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Cressida Cowell – How to Break a Dragon’s Heart | Review

Title: How to Break a Dragon’s Heart

Author: Cressida Cowell

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 320

Rating: 4*/5

Cressida Cowell – How to Break a Dragon’s Heart

When I first picked this one up, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to finish it. I mean, it’s a kid’s book, right? But it turns out that despite being the eighth in a series of which I’ve only read the first, it was actually quite the cracker. I really enjoyed it, and I’m glad that they’re written in such a way that you don’t have to read them in order. It means I can keep on picking them up from charity shops as and when I see them.

If you’re familiar with the movie (or the TV show) of How to Train Your Dragon then you pretty much know what to expect here. In this adventure, Hiccup finds himself saving his friend Fishlegs by accidentally proposing marriage and having to complete an impossible task to win permission from her father. Along the way, he learns a little more about his ancestor, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Second, and meeting plenty more dragons along the way.

Sure, it can be a little daft at times, but it’s pure escapism and it proved to me that you’re never too old to enjoy a good tale about dragons. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I now plan to add the rest of the series to my Goodreads wishlist, which must mean something. Cowell’s writing style is perfect for kids without being offputting to adults, and the illustrations throughout the book really helped to bring it to life. I also noticed a few differences between the books and the movie/TV shows, including the fact that in the books, Toothless is green. But he’ll always be black in my head because the animated Toothless is the spitting image of my cat, Biggie. So cute.

Cressida Cowell

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Karl Pilkington – The Moaning of Life | Review

Title: The Moaning of Life

Author: Karl Pilkington

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 346

Rating: 4*/5

Karl Pilkington – The Moaning of Life

Technically, I’m giving this one a 3.5, because I think a 3/5 is too harsh on it. You basically know what you’re getting into, here – if you haven’t heard of Karl Pilkington then it probably isn’t the best place to start. But if you’ve seen (or heard) some of his work before then you’ll know pretty much what to expect.

Karl Pilkington is a cynic, a simple man who seems so daft at times that he attains a sublime sort of wisdom all of his own. But it’s the very strangeness and simultaneous familiarity that makes him so endearing. When he’s being grumpy about something, you usually find yourself nodding along with it. I think it’s because while he can be a miserable sod, he gets miserable at the same things that would make you miserable, too. He talks a lot of sense.

This book is basically a tie-in with one of Pilkington’s television series, although I haven’t actually seen it. That means that I can’t tell you how much crossover there is, but I imagine that it’s pretty much the same. It’s split into sections, and each of the sections follows a different theme, like the TV show. It also comes with a bunch of stills that show Karl in action as he tries to find a little meaning.

My main problem with it, and the reason why I didn’t give it a straight four, is that it’s kind of long. I got bored about halfway through, and while it wasn’t exactly a struggle to finish it, I was already thinking ahead about what I wanted to read next. I think it might be better to dip in and out of it, rather than reading each section back to back – that way, it’s more like occasionally watching one of the shows, rather than bingeing on the series over the course of a night. It’s better that way – it’ll go down much easier. So yeah!