Howl's moving castle

After watching my little pirated copy of Howl's Moving Castle, belated present from my cheapskate brother, I decided, gosh, i need to read the book!

The movie is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and has many of his little touches, particularly in his animation of the inanimate... But i have to say, whether it was simply the fan-subtitling, or the fact that it was obviously filmed in the theatre and had silhouettes of people getting up from their seats.. or because Bear had trouble converting it to a vcd, it somehow feels like we only got half the story. There was a lot of "what? why did she just do that?" and so on. Narrative failure.

This incited me to go and read the book it was based on, by Diana Wynne Jones, and I haven't yet found it, but have already read 2.5 of her other books, mainly in her Chrestomanci Chronicles and they are Very Good!

If anyone is looking for something to fill the void till half blood prince in july, try Diana Wynne Jones! She writes her children's (young adult?) books in that wonderfully simple way, with clarity and brevity, a truly interesting story, and a very wry sense of humour. Also, she's not obvious, in the way that some writers can be, where you read a paragraph and you think, plot device! or suchlike.

There. That is my little bloggy update for now. In other news, I have been to Rise at Darlinghurst twice now, and i think if i save up and am good, i can go back once every week! *mad grin of delight*

Must give thanks to Augustus Gloop of the GrabYourFork bloggything, for bringing it to my attention, and to Sammie, for first sending me the link to that site. :P

Places to go! Things to eat!