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arbieroo

Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog

It's a blog! Mainly of book reviews.

Currently reading

Station Zero
Philip Reeve
Progress: 220/282 pages
The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition
Ursula K. Le Guin, Charles Vess
Progress: 749/997 pages
The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry
Robert Chandler
The Uncertain Land and Other Poems
Patrick O'Brian
Progress: 8/160 pages
The Heptameron (Penguin Classics)
Marguerite de Navarre
Progress: 152/544 pages
The Poems and Plays of John Masefield
John Masefield
Progress: 78/534 pages
Poems Selected
Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes
Progress: 4/50 pages
Selected Poems
U A Fanthorpe
Progress: 18/160 pages
The Penguin Book of Scottish Verse
Mick Imlah, Robert Crawford
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 2
Ursula K. Le Guin
Progress: 133/789 pages
The Dreamfighter: And Other Creation Tales - Ted Hughes Hughes' take on the Just-So stories sees God working hard on Creation. It's taking him much longer than seven days; he's designing each plant and creature in clay and then breathing life in to it. He's also experiencing a remarkable number of accidents, mishaps, mistakes and malicious interferences, what with Demons, Space Beings and a Poltergeist behaving maliciously and various critters (Man and Woman, not least) complaining about things.

Learn what Whale was doing in God's vegetable patch, how Sparrow saved the day when the Black Hole came, who became God's body-guard, how hats were invented and which creature cheats at gambling, among other things.

These stories are delightful and the story entitled Goku is unalloyed genius. The only criticism I have is that the characterisation of Woman is something of a depressing stereotype.

Give the kids a Dangermouse DVD to watch and read this yourself...