Welcome to Litsy!

It's hard to divorce the background information about this book from the overall story, but I will say this was a delightful read. The protagonist subverts expectations and feels very refreshing to read. As this is a Pre-Tolkien fantasy novel it alludes to fey but they are left to the reader's interpretation. This had a very meandering pace with a pastoral setting, but it was to its advantage, like a calm walk in the park.

Replacing the roofing and siding of the house has made it difficult to get any reading done. 😞

“Who can say that the dead are not grateful for the loving thoughts of the living“

I'm not too far into this, but I found it a bit hard to follow, so I've been annotating it, and taking notes on it. Found a nice Reddit thread and taking my time with the text. It's helped a lot.

#Bookreport

📚Currently reading:

🎧Lud in the Mist

Progress:
last week was pretty productive, even if I wasn't feeling my best. Finished my #Victober read, Haunted House, and my palette cleanser; The Little Prince. Looking forward to hopping into Lud in the Mist, I'm quite fascinated by pre-tolkien fantasy novels.

Today‘s book chat selections!

Really great session, they had great questions and comments all the way through (these are the ones I talked about - my colleague had her own stack)

I‘m always a bit worried that no one will turn up but we had 10 today - which seems to be the new standard. Super happy with those numbers.

Finished this thanks to the #BuddyRead with @thegirlwiththelibrarybag and #audiobook on Librivox.org.

I see why it's a classic and a gem, but it was so hard to read for me. I prefer books with a faster pace.

Imagine if you would, being cornered by a beloved but slightly eccentric relative and being told a lengthy tale, full of incredible detail, beautiful descriptions, bonkers banter with several meandering subplots - that is, in turn, both captivating and dull - and then you have the general gist of what the experience of reading Lud-in-the-mist was like.

'... Why should we look for any other cure when we have the wild-thyme distilled by our ancestors? Wild time? No, time isn't wild ... time-gin, sloe-gin. It is very soothing.'

I'd like a bottle of "time-gin"

#buddyread @thegirlwiththelibrarybag

Guess I'll have to read something else for now.

#CatsOfLitsy
#ShadowCat

Just added to Serial Reader: On the border of Dorimare and Fairyland, strange fruit is wreaking havoc. The mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist races to find answers in this masterpiece fantasy novel, described by Neil Gaiman as "a little golden miracle of a book."

Now I see why this is one of Neil Gaiman‘s favorite books. And now one of mine—read all of it!

What a lovely description

What a beautiful paragraph. I think I've read something similar in Pratchett.

Never realised Philip Pullman had a bit of a tribute to Hope Mirrlees in The Subtle Knife!

This is one of my favourite books of the year! It's so wonderful, such a distinct fantasy with the soul of humans at the heart of it. The writing took getting used to, but it became endearing and lovely over the course of the book. The characters, the plot, it all seems so simple, but this book captivated me and somehow resonated with me like few books have before. This is in the top books I have read this year, and I will be recommending it.

Found this by happy chance today - intriguing cover quote from Neil Gaiman (whose books I‘ve never really meshed with but I know he‘s a Diana Wynne Jones fan - so I kinda trust him?)

Quite cool scrolling through the Litsy feed for this book and seeing all the different and rather amazing covers this story has had.

Looking forward to starting this book today. Love this cover and it‘s sounds like an interesting story. #CoverLove

A curious little book, combining Tolkien's bucolic fantasy and the social commentary of Dickens and Austen with gentle humor and a story that takes its time. Still not *quite* sure what happened in the ending, but it wins eternal points from me for possibly the most realistic description of a dream-state I've read. It's a lost fantasy classic and worth the read just for its place in history alone.

A fantasy written by a woman and before Tolkien? Yes, please.
The inhabitants of Lud-in-the-Mist are very proper law abiding people, but in their borders lies the town of Faerie, with its dangerous fruit. What will happen if said fruit came back to be eaten in the rational town of Lud?
While the writing is a bit pompous and outdated at parts, I found fascinating all the elements of high-fantasy it incorporates, and how funny it is!
🌟🌟🌟🌟

I‘m not quite sure how to review this one. I enjoyed it as I was reading it but it wasn‘t really captivating to me.

One of those books that I thought looked good in the shop, and then I remembered that we own it 🤓

My SO and I met in an online book group. While we often read the same books, we do so when the mood strikes. We‘ve decided to do a “buddy read,” and he choose this book based on a recommendation from Neil Gaiman. It is a fantasy novel that has been around since 1926, but it is definitely new to me. I am looking forward to it.

#agameoffavorites Part 2! I'm sure you all recognize the smouldering stare of Mr. Gaiman. I fell in love with his books reading Neverwhere, and it will always have a place in my heart. His favourite fantasy novel? Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. (Continued in another post, because I found something amazing!)

@ErinSueG @WhiskeyMistress

It took me a little bit to get into the story and get used to the writing style but once I did I thought it was good. It was written when fantasy wasn't as big of a genre as it it today so it was an interesting change of pace.

“I‘ve got a #sudden silly whim that we should take an oath.... We... swear by the Living and the Dead, by the Past and the Future, by Memories and Hopes, that if a Vision comes begging at our door we will take it in and warm it at our hearth, and that we will not be wiser than the foolish nor more cunning than the simple, and that we will remember that he who rides the Wind needs must go where his Steed carries him.”

#QuotsyMarch18

The cover on the left depicts events in the book, but lacks a certain flare. The one on the right is all flare with no connection to the story.

So I guess they both qualify as #BadCovers #Riotgrams

“The cattle crouched round them in #soft shadowy clumps, placidly munching, and dreaming with wide-open eyes. The narrow zone of colour created by the firelight was like the planet Earth - a little freak of brightness in a universe of impenetrable shadows”

This book is so good. #QuotsyFeb18

My first thought for #fruit was James & the Giant Peach, but I forgot to take a picture when I was in my classroom. So my back-up is the fairyfruit that floats down the river from Faerie into the town of Lud. Eating the fruit is illegal, but since everyone in Lud pretends that Faerie doesn't exist if you're caught with it you are charged with smuggling silk.

#MayBookFlowers

Bought some sidewalk chalk today on a whim (because why not?!) and decided to get creative with today's read.

"It was not so much a modification of the darkness, as a sigh of relief, a slight relaxing of tension, so that one felt, rather than saw, that the night had suddenly lost a shade of its density... ah! yes; there! between these two shoulders of the hills she is bleeding to death.”

I'm challenging myself to post #AQuoteaDay for April. This is my favorite description of a sunrise paired with a picture from my morning walk with the pup.

"Let a thing be but a sort of punctual surprise, like the first cache of violets in March, let it be delicate, painted and gratuitous, hinting that the Creator is solely occupied with aesthetic considerations, and combines disparate objects simply because they look so well together, and that thing will admirably fill the role of a flower." - Hope Mirrlees

I tracked down this classic fantasy from the '20s because I had repeatedly heard Neil Gaiman reference it as a favorite (in his short story "The Price" the fictional Neil narrating is trying to adapt it for the BBC). I kept ordering used copies and they kept having rotten boring covers. After maybe four ugly editions I came across this beauty. The book is amazing, by the way. Lyrical and funny and dream-like. #judgedbyitscover #marchintoreading

Good night #littens 🌛