Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino

There are times when I don't want to read anything serious. I just want to settle down comfortably with a book that indulges in fantasies, thievery, scoundrels, wizardry, kings and princes, queens and princesses and all that would allow my imagination to roam without a worry.

This is when I would pick up a book like "Italian Folktales" compiled and translated by Italo Calvino. This is a fairly thick volume and there are at least a few hundred stories in it. As befitting the Italian tradition, there are lots of stories about love and how it is tested by black magic. Just like the ones we used to read when we were kids but the language is not as simple as in those books meant for kids. No illustrations and the print is small. But the stories are great!

I picked this up for a few ringgit at a Penguin book sale and it has given me an enormous amount of pleasure since.