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Diana Wynne Jones Week begins

To kick off Diana Wynne Jones Week, I am holding a giveaway. I will be picking two winners, each of whom can select up to $20 worth of Diana Wynne Jones’s books from The Book Depository. The giveaway is open internationally, but make sure that you live in a country where The Book Depository ships.

To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me which book or books you would like to win and why. If you post a review or other celebration of Diana Wynne Jones on your blog this week, you may leave an additional comment with the links to those posts, and it will get you an extra entry. This is because I am afraid I will miss your posts when I am doing round-ups, leave your link out, and mortally offend you; and I am hoping that you will do my work for me if I incentivize it. Make sure to leave a working email address where I can contact you if you win.

(For those on time-limited book-buying bans, I am perfectly willing to delay sending your books to you; although you do run the risk that they will suddenly become out of print and you will be out of luck. Also you will have to remember to let me know when you are able to receive books again.)

This giveaway is open until midnight on Saturday. Failing some sort of computer or packing meltdown, I will pick the two winners on Sunday. If you do not know which books to pick, I refer you here and here, as I have said a few things about a number (but not all) of Diana Wynne Jones’s books and what they are about. (Fire and Hemlock is out of print. I am sorry about that. If I could make it be constantly in print using the strength of my will, I’d do it.) Also, you are not bound by what you say in the comments. If you say you want Witch Week and Enchanted Glass, and then find that actually you want Time of the Ghost and The Crown of Dalemark, that will be fine.

Yay! I am excited that this week is here at last!

87 thoughts on “Diana Wynne Jones Week begins”

  1. I would so buy The Enchanted Glass, because I do not yet own it, nor have I read it!

    And maybe The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land (see above).

    ❤ Jenny, the giveaway is exciting.

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  2. Yahoo! It begins!

    If I could own more DWJ books, I would probably choose The Dark Lord of Derkholm and The Year of the Griffin because I already want to read them again! But then again, I might change my mind … 😉

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  4. HOW can Fire & Hemlock be out of print?!?! That is nothing short of a tragedy 😦

    Anyway, if I win I’d pick House of Many Ways (because I can’t believe I don’t have it yet), and The Game (another one I still don’t have). Thank you for the very generous giveaway!

    I’m so excited that DWJ week is here! I’ll be back tomorrow with a review link 😛

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  5. “Fire and Hemlock” is out of print? T_T (That makes me really glad I already have it, though. I want to read it come October…)

    DWJ week is here! Whee! I’ve been looking forward to this week so much and now you’re off and spoiling us all with a fantastically sweet giveaway like this?!

    Technically, to give you a truthful answer to your question, I’d have to say “I’d love any of the books that I don’t already own because DWJ!” but that’s far more than 20 dollars, so…

    I’d love to have “The Power of Three” because of the ones I don’t own that’s highest on my list (I both love cultural diversity in my fantasy and staying close to its more European/Celtic roots.) as well as “Enchanted Glass” because I love the cover.

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  6. Woohoo for the beginning of DWJ week… I have already read Eight Days of Luke and will be putting a review link up later!

    Anyway, problem is that I actually own the vast majority of books that are in print. I don’t know what will add up to $20 to choose as I am looking at it in £ and when I change to dollars then it is apparently different over here to over there. I guess they include the exchange rate?

    Okay… if I win I will choose Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories and oh oh oh what else? A Tale of Time City though I do already own this it’s a scruffy hardback that I got off bookmooch that looks diseased so I’d like a fresh healthy one, so those would be my choices please. 🙂

    Oh if both is over $20 then I would just choose Unexpected Magic.

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  8. I think I’d go for the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, volumes 1 and 2. I used to own Charmed Life but either I got rid of it at some point over the years or it’s at my mom’s house in Georgia, and it’d be nice to have it again as part of that bigger volume. Also, I haven’t read either of the books in volume 2 yet.

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  10. The week is beginning! I just picked up a Chrestromanci book of hers at a sale, thinking to read it now. I think I’d like to read her Puss in Boots and Howl’s Moving Castle. What a great giveaway!

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  11. Happy day!

    I didn’t know that about Fire and Hemlock. Criminal! I am adding the strength of my will to yours, and maybe if everyone participating in Diana Wynne Jones week does too, it will work. Like clapping hands for Tinkerbell.

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  12. Oh, please enter me in the drawing, though I can hardly choose. Off the top of my head I’ll say A Tale of Time City and The Time of the Ghost since I haven’t read any of them. Sad about Fire and Hemlock — maybe all the bloggers can band together and email the publisher. I suppose if it’s getting a lot of attention they’ll reprint it.

