Reading in Reykjavík

Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me how you liked it 😊 What's in a Name challenge category : A building. Author : Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011). Genre : Fantasy, children's book. First published : 1986. I have long been a fan of the Hayao Miyazaki animated movie of Howl's Moving Castle , but I didn't become aware that it was based on a book until the author, Diana Wynne Jones, died in 2011. I had never heard of her until I saw her obituary in one of the British newspapers that mentioned her as one of the great fantasy authors, so I went to Wikipedia to find out more and discovered that she wrote Howl. I made a mental note to check out the book if I came across it, and then forgot about it until recently. I was browsing discussions on one of the online reading forums I participate in and found one about favourite books and authors that mentioned Jones and Howl. Since I was getting ready to place an order for some books with the Book ...

Originally published in June 2004, on my original 52 Books blog. Author: Neil Gaiman Year published: 2002 Genre: Horror, thriller, children’s Where got: Public library The story: One day, Coraline Jones opens a locked door inside her parent’s apartment and enters a world where she has another, oddly different, set of parents waiting for her. At first it’s wonderful, but it quickly becomes apparent that her other mother has no intention of letting her go. Coraline must use all her ingenuity and imagination to free the other children that have been trapped in there and rescue her real parents from this strange world and its evil ruler. Technique and plot: Wonderfully written in the flowing lyrical style that made Stardust such a joy to read. The story is simple but good and everything is very matter-of-fact, which is why the dark subject matter never becomes too scary. Coraline is a very practical child, unlike the very silly Alice from Alice in Wonderland, to which this ...

Originally published in January 2005, in 2 parts. Book 47 in my first 52 books challenge. Edited/Retold by: Pratibha Nath Year published: 1995 Pages: 170 Genre: Folk-tales, myths, legends Where got: Paramount Book Store, New Delhi, India I bought this book during my stay in India in 1996. For some reason I only ever read the first few stories, and when I got back home I put it on a shelf and promptly forgot about it. It came to light again recently when I was culling my books, and I decided to finally finish reading it. Like most of the locally published books I bought in India, it is printed on cheap paper that is already yellowing, and the glued binding is coming apart, even though the book has rarely been opened. As you can see, the cover is quite funny – I believe that’s supposed to be a demon. This is a collection of folk-tales and legends from all over India. Although the stories are meant for children, they are readable for persons of any age who like folk-ta...