I have seen the film, and I think it's probably good in itself (and I definitely would have enjoyed it more had I known that there were significant plot changes, as I'd have then been thinking about it as 'a Ghibli film' rather than 'an adaptation of a DWJ novel') but I spent such a large part of the last half of the film going "... but what happened to ... " and just generally "?!??" that I can't really tell. Apparently DWJ liked it.

I'm not sure what to recommend as a first book to read, if you wanted to. If you don't mind it being different to the film, then Howl's Moving Castle might be good. If not, maybe The Lives of Christopher Chant?

white_hart, I hope you're feeling better this week. I seem to have some sort of visiting anxiety weasels and as an attempt not to dwell on it too much have been imagining them migrating lemming-like across the country, bothering those who happen to be standing in the way but shortly to vanish over the horizon in the traditional lemming fashion.