My only real gripe with the books is that they are not well written for reading quietly either. After all the ballyhoo I really expected better than the monodimensional kid's yarn that the first book turned out to be.

Don't get me wrong, I like kids' yarns. But in Lord of the Rings the writing stands up for itself regardless of the story - as does most of Dahl and certainly the Phantom Tollbooth. So I was just disappointed that there was no literary merit at all. And at risk of becoming unpopular (me - really?) I do think it has been bigged-up by the media in that annoying, pop-culture way that all things seem to be going (reference Hearsay topping the charts with what would normally be considered an average Eurovision entry).

Cheers, Terry