    And BTW I just read her marvelous short story Samantha’s Diary! It’s in Neil Gaiman’s new anthology Stories: All New Tales and it is HILARIOUS. I’d call it adult or YA though. I checked out the book because it has a novella by NG and was so delighted to see her name in the ToC as well. Highly recommended!

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  13. I’m so glad you have organized the event! It has prodded me to finally read Diana Wynne Jones! Let’s see, I think I would want Unexpected Magic and The Dark Lord of Derkholm! Thanks for the giveaway, Jenny!

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  14. I am excited that it has begun! I had trouble finding a Diana Wynne Jones book, but I ordered one through the inter library loan network and it looks like I might be able to pick it up tomorrow, so I hope I will finish it in time to post a review at the end of the week.

    I would choose Howl’s Moving Castle, as that is also the book I will be reviewing this week (hopefully). It sounds like a delightful series and I’d love to have the first volume.

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  15. Hmm….I would choose Skiver’s Guide, because I have always wanted to read it and it’s not available in the US At. All. and House of Many Ways, because I liked it and bought it for our library, but not yet for myself. Maybe Mixed Magics, b/c I don’t have those stories…decisions, decisions…

    I will have three posts up this coming week – Magicians of Caprona, Unexpected Magic, and Conrad’s Fate.

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  16. What a wonderful contest! I’d probably go for The House of Many Ways and Enchanted Glass, if I could get both for the right amount. If not, I suppose just the latter. I haven’t read it yet, and it’s been calling to me…

    Thanks for the chance to win!

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  18. I’d choose Deep Secret and Eight Days of Luke. There are scads of her books I haven’t read yet. I started with Homeward Bounders in… let’s see… 1985ish? 25 years of DWJ!

    I’ll link to my review of The Merlin Conspiracy later this week, when I write it.

    Thanks so much for doing this, Other Jenny, you make my heart happy.

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  19. I would go for Homeward Bounders, because I am a sucker for many-world books. And then I would get as many of the Chronicles of Chrestomanci as I could — I have vague memories of reading Charmed Life in the dim and distant past but I have no idea if I read the other books and have been wanting to read them for a while now. What a lovely giveaway!

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  21. I am ashamed to say that I’ve never read anything by Diana Wynne Jones! I would loooove to remedy this though. I looked through your suggestions and I would have to say:

    A Sudden Wild Magic because the baby talk sounds fabulous!

    &

    Howl’s Moving Castle purely because I loved the movie. Just gotta say!

    Great giveaway!

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  22. I was totally going to say that I’d choose FIRE AND HEMLOCK, but then I discovered it was out of print. 😦 So I think I’d choose HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (because everyone seems to like it) and THE DARK LORD OF DERKHOLM (because you told me I might enjoy it).

    Also: I have a DWJ Week post all ready for tomorrow, so I’ll come post the link to it once it’s up.

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  23. Enchanted Glass! I want Enchanted Glass! I haven’t seen a copy of it here! Though I much rather the other bloggers win the giveaway 🙂 I still have a handful of unread DWJ and I’m pretty sure Enchanted Glass will turn up on this part of the world soon 🙂

    I’m so looking forward to finishing House of Many Ways. You’ll probably adore Howl, Sophie and Calcifer even more (if you haven’t read it yet). I’m on Chapter 12 already! Yay!

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  27. I have a secret to tell you: I have never read a single book by Diana Wynne Jones, and I regret that with all my being, because I think I have missed something extraordinary. If I should be the lucky winner, I have no idea what books I’d want – how can I possibly choose when I know nothing about any of them? But wait, for some reason Enchanted Glass is on my wishlist, so I think I’d like that one. And the other one? Well, actually I still have enough money left for two if I go with The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume I and Volume II, and I think I will, because then I can buy Volume III later, which has the most beautiful cover I’ve seen in a while. Yes, I sometimes have strange reasons for choosing my books.

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  28. I want Eight Days of Luke! and Howl’s Moving Castle, please. AND I want to go back in time to Wednesday when I forgot my library card so that I could have actually had it on my person so that I would have been allowed to checkout the book I had on hold (Eight Days of Luke) and thus prevent it being PUT BACK into the system for a big #DWJfail on my part so now I don’t know if I should run to Borders and buy it or just miss out on any reading of DJW this week and now I’m very sad and disappointed in myself for poor planning. Woe is me!

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  29. I actually have almost every book (Changeover was death to find!) and short story by Diana Wynne Jones. BUT I’ve been saving up for the new issues with cover art by David Frankland because my paperbacks are tattered and torn, esp. Howl’s Moving Castle (the only book that everyone in my HUGE family loves) and Fire & Hemlock.

