The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis

Definitely my least favourite of the 7 books, and I read them (every time) in publication order rather than in Narnian chronological order (and I don't care what CS Lewis himself said, I think they are much better that way).

This one hands us Narnia's very own creation myth, the beginning of that world, the introduction to it of evil and - well not much else apart from the moment at the end when Digory makes a wardrobe...

As I have one more book in the series to go, I thought I'd make one monster review when I've finished that one. Watch this space!

Dragon in the Harbour by Rosemary Manning

This seems to have been written quite a long time after the other three that belong to this series, and it's quite different. I'm not sure I buy the idea of a dragon that lives in the water and moors himself up next to boats.

But it's a sweet story, featuring a dragon who gets grumpy when he's hungry, on his holiday (from Cornwall) in Weymouth.

For those of you not familiar with this series, it starts with Green Smoke in which R. Dragon meets a little girl who is on holiday in Cornwall. He tells her stories, and they're both sad at the end of the holiday when she goes home to St. Albans.

The Faber Book of Greek Legends ed. Kathleen Lines

I read a version of the Iliad and the Oddessy when I was about 10 and have been vaguely interested in Greek Myths since then. I actually bought this for the Gruesome Twosome but they appear not to be interested at all, even the one who is reading the Percy Jackson series - which is why I finally read this one.

The Tales of Beadle the Bard by JK Rowling

Just a few "folk" tales the muggles didn't know about previously...

I've been ill and off work for the best part of a week and my brain couldn't cope with anything more strenuous. This is a rather silly book, written for a good cause and now I can take it off my "to be read" shelf and put it with my other Harry Potter books. I need never read it again.

But as a wee bit of fluff to pass a few bored hours it did the trick. (the tale of the Three Brothers is told so much better in the first of the Deathly Hallows films anyway)

We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome

I didn't like this as much as the others in the series so far, mostly because there is too much technical sailing jargon and discussion of sandbanks to really grab me, as a non-sailor.

Basically the action moves from the Lake District to the east coast - Harwich to be exact. The Walker children meet a young boat skipper, Jim, and (after their mother has checked his background) they're allowed to spend the night on his boat, the Goblin, as long as they remain in the harbour.

The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis

I really don't know if there is anything else to say about this book that hasn't been said elsewhere and better.

It's the only of the Narnia books which is set wholly in Narnia and has nearly no involvement of any of the children from our world (and then, only late on, briefly, as grown-ups).

Max und Moritz: Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen by Wilhelm Busch

One of my books of Classic German Literature that I got for Christmas. It's a series of short poems about the very naughty Max & Moritz who came to a very sticky and final end.