I haven't.

I think I figured out where the book came from. I downloaded it about a year ago when io9 did a review. It must have been sitting on my kindle ever since. Yesterday, on the plane, my computer died and I decided to read. The coverless book caught my attention and ended up reading the entire thing not knowing a thing about the book, the plot, or anything.

The movie plot seems to change quite a few things though. In the book the thing that grants wishes is a golden sphere that is only alluded to, as a legend, through the first 3/4ths of the novel. The majority of the story is just a story about a man and his life and how he overcomes obstacles as he encounters them. The end obviously has a dramatic payout that makes the entire story really come together. However, through the first 3/4ths of the way through you just read and experience his life. It isn't really a typical beginning, middle , climax, end. It just goes and goes and then the last lines makes you realize everything you just read and that realization is this amazing double climax, for yourself as well as the main character and the world as a whole.