Winnie-the-Pooh (7) - a smile on my face!

So, it's been a bit quiet from me on the blog over the last couple of weeks - it's not that I've not been reading, it's just that I'm reading a couple of monsters ... Gone with the Wind (print), AND, War and Peace (audio). Boy oh boy - they are a bit on the daunting side, just because of the sheer size of them. I am enjoying both books but was starting to feel that I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of "the list" - so, for a bit of light relief, I've just spent a couple of hours reading Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne. I chose the print edition so that I could get the full benefit of the words plus the glorious illustrations by E.H. Shephard. What an absolute treat. I read the whole book with a smile on my face. It is sweet, touching and funny. For those of you who may not know, our eponymous hero is a bear of little brain but a big love of honey (or hunny as he would say). He lives in a wood with a whole host of neighbours - nervous Piglet, know-all Rabbit, wise Owl and sad and sarcastic Eeyore. There are various adventures, usually involving their best human friend - Christopher Robin. It is a study of friendship, language and community. Each chapter is a different adventure - from Pooh trying to disguise himself as a cloud in order to fool the bees guarding their honey, to the whole cast going on an expedition to find the North Pole. I cannot praise this book highly enough and can completely and utterly understand why this book lives long in the hearts and minds of anyone who has read it. A tonic for anyone feeling down in the dumps. I just wish I had children of a certain age to give me an excuse to read it to them (and me) time and time again!

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 161 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from my local library).
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Good Omens (68) - not so sure myself!

For anyone who has been following this blog for a while, you will already know that I am a self-confessed fan of Terry Pratchett and have been an avid reader of his Discworld novels for many a year, so I was really looking forward to reading Good Omens by the great man himself and Neil Gaiman, which features in 100 Top Reads list. I had no fear that I wouldn't enjoy this book immensely, having also read previous works by Mr Gaiman, however, I found this an "almost" book. Subtitled "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch", we find ourselves realising that according to Agnes's predictions, the world is about to come to an end. Enter into the arena, the four horsemen of the apocalypse (pestilence has changed his name to pollution to reflect the modern era), a bizarre witch hunter and his new apprentice, the long distant relative of Agnes, and a young boy called Adam, who is actually the son of the Dark Lord - but isn't aware of his prophesied fate. Adam just wants to carry on being the leader of his little gang of friends, but when the opposing forces of good and evil start to close in on him he comes up with a cunning plan which belies his earthly years. There are jokes and I did chuckle - but not nearly enough. It takes a while to get going, and I found it overly long for the actual situation. The last quarter of the tale really perked up, but not enough to salvage it in my eyes. I did enjoy the characters of an angel and a demon who, behind the scenes have been trying to steer humanity to good/evil over the years. They are supposed to be adversaries, but are really the only friends the other has got and the lines between right and wrong are often a bit blurry .. which is maybe the point of the book. However, other characters just didn't do it for me and I didn't think they brought anything to the table. I felt, overall, that this was less than the sum of its parts. Maybe I'd expected too much, or the subject matter was just not for me. Disappointed!

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 402 print pages.
Price I paid: Free - borrowed from a friend
Formats available: print; audio CD unabridged; audio download unabridged; ebook. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (30) - off with his head!

I have seen a few adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll on screen, but had never actually read the original work itself. It starts off great - Alice, intrigued by a glimpse of a rabbit who appears to be muttering to himself - falls down a hole, and keeps falling and falling and falling - but remarkably, she isn't at all scared. What begins, as she falls, is an internal dialogue that I found highly entertaining. She bucks herself up and gives herself a good talking to at times, and then at others, pats herself on the back when she realises she understands a tricky word or situation. However, Alice isn't a totally lovable character and her impatience comes out - you can almost feel her stamping her foot in frustration at times - just like a real little girl. This book is a total flight of fancy - with talking creatures such as the white rabbit, the mad hatter and the dormouse, and of course, the royal household of Wonderland - a pack of cards - which has the unenviable task of dealing with the despotic Queen of Hearts who is forever instructing her minions to chop the head off yet another unfortunate soul. Alice finds herself meeting all sorts of creatures in this strange land and manages to keep her head before finding herself back where she started. I found much of this classic children's fantasy amusing, and although I felt it lost its way a little about halfway through, I did enjoy it on the whole, although as the Kindle version I read was just the plain text, I felt I missed out on the glorious illustrations of the print copy.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 160 print pages.
Price I paid: free.
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.