Dragons and Dreams

Here's my first post about an actual book; it'll introduce you to what type of format I'll be using to blog about each book.

Cover Art:

Book Title: Dragons and Dreams

Subtitle: "A collection of new fantasy and science fiction stories"

Author(s): Bruce Coville, Sharon Webb, Patricia McKillip, Patricia MacLachlan, Zilpha Keatly Snyder, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint, Diana Wynne Jones, Monica Hughes, and Diane Duane.

Publishing Year: 1986

Review: 

    There are just so many good things about this book! I think the only place that you can get them is on Amazon.com, but there might be other places where this book is for sale. It's been out of print for a while, so I was lucky to come across it.

This is a book of short stories (as stated in the subtitle), and there are ten of them. I know when I picked up the book I noticed how many good authors participated in writing this. I know that Bruce Coville is pretty popular, and I like Jane Yolen's stories, and Zilpha Keatly Snyder's. Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors, and you'll probably see more of her books on this blog sometime in the future. :)

The stories in this book are clever, and often amusing. One of them seems almost entirely pointless, and most are meaningful with either a good moral, or a really sweet ending.

There's a story about a boy who guards a mysterious wooden box, a story about a monster that eats those who have recently eaten chocolate. There's one about a baby hag who can't find a name, and a great-grandfather dragon telling his grandkids the history of the Dragon's Thanksgiving. There's the story of a girl who can't dream a good dream for her fans, and a story of two kids who ride the New York subway system to find alternate universes.

Each story is amazing and well-written, all of them inspire a sense of imagination. I'd really reccommend reading this book, if you could find a copy. I know there are a few hanging around somewhere...

Favorite Part(s): Haha, wow... It's hard to choose a favorite story out of these. But I particularly liked "Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale" by Jane Yolen, and Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream" by Diana Wynne Jones. Diane Duane's "Uptown Local" was also one of my favorites from this book; it was a really intriguing tale.

Additional Notes: None really that I can think of. It's a good read. I like short-story books because you can read one story, and then let it sit until you feel like reading again, and continue like that. It's a very relaxing way of reading.

Just an introduction to what this is all about...

Hello, and welcome to my newly created blog!

I've wanted to start a book-blog for some time, where I review books that I enjoy, but I noticed that many of the books I read are not of the ordinary sort. The books that really draw me in, the best books I've read, are all many years older than me, and mostly out of print (except for rare few).

I'm going to blog about books, but instead of blogging about "that new book that just came out" or "this recently published author that you just have to read"; I'm going to pull out the old books, and show you that it's not just the new books that can be amazing.

(My definition of 'old book' is any book that came out before the year 1990. I know that it doesn't seem that old, but I haven't been around that long, so it's older than I am.)

I have more than 200 books that fall into that category, and I've only read about half of them! So this'll give me a chance to read through the books I haven't yet, and write about them here.

I hope to get started pretty soon, as soon as I finish the book I'm reading right now. :)