"Three years ago Stu had gotten a book called Watership Down to send to a nephew of his in WAco. He had gotten out a box to put the book in, and then, because he hated to wrap presents even more than he hated to read, he had thumbed to the first page, thinking he would scan a little of it to see what it was about. He read that first page, then the second . . . and then he was enthralled. He had stayed up all night, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and plowing steadily along, the way a man does when he's not much used to reading just for the pleasure of it. The thing turned out to be about rabbits, for Christ's sake. The stupidest, most cowardly of God's earth . . . except the guy who wrote that book made them seem different. You really cared about them. It was a pretty damn good story, and Stu, who read at a snail's pace, finished it two days later." (page 258 of this particular, unabridged hardcover version of this book)
I love Watership Down so very much, but when people ask me what the book is about, I never know what to say. It usually ends up being something like, "It's about talking bunnies." But King is right, Richard Adams does make you care about the rabbits. It's positively brilliant!