Bikyclist

Day 17 - Favorite quote from your favorite book

On a Diana Wynne Jones kick now, so have three of my favourite quotes from her books that don’t need too much context:

This book will prove the following ten facts:
1. A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there.
2. Pigs have wings, making them hard to catch.
3. All power corrupts, but we need electricity.
4. When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the result is a family fight.
5. Music does not always sooth the troubled beast.
6. An Englishman’s home is his castle.
7. The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
8. One black eye deserves another.
9. Space is the final frontier, and so is the sewage farm.
10. It pays to increase your word power. Archers Goon

You wouldn’t believe how lonely you get - Homeward Bounders

And one specifically for how people treat my books:
For the love of the strange gods of the heroes, don’t do that to the book! - Fire and Hemlock

Day 14 - Favourite book of your favourite writer

Well, as usual, it depends on my mood. And Diana Wynne Jones has a lot to choose from.

But today I will be decisive. Narrowing it down from my DWJ shelf of 33 fantastic books (35 if you count the accidental double copies I own) I am selecting….

*drum roll, please*

The Dark Lord of Derkholm.

The Dark Lord of Derkholm is an AMAZING book. I adore it more than words allow me to express. I love how the adaptation of her Tough Guide to Fantasyland parody novel makes for one of the most amazing and thoughtful books I’ve read.

What makes me say that this is my favourite book is harder to define. I love the interaction between the characters – the family especially. None of the family are just plot devices, they are all well rounded characters with a story arc of their own to develop, and they all change and move and its brilliant. I especially love the characters Kit and Blade, I think they are fantastic siblings. I may have totally had a crush on Blade too. Just a bit. Haha. I especially loved how Blade could vanish and leave when he didn’t want to be somewhere, cos sometimes I manage that quite well too. Scales is a fave too. Who doesn’t like a grumpy magic wielding dragon?

And, really, I love everything about the book.

I buy everyone who I think might like it a copy for their birthday. :)

Day 13 - Your favourite writer

So, I’d probably say that Diana Wynne Jones is my favourite writer, mostly because she has the greatest catalogue of books. I read my first DWJ book when I was 10, with Archers Goon. Awful is, and always will be, my hero.

DWJ has so many fantastic books: Homeward Bounders, Lives of Christopher Chant, Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin, Magicians of Caprona, Deep Secret, The Merlin Conspiracy, The Time of the Ghost, Howls Moving Castle….so many more. I have an entire DWJ shelf. These are all amazing stories, and all ones that I have read so many times. I was seriously devastated when she died last year.

I also adore many other writers, but she is the one I have loved the longest. Not every story is an absolute win, but her hits outweigh her misses by a mile. And her hits are amazing.

I would suggest you all try reading one of her books- there is something for most people. She has a few adult novels, a few for really little kids, and lots of those of us in the middle.