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The Pick and Mix Challenge.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-01-21 3:10 PM (#6198)
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Location: UK		 Made a mess of adding my challenge,tried editing and instead ended up with two.Also meant it to be private so I could do a lot of books,and it went public willy nilly Ah well,hope Dave can remove the other thread for me.,and will remain public just so as to share
Another problem is I wanted to do 50 books,but had to fix it at 12 just in case anyone else wants to join.Never mind,I will use this thread to show my progress towards 50 books over the year.Any comments on books always welcome,no need to be doing the challenge to post here.Have a great reading year with this brilliant RYO challenge.I should imagine it can be used again every year since it is so versatile.Happy reading folks.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-01-21 3:34 PM (#6199 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Already read some good books on WWEnd lists so far this year

1. David Brin - Startide Rising.
Loved this book,which combined lots of adventure,lots of aliens,and great themes in one hugely enjoyable package.Hope to get to The Uplift Wars soon.. The idealistic tone of most of the human/dolphin relationship was reminiscent of Star Trek TOS..

2. Philip Jose Farmer - To Your Scattered Bodies Go.
Another book full of rip-roaring adventure,with very grandiose themes and a truly original setting.Perhaps the writing didnt quite live up to the themes,and people will moan about sexism,but apart from dragging a bit in places,it was a fun read,and I hope to continue the seriesIn these PC days where smoking is almost demonised it felt very odd to see cigarettes and cigars among the necessities the reborn were given for their new life.

3. Lois McMaster Bujold - Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.
At last our Ivan has met his match.Another delightful visit to Miles Vorkosigan's universe,though sadly we see little of Miles himself.Good fun though to see a little more of the periphery characters,usually overshadowed by the charismatic Miles.I never feel we et enough of Emperor Gregor..This book was set one year before the last Miles book,Cryoburn,so the story is not overshadowed by the heavy loss at the end of that book.Not sure what will happen next with this series,but it has been consistently entertaining now for the best part of 30 years


Edited by dustydigger 2014-01-21 3:36 PM
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-13 5:42 AM (#6453 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Have been reading some fascinating stuff towwards my 50 books for the year.
4. Laurell K Hamilton - A Kiss of Shadows
A fn read about a Fae princess who has been hiding among mortals from her murderous relatives.Wonderful descriptions of the glittering FaeDark Court court.In this genre usually I find it a bit odd when Irish beings of myth are wandering around in modern day America,but Hamilton had an ingenious solution.Apparently Thomas Jefferson invited the Fae to live in US when things were getting too hot in Europe,and allowed them to take over themagical Mounds of Cahokia,,Missourian they built their fairy mound ther after ousting native magical beasts.Hamilton before she turned to soft porn. See review.

5. Franny Billinsley - The Folk Keeper.
Excellent YA tale of a girl whose job it is to placate the fairies on an estate.No glamorous creatures here.They are just hungry vicious creatures who will harm crops and animals if not placated.Waiting impatiently for Dave to add this to WWEnd as it is a fine choice for the YA challenge.

6. Richard Matheson - Hell House
A classic of the horror genre,about a group of people who go to explore a notorious haunted house where many people died,suicided or went mad investigating.Not all will leave the houseMy review is on the February blog if you are interested.

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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-13 6:28 AM (#6454 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Just wanted to say hello to those kind people who joined my challenge.I think it is suitable for those who may not want to read 12 books on one particular theme.If you are like me anyway you are forever reading something offlist.well,as long as it is on WWEnd,you can add it here! :0)
@ Rhonda,you are whizzing through!.I want to read some Leigh Brackett too,but she's not available in my library sadly.I am one of the minority who didnt take to Red Mars at all.Why does the theme always have to be intrigue among settlersI loved the descriptions of Mars,but was most disappointed that there was very little actual terraforming. in the book.Enjoyed much more a fun Heinlein juvenile, Farmer in the Sky, about a boy who goes off to Ganymede to carve out a farm from the rock.A lot of interesting details about the difficulties of homesteading. Good fun,and informative at the same time.Wish I could find such books today!

