I picked this book up for two reasons: 1. i said to myself "i want to read a book that's like a Miyazaki movie" and a little google searching led me to this one, which is one of his personal favorites; and 2. my husband has been telling me for years to read it, so the choice was clear. I was not at all disappointed. It was creepy at times, and it had that melancholy-yet-heartwarming feeling in the end, much like a Miyazaki film. It had an overtone of Asian philosophy. And although it was a wizards-and-dragons book, it somehow felt entirely unlike any other wizards-and-dragons story i've ever heard. 
 I only wish this book was longer. I wish the hero's experience at the Hogwarts-esque sorcery school had been expounded upon for many hundreds of pages rather than being confined to one short chapter. I want more details, more stories, more descriptive language. My one consolation is that there are three more books in this series, so the story is not yet over for me. I will definitely read the others at some point.