The Wizard of Oz (#2) - DONE

Today I completed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
I gotta say, I do think I preferred the movie in most aspects of the story. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the book, because I did, however I did find it almost lame in many parts - but this "lameness" did give me a good laugh, proving that the book was enjoyable for me to read.
Surprisingly, there really are very few similarities between the book and the original movie, and the chronological order of the events seemed different. Some events even surprised me! Such as Dorothy and the Lion actually becoming slaves of the Wicked Witch before she was defeated; The Wizard of Oz asking the gang to kill the Witch before he grants them their wishes; The Wicked Witch actually having very little power over the flying monkeys - which I had always thought were her sort of minions.
It is actually quite a bit more gruesome that I anticipated also. The Tin Man cut the head of a wild cat - which in turn gave him the ability to order around thousands of mice (nice!), he then continued to practice this act through cutting off the heads of forty wolves' heads (when the Witch sent them to destroy the gang when she found out they were after her), also in this same point in time, the Scarecrow twisted the necks of forty crows and killed them - can I be the first to say... Ew.
There seemed to be a whole added adventure at the end also when Dorothy gets left behind by the Wizard (when he rises up in the hot air balloon) that involves lands made of China and a small glass girl. These parts of the book I found interesting, because they reminded me of some part of the movie Oz, the Great and the Powerful.
This book is definitely a classic. However lame, disappointing (mainly talking about the munchkins and the NOT RED shoes here!), amusing, gruesome and all-together ridiculousness of the story, I found it very enjoyable, and it was indeed very well thought-out and planned.
I would give this one a 3/5 - however, I do think this depends greatly on whether you grew up with the book or the movie.. Being one who grew up with the movie, I found myself constantly comparing the book to my childhood memories the movie provided me. I did find the book enjoyable regardless :)