Edited by dustydigger 2014-02-13 6:48 AM
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-02-13 7:43 AM (#6455 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: SC, USA		Dusty, the Pick and Mix fits so well with my other RYO challenges. I don't know if I could knock out 50 list books this year like you plan to, but I'll probably be able to read 24 that fit another challenge and Pick and Mix as well. My primary goal is the 35. I have too many unread books in my house (and on the iPad!). About Leigh Brackett, many of her pulp stories are no longer in copyright, so you can find them in various formats online. Take a look at the website Arthur's Classic Novels to find much of her pulp in html format. Happy Reading. I'm currently snowed in in South Carolina, so I should be able to make some progress on The Master and Margarita today.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-13 8:22 AM (#6456 - in reply to #6455)
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Location: UK		Hi Rhonda,thanks for the info about the Clarke website.I'll have a look - in about 6 months time!.I had a challenge over on shelfari to read 144 books,and about half of those were in the SF/F/H field anyway,so I was delighted with this years WWEnd challenge.I can use so many in duplicate challenges.And any that dont flt the formal challenges from my 12x12 on shelfari will fit here in Pick and Mix.Must say I am still eyeing some of the other challenges here,but that would add even more books to my challenge TBR - around 170 at the moment.
Have you any time these days for crime novels? This year one of my categories on 12x12 is new to me crime authors,I was in a bit of a rut or getting bored with my usual authors,so this year I intend to read at least one book by, Nancy Atherton,Sam Bourne,Cara Black,Deborah Crombie,Joan Hess,Chris Kusneski,Michael Prescott,Peter Robinson,Charles Todd,Imogen Robertson,and Maj Siowall (cant believe I have never read the Martin Beck series!) Having a break from the vintage crime area,though I will try to squeeze in another of my Margery Allingham rereads..Got to keep the reading fresh!
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-13 8:53 AM (#6457 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		@ Scott Laz.Thanks for joining my challenge,Scott!.I see you have added Double Star. Last year I was reading as many Heinleins,especially the juveniles) as I could find. I enjoyed Double Star,but was disappointed that we didnt see very much of the aliens,would have loved to have seen more of their private life.
I know you are a graphic novel fan.This year I have pencilled in a few - Akira,Ghost in the Shell,Neil Gaiman's Sandman series(Doll's House nd Dream Country are waiting for me at the library now).Last week I finished Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds,which was ery different from most manga I have come across.Very interesting,and Nausicaa was sweet,but I found the different nations confusing,and never really totally graasped the complicated ecological things.The artwork too was a bit difficult,very ''busy''.But a good read.I will get to all those other recommendations you ,Rhonda,and galleyangel gave me - eventually.....sigh...repeat after me,so many books so little time.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-17 10:15 AM (#6491 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: CA		Hey we got some cool new cover art for our challenge, very nice! Kudos all involved!

