I would say. Sure.

Read the book?
I'd seen King Arthur cartoons.
I'd seen that Sword in Stone cartoon. 
I'd seen that King Arthur movie with Clive Owen in it.
I'd seen that Bugs Bunny episode about it.
Everybody knows about it.
Why would I need to read a book?




That space between the previous line of print, and this line of print is there to specifically express my grand ignorance of the subject matter.

Over the course of the next few years, Billy would mention he was reading, Morte de'Arthur again (again), and tell even more snippets of it.
I think I asked him once just how many times he had read the book.
I think he told me he had then read the book eight times.
Eight times.
The book is 600 pages.

Billy had read the book eight times a few years ago.
I am sure he has read it at least ten times by now, if not a dozen.

Billy always told me he would rather have a copy of  Morte de'Arthur in paperback form because he enjoyed reading those makes of books more than hardcover versions.
I kept that fact in the back of my mind for birthdays and Christmases, but I was inspired by him as a friend one day at the book store and picked up a softcover version of the book for him.
I delivered the book straight away.

A few days later while I was again spending time with he and his family, Billy presented me with his gray, hardcover edition of Morte de'Arthur.
He gave me his copy of this book.
That was something.
That was pretty amazing.

What did I do with the book?
It sat on my bookshelf for a year. Then another.
I picked it up and tried to read it.
I didn't enjoy it.
Back to the bookshelf it went.

I pulled the book from my bookshelf a few more times over the last few years.
I just didn't get it.
I got married (extremely happily), moved to a new home and was graced with some wonderful bookcases.
The book sat on those new bookcases.

I recently read Malcom Gladwell's Blink, and needed to switch genres,
I needed something fiction, but didn't want a crime novel or a historical novel and didn't want to go back to a book, author or series I was familiar with.
So - I pulled that gray, hardcover book, Morte de'Arthur from the shelf.

I have not put the book down since.
I have read through to the beginning chapters of Book III, about 100 pages in, and I cannot get enough of it.
I have already ordered, received and used, The Arthurian Companion, so I can keep track of who is who, where is where and what is what in this great tome.
I should mention, The Arthurian Companion is the reference book Billy uses while he reads Morte de'Arthur.

I am writing this about this book I have only read 100 pages of, because I want to urge you to read it.
If it takes you as long as it took me to finally read the actual book, you may get around to it by the end of this decade.
I hope you don't wait that long.

The book is epic.
The book is small.
What is written in rich and wonderous.
What is not written is as almost as rich and wonderous as your mind fills in the gaps and rolls through the passage of time.
You will read of massive wars between factions of kings commanding legions of knights.
You will read of nighttime wanderings thorough the woods when horses trip over tree roots and toss their damosel riders to the ground so their knight escort must encamp them both until dawn.
You will want to know more about the characters who only make cameo appearances in events.
You will want to know just what is happening in the wide world beyond the reach of Arthur's rule because something or someone may be plotting or already on its way against him and his.

I will drop a few nuggets here that demonstrate that I certainly did not have this King Arthur thing down.

1. The sword is not in a stone, it is in an anvil.
2. The lady is not in the lake, the lady is of the lake.
3. The round table did not come into being by means of Arthur.
4. Merlin would tell me woeful things about my future if I ever thought him to wear a purple, pointy hat.
5. Arthur is not the standard of virtue and chivalry, by his own admission.

Morte de'Arthur is all it really is cracked up to be.
I have read adventure books, hero books, epic books and war books.
This book sets the standard for all of those genres of books that came after it.
Morte de'Arthur was published in 1485.
That adds up to a lot of books that came after it.

Please, read a true version of the book.
Please, don't read a modern/Americanized/easy-to-read version of the book.

The language is not difficult.
The language is completely readable,

Morte de'Arthur is the reason there are books.

I will quote my friend Billy:
"You should read this book."