    I’d say, The Lives of Christopher Chant and Magicians of Caprona. And has anyone figured out the end to Fire & Hemlock? I haven’t, though I’ve tried (http://arnique.blogspot.com/2007/12/so-curse-of-fire-and-hemlock.html)

    A from A + B in the Sea

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  30. This is going to be hard for me to pick, so I’m glad I’m not bound by my choice now!

    From you lists, Howl’s Moving Castle and Eight Days of Luke sound most up my alley. 🙂

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  33. I have loved Diana Wynne Jones’s books since I found Witch’s Business on my library’s new book shelf back in…oh, let’s just say it was a very long time ago. I loved the concept and the humor and the danger the kids found themselves in. I read every one of her books as they’ve come out since then, and I’ve managed to buy hardcover copies of every one.

    Except Witch’s Business. Which seems kind of ironic, considering. So that would be the book I’d buy, to replace the ratty paperback copy (of the British edition!) with pages falling out that I have on my bookshelf right now.

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  36. Just one!? Enchanted Glass, then. It’s the most recent, I don’t own it yet, and I love the way that Aidan and Andrew get along, and I’m very happy with the fact that, though Andrew has to learn magic all over again, he never does stop wanting to write his history book.

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  39. This is a very bad week for me to write a new review, but I wanted to let you know that last fall I wrote an overview of Diana Wynne Jones’s work, a post titled “The Queen of Children’s Fantasy”: http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-childrens-fantasy.html

    Then here is my review of Enchanted Glass from a few months back: http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-of-enchanted-glass-by-diana.html

    I love-love-love her books, especially Dogsbody, Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Archer’s Goon, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Cart and Cwidder. Oh, and I swear by The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Thanks to her entry on “Stew,” I make sure all of my own characters’ meals aren’t boring.

    All hail Her Majesty, Queen Diana! There’s never been a creative mind quite like hers.

    Of course, I told my blog readers about this event–thanks so much for hosting it!

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  41. I’m new to your blog, but have been pointed in this direction purely for DWJ week. What a superb idea – anything that spreads the DWJ love is a fantastic thing! I have no need of any books, as I have everything she’s ever published, some of them twice, but am enthusiastically joining in from a blogging point of view 🙂 I’m planning on blogging about a different book every day, picking my top 7 (or at least, a top 7).

    My posts will all be findable here – so far I’ve done Fire & Hemlock, Deep Secret, and Hexwood.

    Once again, I applaud your awesome idea, and look forward to reading lots of the posts that come out from it!

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    • I’ve just posted my seventh and final review for this week – the latter four were: Howl’s Moving Castle, A Tale of Time City, Archer’s Goon, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

      All here

      Thanks again for hosting this week, it’s been an absolute blast! Looking forward to catching up with all the links I haven’t yet had time to read!

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  42. Thanks for the giveaway. I will definitely be posting about this week on my blog.

    I’m ashamed to admit that the two books I have not read but have heard so much about are Fire and Hemlock and The tough Guide to Fantasyland.

    On the other hand I have read (and own) all the Chrestomanci books! They, along with The House of Many Ways are my favorite two.

    My least favorite, up to date, enchanted glass. Girl fights don’t go down well with me:( Review here

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  43. I’d love to enter the giveaway, though I’m not able to participate in your DWJ week =\. I tried to find Fire and Hemlock as it’s your and Ana’s favourite DWJ, but my library doesn’t have it and now you said it’s out of print. Sad! Apart from that book I’m most interested in Howl’s Moving Castle, which has intrigued me since the Ghibli movie came out!

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  44. Pingback: Rounding up links (part 1) « Jenny's Books

  45. If I win, I would like either A Tale of Time City or Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci. I heard A Tale of Time City is an under appreciated novel revolving around time traveling with a humorous twist. Mixed Magics will complete my collection of Chrestomanci books. :]

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  47. I would dearly love The Changeover, just because I haven’t read it, I don’t own it, and I’ve heard so much about it, but I don’t think its available. Why is it not available? Why are so many of Diana Wynne Jone’s books going out of print? There’s an injustice between the worlds…

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    • Seeing as how The Changeover is incredibly, incredibly rare and out of print, I think I would choose either Dark Lord of Derkholm or The Tough Guide to Fantasyland…

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  49. Pingback: Old Favorite: The Homeward Bounders « Bellaonbooks's Blog

  63. Can anyone tell me what The Skiver’s Guide is about? It’s another one I’d never heard of (and I thought I’d read them all!) and it’s so out of print no one seems to even bother with descriptions.

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  65. Pingback: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland « Bride of the Book God

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