Cheers,
O.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-19 7:16 AM (#6512 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Hi there Doc E,and welcome to my challenge.Nice to see a new member enthusiastically joining in.Dont know what it is about SF fans,but they are not very chatty as a whole.lol.Feel free at any time to chat here about what you are reading,or about anything I have added here,or is on my shelf.Good to see you are now adding books to your shelf..
Yes,I agree about our banner being cool,so we are no longer vaguely ghost like.
Any particularly criteria for the challenges? eg,are you more list orientated,or award books orientated? I could spend hours just browsing WWEnd,its a fantastic site.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-02-19 7:41 AM (#6513 - in reply to #6456)
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Location: SC, USA		Hey Dusty, as for mystery/crime I am very old school, especially since I got my iPad. I've been enjoying reading out of copyright (and often out of print) books on Project Gutenberg. John Buchan, Baroness Orczy's Old Man in the Corner, Maurice Le Blanc's Lupin series, and Chesterton's Father Brown.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-19 11:24 AM (#6516 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		I m a major fan of Project Gutenberg .I've read the Old Man in the Corner,which had an odd ending.Of course I read 39 Steps,but didnt really take to it.I LOVE Father Brown,especially Innocence.so otherworldly in a way,atmospheric and infused with an intense feeling for the English countryside.I am always meaning to get round to The Man Who Was Thursday...maybe next year? This last year I have lived on Gutenberg,reading loads of weird fiction by the likes of Lord Dunsany,Clark Ashton Smith,Machen,Blackwood,Poe,and at the moment I am reading Lovecraft.Great stuff
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-02-27 5:43 AM (#6607 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Oops,goy far behind in tracking my reading for the 50 book challenge.Here are the books I have been reading.
7. Alan Garner - Boneland.The adult novel is the finishing book of the Alderley Edge series which started with the two children's books Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath,a mere 50 years ago!. It was interesting,,often poignant but not an easy read as it was two stories set millenia apart intertwined,so it took some time to get the hang of it..Still mulling over my reactions to it.
8. Roger Zelazny - This Immortal. Ah,the joys of early Zelazny,the pyrotechnics of style,the humour,the prodigal tossing out of ideas that could have furnished a whole series for another author,the sheer zest of it all.Here we have a post nuclear war Earth,where the continents are too hot to live on,mutated humans can look like beasts of ancient mythology,and thee owners of earth are blueskinned aaliens from Vega. Oh,and the hero seems to be immortal,since for centuries he has looked 30 years old.A synopsis would sound crazy,but in short he is taking a Vegan around the ancient glories of Egypt ,Greece and Rome. Only Zelazny would have the chutzpah to toss in higgledy piggledy a Haitian Voodoo ceremony,an albino vampire,a hitman called Hasan(yes,Hasan the Assassin) ,satyrs in the woods,cannabalistic humans and a huge metal dog!.Zelazny carries it all off with verve and confidence and its all an enjoyable romp.Developed from a novella called And Call Me Conrad,this book shared the Hugo Award with Frank Herbert's Dune.Not so shabby for your first novel. I loved this book,with its mythology,but then I am a dyed in the wool Zelazny faan since I read Nine Princes in Amber and Lord of light well over 40 years ago.


