Isn’t it cool to get gifts? I received in the post (eventually! ::shakes fist at Post Office / Royal Mail::) today a lovely gift, from Jill, of two books. What a fantastic thing to give…Thank you honey, they are wonderful.

Not only are they wonderful, (just be patient! I’ll tell you what they are in a second! Sheesh!) the method of giving is very cool too. The books that I have were sent via an organisation known as http://www.betterworldbooks.com.  As soon as I figure out how post links, getting there will be even easier! Meantime, consider typing that out in your address bar as your daily exercise for the day. But do it, you’ll get a fuzzy.

Anyway, since you ask, the books I am about to commence reading are both by Gregory Maguire. I’m assuming he’s American, that’s where he lives now anyway. In Boston.

The first book is entitled “Wicked. (The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West.)”  I also have the sequel, called “Son Of A Witch”.  Although I have never fully watched the Wizard of Oz, I am assuming these books are inspired by that story.  I *almost* started reading the first one but I came here to post this instead. I am eager to get started on them!

As an aside, I am intrigued by the differences between American editions of books and British ones. I’m also struck by how few US writers are generally available over here.  I’d never heard of this guy before yet he’s had several bestsellers in the US.

Anyhoo, in my experience, UK books (the standard paperbacks) may have different covers, but the pages are all standard text on white pages with a clear border.  They can sometimes have illustrations but 9/10 will come as stated and they’ll be a standard size generally and be easy to leaf through.  American books on the other hand seem to be much more distinctive.  “SoaW” is much smaller than standard books, is *really* tightly bound with densely filled pages and, an oddity I haven’t seen on any other books except US ones, the edges of the pages are coloured, red in this instance.  Weird but I like it.

I shall commence reading said books and will report back to my legions of fans (chortle) to review.