One of my favorite things about fairy tales, mythical creatures, and fireside stories is the prevalence of them around the world. I love to see the differences and the similarities between these old familiar tales and characters told in different places and through out time. Some characters, creatures and stories are specific to a place or time, but most have a similar counterpart in most places. To further my research on my favorite at the moment I acquired a book by Heidi Anne Heiner who also runs the
SurLaLune site. This book in particular is about the mermaid tales from around the world.
This is a nifty not so little book that is an incredible resource for people who want to delve into the stories of these fabled creatures. This book contains observations, history, analysis and most importantly stories from around the world and through out time.
There are several of these books, each focusing on a different story, it's origins and variations. These are not sit down and read like a regular book type of books (does that make sense?). They are more of a pick it up and find out interesting tidbits here and there. They also make for great resources if you are trying to write a new story, or just want to find out more about the originals (there is always more than one).
Unfortunately the hard copy editions of these books are pretty pricey which sucks 'cause I would like to see all of them lined up on my book shelf looking all pretty. However here is where e-readers are awesome because I can get all of these (there are like 15 of them so far) for closer to 10 bucks a pop instead of the 30-40 bucks the hard copies were costing (and that was for paperbacks!). Like I said before, these are long, non linear, research type of books. The content is wonderful and the illustrations awesome! So anybody who wants to know more about there favorite fairy tale would enjoy the thoroughness of these books. Anybody want to loan me a couple hundred bucks to buy the set?
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