Catching up with this, and another 6 titles finished since my last post:

( earlier titles )
1. Colostle Complete Edition by Nich Angell
2. Wild Card: Let the Tarot Tell Your Story by Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt
3. Insomniacs After School volume 5 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
4. Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse by Alex Kingston and Jacqueline Rayner
5. Notebook by Tom Cox
6. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Of the new ones the Colostle solo RPG/journalling game was fun, but not something I decided I'd want to play. An original fantasy setting, with solo gaming mechanics, based on random tables.

The Tarot book was fantastic, and really got me feeling more confident about doing self readings.

I continue to *adore* the Insomniacs After School manga series, which is being slowly but steadily published in English translation.

The Doctor Who book was somewhat fun, and a new tale about River Song. But it ultimately felt a slog to read through, and was overly muddled. I'm guessing Jacqueline Rayner wrote most of it, though Alex Kingston had some input too, and got top billing.

Tom Cox's Notebook is a varied hodge podge of often amusing rambling thoughts. I loved it! I had backed the digital edition, but not read it yet. I ordered a signed paperback from Tom a few weeks ago. He has lots of his books after the collapse of Unbound (who owe him thousands of pounds) and is selling them on.

And we read Kiki's Delivery Service - the original novel the Studio Ghibli film is based on - for my book club. I've not seen the film yet. A very young read, but still charming.

I picked up a deck of these a while back, while reading the novel for a book club, but not having seen the Studio Ghibli film yet, which the cards are based on. Now having seen the film I've dug them out again, and had another look through.

I really like them, but they'd only really work for folks who've seen the movie, and not just read the book. They capture a lot of the nice visuals and character of the animated film. Though some of my favourite images are missing.

Best of all there are different images on every single card, even the number ones. And running through the suits in the order in the deck they recap the story of the film, from start to end.

I collect playing cards, and am always keen to get another set with particular resonance for me. This is a very nice deck. And I'm very happy to have bought it. I got mine via Amazon UK, from a Japanese reseller.

The picture below shows some of my favourite card images in the deck, below the other cards spread out.

I'm newly reading "Howl's Moving Castle" for the book club I'm in. Never read it, despite reading many Diana Wynne Jones books before. Also never seen the Studio Ghibli movie. However I plan to rectify that after reading the book! The movie is on Netflix, which we have. I was browsing a graphic novel version (volume 1 of 4) of the story this morning in Waterstones, using the images from the film. Managed to resist buying that. But then this afternoon found there is a playing card set based on it (I collect playing cards). Oops. Oh and I plan to watch the movie with the English language dub. The lead voice actor is Jean Simmons, who is one of my favourite acting folks of all time.