Tough slog if you try to read in sequence, from start to finish. I picked up a few in between novels as I went here. Overall very enjoyable, feels like a back catalogue of Calvino's muses. Must re-read his intro, as I am now finished, I'm sure there is more insight to be gained now having absorbed it all.

This is bedside table reading - so much developed in such a short time. Once flush with these tales I did find I was missing the development of generations, will likely take up Cervantes again to feel tethered to a character for a length of plot.

Read again

More Italian fairy tales than you can shake a stick at.

Fairy tales told in clear, straightforward language. Ones that you've heard (and probably associate with the Brothers Grimm), ones that you haven't heard, and ones where you're like, "Wait...that's not quite the way it's supposed to go." Reading this collection, it's suddenly no surprise why folklorists love to classify tales like this according to theme. Being able to track tales across countries and centuries would be a hoot.

If you've read Italo Calvino before, this isn't like most of his work, but more like the Brothers Grimm.

Recommended for those who like fairy tales.

Hundreds of 2, 3, and 4 pages folk tales. A lot of redundancy in the overall tropes, but still charmingly written by a master. I can pick it up, read a story or two, enjoy it, then put it down. If I try reading them in a row, at a time, it is a blur of castles, and princesses, and fairies, and talking animals, &c.

I have stopped and shelved it; enjoyable but - too much prose, too little joy

The only downside here is that this book is exhaustive. So many fine tales! A few at a time is best, in much the same way that I read (long years ago) Andrew Lang. My favorite so far is "The Five Scapegraces." I'm also very much indebted to Mr. Calvino's informative and amusing introduction, in which he lays out the territory.

Clone wars.

A collection of short italian folktales by renowned Italo Calvino. 200 tales, merely a few pages each. One of those yellowed books found in the dusty family bookcase.

The structure of every tale is pretty much always the same, a merchant, a princess or a king has some sort of problem or something bad happening, a magic solution is found, bingo, hea for everyone. Multiply by a few hundreds of utterly bland tales, so similar you could almost brand them clones. After the thirtieth tale they all start to feel the same, add increasing boredom with each new one, until you find yourself craving to reach the end so the torture is finally over.

There's not much I can rescue from this book, except that it makes me very happy knowing that I’ll soon get rid of it.

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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1956] [944p] [Collection] [HIGHLY Not Recommendable]
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Guerra de clones.

Una colección de cuentos cortos de folclore por el renombrado Italo Calvino. 200 cuentos, meramente un par de páginas cada uno. Uno de esos libros amarillentos hallados en la polvorienta biblioteca familiar.

La estructura de cada cuento es básicamente siempre la misma, un mercader, una princesa o un rey tiene algún tipo de problema o algo malo sucediendo, una solución mágica aparece, bingo, todos felices para siempre. Multiplicar por un par de cientos de terriblemente sosos cuentos, tan similares que casi podrías llamarlos clones. Después del trigésimo cuento todos empiezan a parecer iguales, añadir creciente aburrimiento con cada uno nuevo, hasta que te encuentras a tí mismo anhelando llegar al final sólo para que la tortura finalmente termine.

No hay mucho que pueda rescatar de este lbro, excepto que me hace muy feliz saber que pronto me voy a deshacer de él.

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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1956] [944p] [Colección] [ALTAMENTE No Recomendable]
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One of my religion professors in undergraduate school always used to say that she loved Italian myths because they always include food and weddings. I gleaned this and didn't really pick that up, but it's fun to have around the house. The majority of stories are bite-sized so its cool to pick up and read with a friend if you're just hanging around. However, it might be more fun to skim through and find the interesting ones beforehand, as they are folktales so some are a bit meandering with no resolution. Some are just racist (e.g. I think it's called The Laziest Turk - it's a story that's just about how the Turks value laziness and mentor each other in the trade) so head's up on that.

Anyway, it was fun and is a great coffee table book.

As a tiny child, I read this an enormous number of times -- I remember bringing it in to my kindergarten class to show to my teacher (who, certainly, had doubts that I'd actually read it. Psh. (Yes. I am hugely pretentious.))

Regardless. I've read bits and pieces of it again and again over the years, and it remains one of the most delightful books I know. There is no reason for this not to be a favorite book for kids -- it's exciting, full of an enormous number (200!) of vivid stories perfect in size for a child's attention span (just a few pages each). There's also, though, no reason for this not to be a favorite book for adults. Each story is a perfect little gem, sometimes dark but never grim (or, for that matter, Grimm), sometimes wry and funny but never mean-spirited, and on and on and on.

I've started reading these to my days-old son, ostensibly for his benefit but really for my own. With 200 stories, I figure this should last us until he's 7 months plus, and then I intend to start over again. Seriously. I can't get enough of these.

This is a fun book to read to kids who like quick tales about the familiar topics, but with a twist and some humor. My little girl who only usually likes picture books often asks me for an Italian story from this book. She likes these ones enough to happily skip illustrations. But I found that the stories can get a little repetitive. So, putting it away for a while after reading only a few at a time helped me enjoy it more.

Highly uneven collection that I've been reading off and on the last year. It's a general favorite but it did now "wow" me as some of the Russian authors do.

Read in Italian, Fiabe Italiano. I don't think this was the best introduction to Calvino, and I've always meant to read something that's his originally... but so far I haven't gotten around to it. I had this book by my bedside for the better part of a year and read it a fable at a time. (I'd done something similar for Russian folk tales, and I have to sadly report that reading folk tales in the original is really not the best way to learn or reinforce a language!)

Era il mio primo libro che ho letto in italiano. Dunque, era una sfida per me, ma è davvero un ottimo modo per imperare, perché sono storie brevi e molto simplice.