Reading

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [amazon]
Author: J.K. Rowling
Publisher: Scholastic; 2nd edition (June 21, 2003)
Pages: 870
Book Number: 27

Finally! After much chipping away at this mountain of a book, I finished it last night. It took me much longer to finish this one, mostly thanks to school. The bulk of my reading during the day has been for class, and so Potter and Co. had to be relegated to bedtime reading. A major negative point about it taking me so long to finish this one up is that, truth be told, I can’t remember much from the beginning at all! Anyway:

Like all of the other Potter books, I quite enjoyed this one. It’s been enjoyable to watch Harry and friends age through the series - even if not all of the characteristics that have come forth from that aging have been, shall we say, positive. I mentioned something to my friend Joshua almost right away when I started reading Order of the Phoenix: Harry is becoming more and more whiney. Sure, he has reasons to be a bit grumpy at times, but damn does he have a temper. There were a few points in the book where I wished Ron or Hermione would give him a good slap, to snap him out of his raging about like a baffoon. I get that Rowling was trying to show his “coming of age” and the associated hormonal - issues? - but I think it was a bit over the top.

Other assorted, bullet-point style thoughts:

• Hagrid really topped himself this time. Dragging home a giant, and hiding it in the forest - nice. Hagrid is definitely one of those characters I wish were real, so I could hang out with him. Great guy, great fun.
• Umbridge! Argh! Bitch of a woman! She definitely got was coming to her near the end of the book. There was definitely a point in the book at which I thought she was going to get away with being horrible, and not have to pay any consequences for it. Luckily, the centaurs took care of that.
• Definitely saw a darkening of the overall mood of the series in this book. It seems that more and more talk of death and murder came up in this one, along with other general nastiness. Filch, for example, clamoring to whip Fred and George? I can’t really imagine that being in the first book.
• I chuckled a great deal with how Rowling dealt with the students’ emerging relationship interests. I loved how Ron and Hermione (who I know “get together” later on) were constantly bickering like a married couple. I also laughed a bit at how Harry’s struggles with Cho were described.
• The prophecy about Voldemort and Harry explained a great deal (and it was about time!) I can definitely see why Harry and Voldemort both end up dying (grumble, grumble about stumbling on that spoiler!)
• This note is specifically at Cas: nope, sorry! The more I read, the less and less I picture Dumbledore as the Michael Gambon version. Richard Harris’ version was (in my opinion, obviously!) much, much better. Michael Gambon is just too weird with the part. His portrayal makes Dumbledore look like some wizard who is persistently high or something. Oh well. Not like we have much choice, seeing as Harris is dead.
• I can’t believe Sirius is dead. As I get closer to the end of the series, I expect people to start dying - it’s inevitable - but I did not expect Sirius to die. Is that weird archway thing that he fell through explained in Half Prince or Deathly Hallows?
• Noseblood Nougats sound so disgusting. Makes me want to never eat a candy bar with nougat in it again. Puking Pastilles don’t bother me much, for some reason.

I’ve already started reading Half-Blood Prince (indeed, I’m already 150 pages into it), and I must say: dirty, slimey bastard! Snape’s been spying on Dumbledore all this time! And I liked him! Ugh!

I might as well get it out of the way: I know. I’ve not been writing here nearly as much as I did in the past. I’m not particularly happy about it, and I am going to try and blog more, but what can I say - obviously, since classes started a few weeks ago, the amount of free time I have has plummeteda great deal.

So, what have I been doing? Well, naturally, going to class, for one! I’ve also been reading an awful lot - just a lot less of stuff I “want” to read, and more stuff that I “have” to read. I’ve not written posts about them yet (obviously…), but I finished Myne Owne Ground about a week ago, and The Odin Brotherhood at about the same time. (If you’re curious about the latter: I’m in an alternative religions and cults class.) I’m halfway through The Indians’ New World, which I’ve got to have finished by Monday. I’ve also been slowly working through A History of India, going slowly simply because we’re only covering a chapter a week, and I have enough other things to read without plowing on ahead in this book. A World of Art is also on my reading plate, along with Politics and Culture in the Developing World. I’ve still two books for my alternative religions class that I have to read, as well as two more books for history of the American south. In short, since classes started, my life has become even more book filled than it was previously.

While on the topic of books, I’m sure some of you are wondering: “Are you still readingthe Potter series? It’s been forever since I wrote about one!” In answer, yes, I’m still reading the series. The going has just been a lot slower, what with most of my reading time being devoted to school stuff. I generally only get to visit Harry and Co. at bedtime, for 10 or 15 minutes, before going to sleep. I’m now about 375 pages into the Order of the Phoenix. I’ll certainly finish the series, but at this rate, it may take me the next decade. At least Rowling isn’t putting out anymore; if she were like Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time series, I’d probably never finish.

A few more of my precious hours have been taken away by work. I started working at the university libary during the summer, and continue to do so. It’s a nice job - they let me read and do homework while at the reference counter, or browse the net, or - ahem - blog. Having a bit of extra money is always nice, too…

I suppose that those things really sum up what I’ve been doing lately: going to class, reading (and reading and reading…), and work. Thankfully, besides response papers for the chapters we read in my ancient Indian culture class, I’ve had little to no homework outside of reading. If I did, I’d probably have to hunt down a time machine, or perhaps a Time Turner.

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?

I’m still working my way through The Pale Horseman by Cornwell, and am now about halfway through it. (As can probably be guessed, the Potter series has been consuming a large amount of my reading time!)

I’m enjoying The Pale Horseman well enough: the setting is interesting (Anglo-Saxon England), the characters are decent. But, as I’ve mentioned before in my posts about other Cornwell books, his writing could be better. A lot better. In particular, the man has a terrible problem with run on sentences. I’m truly surprised that many of his monstrous bits of prose haven’t been caught by editors.

While reading some of the book a few nights ago before going to sleep, I ran into an enormous construction. See how long you can hang on. Also, if you’re going to read it out loud - take a deep breath! Okay, here we go:

I let him drive me, then dodged to my right where my left foot slipped and I went down on that knee and the crowd, close behind me now, took in a great breath and a woman screamed because Steapa’s huge sword was swinging like an ax onto my neck, only I had not slipped, merely pretended to, and I pushed off with my right foot, came out from under the blow and around his right flank, and he thrust the shield out, catching my shoulder with the rim, and I knew I would have a bruise there, but I also had a heartbeat of opportunity and I darted Serpent-Breath forward and her point punctured his mail again to scrape against the ribs of his back and he roared as he turned, wrenching my blade free of his mail, but I was already going backward.

One sentence! My, my.  I don’t know what Cornwell was after there. Perhaps he was trying to catch the speed and tenseness of a one-on-one sword fight, but if that was his goal, I think he failed. All the sentence did for me was give me a bit of a headache. I doubt it truly is the longest sentence ever, but it’s still pretty damn long. Someone mail that man some periods.

Well, it happened. It was tentative for a brief period of time, when I had only reread the first Potter book. Now, however, it’s done. I suppose one could say that the spell has been successfully cast.

I’m hooked to Harry Potter.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight, and I’ve already started the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. These silly books have drawn me in, and won’t let go.

It’s really quite funny, because before I really gave them a fair chance, I constantly poked fun at them. “Hah, they’re just kids’ books - not worthy of my time!” So much for that mindset. Damned books. I can’t put them down!

I’ll have a lengthier post up soon, tomorrow (if the third book allows me to blog anymore), about the Chamber of Secrets. For now - back to Potter! Why, in the two hours before I go to bed, I could read at least 100 or so pages.