Reserved for book box.

Dark and gothic with descriptions that just blow your mind. It is really beautiful but very black and sad in some ways. The Catholic Church was giving me the creeps like it often does. I appreciated the author's irreverent and good-hearted characters the most. I thought that the end of the book was just totally right, I loved it. A very, very rich read.

Sent to Prachitulshan in Kalman's 18th birthday VBB.

This book has arrived safely...The Shadow of the Wind! It is such an oft-quoted book, looking forward to reading it.
I am honoured to participate in this VBB in Kalman's memory. Thank you oliviapoolside, and thanks BooksandMusic for the book and cards alongside.

I picked up this book a few days ago and got absorbed into it completely. Stayed up two nights reading and finally finished it. My verdict is: enjoyable, and a compelling read. But it's not without its faults. The plot is complex with many twists and turns which keep you hooked, but towards the ending it gets quite clichéd, and the after-story more so. It seems the author was in a hurry to wrap up all the ends and didn't give them as much attention as he gave the beginning. Also, a few characters are too black or white. However, some characters, like that of the protagonist's friend Fermin, are enjoyable and lend some good laugh-out-loud humorous moments to the story. The backdrop of Barcelona is an integral part of the plot and added substance to it.
Overall: very readable, but over-hyped due to the often-quoted, famous passage on books and their souls which appears in the first chapter itself.

Happy Birthday! This book was on your '30 for 30 Reading Challenge' list so thought of sending it across. Hope you enjoy the book! :)

thank you Prachi!

My birthday parcels from you are always so full of colour and fun, they are a real joy to open :) I just love all the bits from the fair trade fair - the beautiful purse (I have heard of that embroidery style before but not seen any in real life, so that's really interesting as well as useful!), and the bunting, and the note book, are my favourites :D

I rather feel that this book has sufferer form too much hype... my expectations were so high going in that it was hard to match!

that said, I did enjoy it, and agree that the atmosphere and characters were beautifully and richly drawn, For me, the plot didn't really hold enough water though - it was a little patchy in places, and some of the devices for filling in background were rather clunky!

I'm sending this to a friend's mum who lives in Italy and has trouble finding english language books - once she's done she will either share with a friend or leave it to be found