Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

[sophia_sol]

Okay so I watched skygiants's recent Howl's Moving Castle vid which uses the movie source material to make a vid about the book, and I was immediately like I NEED TO REREAD THAT BOOK and so I did and it was obviously great as always. I'm just endlessly charmed by this ridiculous delightful book. And uh I don't know what else to say about it because I am having trouble convincing my brain that there's anyone out there who HASN'T read this book (and been subsequently charmed by it) even though I know there are probably plenty such people.

Comments

[sholio]

I love that book, and I am indeed charmed by it. :) In fact I think I'm due for a reread.

I never could quite warm up to the movie; I had a bad case of "... but the book!" when I was watching. Not specifically because there were changes, but because so many of my favorite things from the book got lost. I did love seeing animated versions of the book's locations and characters, though.

[sophia_sol]

I have actually never seen the movie! I heard enough about the differences from the book that I was never really interested in giving it a try. I know there's a lot of people that love the movie though - I wonder how many of the movie's fans had read the book before watching it.

[jedusaur]

I haven't read or seen it. Always kind of vaguely meant to check it out. Any particular selling points to bump it up my list?

[sophia_sol]

Oh! Uh. Its main selling point really is that it is just super charming, and that Diana Wynne Jones is a marvelous writer whose books are always worth a try imo! Um, I particularly enjoy that the main character is a young woman who spends most of the book under a curse that makes her an extremely elderly woman, which she finds a remarkably freeing experience, and I am delighted by how she chooses to behave in her role as elderly woman. But I don't know enough about the kinds of books you choose to read to make a properly personalized recommendation to you about whether I think it the sort of book you'd enjoy, and if so, what elements to highlight.

(I am speaking entirely of the book, btw. Never seen the movie, and am told by people who have seen it that it is extremely different from the book, but I'm not sure in what ways.)