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Scott Laz
Posted 2014-03-09 6:00 PM (#6698 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		Dusty: I didn't see your post until today, but thanks for the welcome (and it's good to see you back hanging out more at WWEnd). Over the last few years, I've been working on four book lists (Pringle's SF, Pringle's Modern Fantasy, Cawthorn/Moorcock's Best 100 Fantasy [not on the site], and Broderick/Di Filippo's 101 Best SF), so a challenge that I can do while still working on those projects is perfect! I enjoyed Double Star more than other Heinleins I've read, and have plans for a couple more this year (The Door into Summer and Have Space Suit--Will Travel), but he's never been one of my big favorites. I'd be curious to see what you think of Sandman, which was my favorite comics series while it was running. A new sequel miniseries by Gaiman and J. H. Williams just started, and the first issue looks like a worthy successor to the original series. I still haven't actually read any of Gaiman's novels, but consider him one of the top comics writers.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-03-10 12:08 PM (#6702 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Hi Scott! I am still plugging away at the NPR list,because most of the lists on WWEnd have lots of hard to locate books on them. I was glad to see I am able to get all but 6 of the books necessary to do the list through my library Using quite a few off the NPR for the challenges here this year,should come up to about 80% and finishthe list next yeart next year. Hey,we cant all be like the super achiever Engelbrecht!
I was frustrated that I couldnt located The Sandman,but a recent new edition has come into the library,and I have read the first three.I was blown away by this seriesOf course I am no expert on graphic art,and have only the dimmest knowledge of the DC comic heroes mentioned,but the story telling was mesmerising,alternating between beauty and horror,as you would expect from Gaiman.Outstanding things?The 24 hour diner section in Preludes,absolutely terrifying.The serial killer convention in Doll's House,hilarious and horrifying at the same time And the Midsummer Night's Dream section in Dream Country What a brilliant idea to have the real fairies sitting watching Shakespeare,Babbage ad Co acting out the play about them,and Puck well,just being Puck really.Good stuff.Looking forward to vol 4,Season of Mists Loved .Tut tut, you havent read American Gods yet?
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Scott Laz
Posted 2014-03-10 7:02 PM (#6704 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		dusty... The "Midsummer Night's Dream" story is the single issue that still sticks in my mind the most. Charles Vess is my favorite artist for fantasy-type illustration. And the Corinthian is definitely one of the most memorable characters, so I'd say your reactions are similar to mine. So far, I've signed up for this challenge along with the "Fantasia" one, so maybe I can fit in American Gods before the end of the year...
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-03-11 5:06 AM (#6708 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		AScott,s I said,I know zilch about graphic art,but even I was transported by Gaiman and Vess's Instructions,which gives excellent advice on how to get safely through the world of fairytales - or life itself.Hints and allusions to fairytales abound,and Vess's illustrations are perfect,a sort of muted,almost misty world,understated but evocative.Loved it,and I am looking around for Blueberry Girl now.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-03-11 5:18 PM (#6709 - in reply to #6708)
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Location: SC, USA		Dusty, I think Season of Mists is my favorite. I know that I liked A Game of You less than all the others, so I will be interested to see what you have to say about the next two issues.
Rhonda
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-03-11 5:46 PM (#6710 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Rhonda,it seems Mists is a favourite for many people.I am waiting for Mists and A Game of You to come in .Reflections is already here on my shelf.Waiting on the vagaries of the library system,where one book comes in 2 days,another even six months later!
Wow! You are blazing through your reading,11 out of 12 already! Only Hyperion left.What an amazing book that is. I was reading it in October last year,around Halloween,and I have to say that that was a very appropriate time for it.Some of the tales are pretty harrowing. Warning - creatures you do NOT want to annoy - number one,the Shrike!.
I am not reading much SF at the moment,as I am working my way through a crime author list.Read 90/100.I am reading Michael Bishop's Transfigurations though,and while absorbing and fascinating,it is a very dense work,and very slow going.After that it will be Revelation Space,which I am looking forward to
