I wanted to post quickly about two things which have taken place in my world of reading over the past couple of days. Before I get to those book bits, though, a warning: If you’ve not read the last Harry Potter book, do not read this entry. I mean it!
1. I finished The Pale Horseman by Cornwell, just a few minutes ago in fact. Despite some of his writing quirks being a bit irksome, I still loved the book. Medieval history, blended with a good tale, with likeable but flawed characters? What’s not to like? Oh, and, of course - Vikings. I’ll be writing up a longer entry on the book, perhaps today. Looking at Cornwell’s site, it looks like the next book in the series is Lords of the North; another one, Sword Song, will be released in the States in January of ‘08.
2. And now, the sadness bit. A few days ago I was poking around on amazon.com, probably looking at potential bookmooch items. I saw a link to a forum discussion about great fantasy books, thought it sounded interesting, and clicked on it. I had scrolled down a mere 3 messages when the text struck my eyes: “Oh, well, I wasn’t disappointed that Harry died in the final book.” So, there you have it. I accidentally spoiled the ending of book 7 for myself, when I’m only halfway through book 4.
Stumbling across the spoiler definitely dampened my vigor for reading book 4. Everytime I pick it up, while reading, I seem to constantly think “it doesn’t matter, this here - Harry ultimately dies!”I don’t know if I’m going to finish reading the series or not.
What would you Potter fans recommend? Is it worth continuing on, now that I’ve ruined the final ending for myself?
Tags: books, harry potter, Reading
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August 9, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Zeitlos
Read on. Believe me.
August 9, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Josh
Alrighty. I shall dutifully chug along.
How are things in Germany?
August 9, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Stavanger
Well, don’t stop, read on, there will be a surprise at the end then. Harry almost, kinda, sorta died, but of course I don’t want to spoil it. Let me just say, you’ll like the ending.
August 9, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Cas
And hey - Harry’s not the only character. There are deaths. Lots of deaths. Deaths that made me and Moose cry like itty-bitty little girls. There are deaths enough for even the most macabre reader out there basically!
Instead of guessing who dies, I’d recommend guessing who lives.
Plus Harry isn’t the best character anyway! (But steer clear of anything talking about HP, even tangentially. It’s almost impossible to avoid the spoilers).
August 9, 2007 at 2:20 pm
zhayena
The best thing is to awoid spoilers, and sometimes people write wrong things as well.
So you shouldn’t worry too much about it.
August 9, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Josh
Stavanger: Thanks for confusing me (seriously).
Cas: You make it sound as if almost the whole cast is killed off!
And yes, now that I’ve learned my lesson, I’m going to avoid forums / discussions about fantasy / science fiction in general.
zhayena: Yes, I know. Keep in mind though, I hadn’t been looking for spoilers. I just stumbled upon it in a thread about great fantasy books. I’d never expected the thread to have HP7 spoilers in it.
I won’t worry too much about it.
August 9, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Cas
I don’t want to give anything away. I’d have for the ninja/vikings to come after me!
August 10, 2007 at 2:57 am
zhayena
Josh; I know the feeling; I caught myself in reading an article about what happens with characters after book 7. Now I’m trying to put it all in my ‘forget this’ box in my head.
August 10, 2007 at 10:57 am
Joshua J. Slone
Without getting into the accuracy of your spoiler, let me say that though I was trying to be careful, more than once I thought I ran into spoilers… but not all were correct. So while it did taint my experience a bit to be reading while thinking “Oh, so is THIS when X happens?”, not all of X happened, so in only having incomplete and imperfect spoilers, I was still left not knowing quite what would go on.
August 20, 2007 at 11:01 am
Erin
I also won’t comment on the spoiler, but I strongly, strongly encourage you to finish the series. Of course there are sad parts, but I thought that the end of the series was the best possible wrap-up. You’ll love it.