::beams and squees with Gilly:: And you know Blandings Castle, too, and being covered in leeches is a very big interest of yours -- the Ideal Renaissance Person. ::beams some more, incandescently::

Funny, though -- most of the time I was prejudiced against American books while I was growing up (not Dr. Seuss, of course! But books for older kids). I wanted to be in England and I wanted to read books that were set in England. American stories were (almost) always matter-of-fact and ordinary and preachy. British books seemed to hold universes of fantasy and beauty and fascinating people, and seemed less about An Uplifting And Moral Story than about a real story. And I am feeling extremely nostalgic... so *many* fabulous books I wanted to live inside...