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-03-11 7:06 PM (#6711 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: SC, USA		Dusty, I'm very close to finishing Pick and Mix and the Guardian challenge. Most of my unread books fit those two so I didn't have to look hard to find books to fit them. . In fact, I'd like to do the Guardian x2 because there are several books on it that I should read. I am about 100 pages into Hyperion, and I like it very much.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-03-17 2:55 AM (#6723 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Congratulations on finishing your Pick and Mix challeenge Rhonda!.Some interesting reads there.I always thought Solaris was unbearably slow.Hyperion was brilliant,my first Simmons book,and of course I had to read Fall of Hyperion immediately.Different,not so much impact but still a good read.I seem to be in a minority about KSRs Red Mars,I was very disappointed in it,Oh for a book about the terraforming of Mars that actually has some solid terraforming in it.It seems books about Mars have to be about political manouevering and skullduggery,revolts and revolutions..The format annoyed me too.We learn early on of the death of a character,then go back and follow him for 100s of pages,he was one of the few characters in the book I liked!Anyhoo,thanks for doing the challenge Rhonda,and good luck with the 35 challenge.Should be a snap at the rate you are reading!
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-03-17 12:04 PM (#6726 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: SC, USA		Thanks, Dusty. Much of the "summarizing" of Solarian scholarship was very slow. I read a newer translation that is supposed to be better than the one that was only available until last year (or maybe a bit earlier). I just finished Hyperion, and the jury is still out for me. I liked the stories better than the overall plot, and I've read that the second book is told from a different POV. i don't think I'm going to run out to buy Fall of Hyperion right away, but I'll probably get to it eventually. As for Red Mars, I wrote in my review that it could be 100 pages shorter and no one would miss them. I got so tired of reading about people driving/flying around Mars and describing what they saw. I'm still looking for the book that will make me say "Wow!" so far nothing I've read this year has been that astounding. However, I might have thought that about The Handmaid's Tale, if I didn't know so much about it when I started. I'm about to start KSR's Years of Rice and Salt, so that might take me to the end of the month, as it is 800 pages and I have a stack of student essays coming in soon. Cheers! Rhonda.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-03-24 4:12 AM (#6751 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		Some of the books I have read for my challenges.
9. Maggie Stiefvater - Scorpio Races.(R) I thoroughly enjoyed this story of magic horses,vicious and flesh eating,who are tamed to run in the Scorpio race,but who always try to get back to the seaInteresting characters and a vivid setting made this book read for the 2014 YA Challenge an exciting read.The wild island,with its wild weather is almot a character in itself.
10 .Anne McCaffrey - All the Weyrs of Pern . I recently reread the Harper Hall trilogy and couldnt resist a return visit to the culmination of the Dragonriders of Pern seresFor mllenia Thread has been coming from space and the people of Pern,stranded colonists slowly have engineered dragons to fight the menacce.Now when an ancient computer has been uncovered,at last a plan to remove Thread for ever can be put into practice.A delightful and satisfying climax to the core series.Read for the Fantasia challenge
11.William Gibson - Neuromancer.Massively influential and seminal cyberpunk novel about a disparate group of people manipulated by a rather paranoid AI who wants to cast off the restraints imposed by society as to the size and power of AIs and merge with its twin.Under the flash and dazzle of the style and the setting,this is basically a crime caper novel where the group steal a programme that will enable them to slide through the seemingly inpenetrable firewall to remove the lock which prevents the merging of the AIs.Of course the police and the other twin,Neuromancer have issues with this.Flashy fun,somewhat dated by the developments of the last 30 years,but still resonating because of its themes of the over reliance on technology,the isolation of obsessed users,hacking etc.. The first half seems dated because so many followers of Gibson,including Alistair Reynolds,Dan Simmonsand Neal Stephenson made the themes and settings so widespread and ubiquitous.A good fast read,for my SF masterworks challenge.



