Clare gave me the The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula Le Guin and illustrated by Charles Vess. I’m ashamed to say that I have not read any of the books before — in fact I have only read a couple short stories by Le Guin. I attended a lecture she gave at Georgetown in the 1990s and was impressed with her, but never got past the first few pages of A Wizard of Earthsea when I tried to read it.
I asked for this book because of Charles Vess. I loved his artwork in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and follow Vess on Facebook. I actually have a connection to him. My brother was housemates with a guy called Josh who grew up in Abingdon, Virginia and his parents and Vess were friends.
The book is 1,008 pages long. I plan on reading it over the course of next year. At three pages a day, that’s not a big challenge.
Cedar Waxwing's 365 
It is a super easy read. I read it in grade school and was surprised later to learn it wasn’t a children’s book. I love LeGuin, what I’ve read (only Earthsea and Left Hand of Darkness, which is not as easy to plow through)
I went through a serious LeGuin stage in my 20s and loved the Earthsea Trilogy—and Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Would that I would make the time to go back and read them again!
I haven’t read that either, I don’t think, and I’m going to go look for it now. (online of course!)
I need to revisit Earthsea, because it has faded in memory. But Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed…god I love those books!