Edited by dustydigger 2014-03-24 4:14 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-05-04 4:25 AM (#7508 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		oops,I am far behind in adding my reads for all the various challengesetc.Health problems family obligations and preparations for visitors from America in June have made reading and reviewing a bit sidelined.
12. Isaac Asimov - Pebble in the Sky.Asimov's first full length novel was a light pleasant read.A middle aged tailor is accidentally transported to the future after a nucluar catastrophe of some sort has ruined most of the earth,many have fled to be second class citizens in a galactic empire,and earth people are despised by the galaxy and in turn the religious fanatics ruling their people are devising a plan to infect the galaxy with a deadly plague to which earthmen are immune..It was fun to see an unheroic older man as a protacgonist.Enough plot twists and descriptions of a future society to make for a light fun read.Oh,and for once the hero doesnt understand the greatly changed language at all,and has to learn it over quite a long period. I am often annoyed about how the language problems are glossed over in many books.Big exception of course is C J Cherryh's Foreigner series,where the language problems are the basis of the plot!
13. Robert A Heinlein - The Door into Summer.One of my fave Heinleins,with a typically resourceful ebullient hero,a brilliant inventor whose business partner and his avaricious fiance cheat him out of his business and bundle him off in a cryogenic facility,where he awakes decades later and finally locates someone who can send him back in time to see what has happened to his patents and his nasty backstabbing friends.Cue an amusing and hectic time travel sequence to put things right. There is a super cat in the book,Pete,who punishes the nasty pair for mistreating his owner(servant?) in a priceless and hilarious part of the book.Highly recommended.
14. Michael Bishop - Transfigurations.The Hugo- and Nebula-nominated novella "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" forms the first part of Transfigurations, the notes and journal of an anthropologist studying the mysterious hominid Asadi on a strange planet. The story continues when his daughter comes to investigates his disappearance. We join in with the characters as they speculate on the Asadi,creating and abandoning hypotheses in a way that seems very credible in the story as they learn more about these weird creatures. A dense,even dry book,but continually fascinating,and the last section of the book provides us with surprising answers to all our questions,incidentally turning from an anthropological investigation to a horror novel.I had inevitable comparisons to make with parts of Simmons Hyperion,a synthesis of horror and anthropology.I wonder if Simmons read this and was influenced.Complex,original and mesmerising, Transfigurations was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award in 1980.Read for my Masterworks challenge.Excellent
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-05-11 11:05 AM (#7590 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		15. Holly Black - Tithe
16. Holly Black - Valiant
17. Holly Black - Ironside
Excellent well written YA series known as the Modern Faerie Tales
Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.
I really enjoyed the edgy rather wildyoung characters,certainly no paragons of virtue.The details about the faerie courts and the tricky dangerous and often cruel rulers there is spot on.Great descriptions of the courts,and intricate plots that dont compromise on the fact that the audience is YA. Read for my Faerie Mythology challenge.Good exciting fun with an edge to it.,and some sexual content,eg homosexuality,which could offend some.
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dustydigger
Posted 2014-05-24 11:20 AM (#7800 - in reply to #6198)
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Location: UK		18. Beth Revis - Across the Universe.Oh dear, the premise of this book is excellent - cryogenically frozen scientists will sleep away 350 years till they arrive at the planet they are to colonise, meanwhile support staff live on the ship, a generation ship. Some cataclysmic changes have taken place before Amy is prematurely aroused from sleep. Lots of secrets on this ship, lots of authoritarian control, murders and a teenage romance. . . . All completely ruined for me by the whiney childish Amy. She is either very angry or crying in self pity, and she irritated me unbearably. Cardboard characters and improbable events just added to the wish for the book to be over. I suppose teenagers, at whom the book is aimed, have very little knowledge of science fiction, so perhaps they were awed by this book, but all in all, a waste of a great (though derivative) idea.
Do yourself a fvour, if you want intelligent YA science fiction, check out Laini Taylor's impressive Karou sequence, and see how it should be done .
19. Susan Cooper - Over Sea,Under Stone.When Simon, Jane and Barney Drew go to stay with their Great Uncle Merry in the Cornish village of Trewissick, they are all looking forward to a long summer holiday of hilltop picnics and seaside jaunts. But when Barney discovers an ancient map from King Arthurs day, they suddenly find themselves up against the minions of a mysterious dark power, many of whom appear in the unlikeliest of guises. Luckily for the children, their enigmatic uncle turns out to be something of an expert on ancient maps and Arthurian legend, with mysterious powers of his own. Can the Drews decode the map and discover the invaluable treasure it leads to before the dark forces manage to get their hands on it?
This first book in Susan' Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence starts out a a Enid Blyton like mystery adventure,but it rapidly becomes darker.Characters on the surface maybe seemingly harmless,but they may be quite cold,ruthless and willing to stop at nothing to obtain what they desire.The villains here are really quite unsettlingly dark and even terrifying.Several times I had a definite frisson of unease and anxiety along with the children.The beautiful scenery of Cornwall in the blazing summer heat covers something quite cold, nasty and genuinely frightening.Gradually too the exciting treasure hunting becomes a part of the battle of good and evil that will be developed in Cooper's later books.
Well written,with unusual characters,a brilliant sense of place,and unrelenting tension and adventure,this is an excellent puzzle book too,as the children solve the mysteries in a convincing way,and of course there is the enigmatic Merry Lyon - Merlin. Very enjoyable.
20. Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys.We first mey Anansi the Spider god, owner of all the world's tales, in the much darker American Gods.Here,after he purportedly dies his son Fat Charlie the shy bumbling ineffectual office worker is surprised to find he has a brother Spider, who is his opposite in every way. Spider moves into his life and takes it over, including his girlfriend, and desperately Charlie has to ask for help from magical beings to get his life back.
Once again Gaiman is affirming the significance and importance of song and story in the world, but on a much lighter even humorous level. I found this a fun and engaging read, not as dark as most of Gaiman's stuff, but funny and charming. It lightened the dull dark stormy winter days for me.
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