Today is Harry Potter's birthday (or it would be if he were a real person). It's also J. K. Rowling's birthday.
I still remember the first time I read Deathly Hallows and how shocked I was to realize that Harry was only a month younger than me. I'd never had any idea that the books took place in the 90s until Harry found his parents' headstone in Godric's Hollow and their death dates were listed as October 31, 1981. One of the beautiful things about the world of Harry Potter is that it doesn't really matter when Harry was born or when the books took place, but I found it interesting.
Of course, I didn't remember that today was Harry Potter's birthday until I saw this quiz on BuzzFeed. (I did not do as well on the quiz as I would've liked. I guess I don't remember the books very well.) BuzzFeed also published a list of 28 things that happened after Deathly Hallows. I knew some of the stuff on the list, but a lot of it was news to me. I think it's awesome that Rowling has thought about it, though.
Thanks to BuzzFeed, I really want to re-read all of the Harry Potter books. Like, right now. But I really ought to wait until I finish Team of Rivals. Maybe the Harry Potter books will be an effective bribe.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Not Ideal
I'm reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare right now. It was on sale for five bucks in the iBookstore about a month ago and trailers for the movie had piqued my interest, so I bought it. This post isn't about the book (which I'm conflicted about), though.
I only mention the book to explain why it is that I've finally realized that I don't like the experience of reading on e-readers. That's not to say that I'm not a fan of e-readers; I think it's great that I can carry around the complete works of Jane Austen on my iPhone (thank you, free Project Gutenberg e-books). It's just that e-readers are not ideal for reading a book for the first time.
I keep finding myself wanting to go back and look for things in the book (usually because a character will say something about x and I don't remember that character knowing about x), but I don't. Rifling through the pages of a physical book to remind myself of something is second nature to me, but going back through the pages of a digital book feels like too much work. Maybe if I read more books on my iPad I would become comfortable doing that, but I doubt it. Like I said, it's not ideal.
On a completely separate topic: Jane Austen is officially going to appear on the £10 note. However, the Austen-adorned currency will not go into circulation until 2017. That gives me plenty of time to save for my trip to the UK.
I only mention the book to explain why it is that I've finally realized that I don't like the experience of reading on e-readers. That's not to say that I'm not a fan of e-readers; I think it's great that I can carry around the complete works of Jane Austen on my iPhone (thank you, free Project Gutenberg e-books). It's just that e-readers are not ideal for reading a book for the first time.
I keep finding myself wanting to go back and look for things in the book (usually because a character will say something about x and I don't remember that character knowing about x), but I don't. Rifling through the pages of a physical book to remind myself of something is second nature to me, but going back through the pages of a digital book feels like too much work. Maybe if I read more books on my iPad I would become comfortable doing that, but I doubt it. Like I said, it's not ideal.
On a completely separate topic: Jane Austen is officially going to appear on the £10 note. However, the Austen-adorned currency will not go into circulation until 2017. That gives me plenty of time to save for my trip to the UK.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Whoops
Goodness, Wednesday came and went without my noticing. And I'm far too tired to write anything of any substance tonight. Luckily, I stockpiled links to share for just these situations.
- First, we have Mashable's list of 15 YA books every adult should read. I've only read one of them (The Book Thief), so my TBR list has grown again.
- Apparently shell-shocked WWI soldiers were told to read Jane Austen. Is it strange that that makes perfect sense to me?
- Speaking of Austen, I'm going to bookmark this page in the British Library's online store.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Thoughts
Perhaps I should have named this post "Reviews," but that sounds too pompous or something. Regardless, I have thoughts to share on a couple of things.
First, there's Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars. I wanted to read this book since a friend sent me the link to The Atlantic Wire's 2012 YA Book Awards, in which it is described as "a clever dystopian retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion." As I said to the friend who sent me the link, there are so many magic words in that one little sentence fragment. I was so wrapped up in the story that I read it in two days and I found myself worrying over whether or not Elliot and Kai would get together, which is not something I worry about when re-reading Persuasion. It reminded me of a moment in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character says that she always worries that Lizzie and Darcy won't get together when she re-reads Pride and Prejudice, which never made sense to me before. When I started reading the book I was annoyed that several character names were a little too on-the-nose (Elliot North, Captain Malakai Wentforth, and Elliot's neighbors the Groves), but then I realized that that is a dumb thing to be annoyed by. Plus, I always enjoyed that the Mr. Elton character in Clueless is named Elton, so why be annoyed by these names?
The apocalypse of this post-apocalyptic world was interesting (though not explained as fully as I would've liked), the story was true to the original, and Peterfreund even managed to have Kai write his own version of Captain Wentworth's letter. Apparently there's a companion novel that discusses the apocalypse more fully, too, so I'll have to check that out. (Isn't that always the way? You knock one book off your TBR list and immediately replace it with another.)
Second, I finally saw The Host. I'd preordered it from Amazon and received it on the release date. I liked it and I'm glad I bought it, but I didn't love it. Since when is Melanie Southern? Did they just do that since Southern accents are easiest for non-Americans to affect? I actually have a bunch of complaints about changes they made in the movie, but I really need to stop focusing on them. They hit the important parts of the story and Ian was wonderful (even if he didn't look like Ian). I'll probably like the movie more the next time I watch it. At the very least, it inspired me to re-read the book again, which is awesome.
Huh, I just realized that For Darkness Shows the Stars and The Host were the two things I bought myself with the Amazon gift card I got for my birthday. I'd forgotten these things had that connection when I started this post.
First, there's Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars. I wanted to read this book since a friend sent me the link to The Atlantic Wire's 2012 YA Book Awards, in which it is described as "a clever dystopian retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion." As I said to the friend who sent me the link, there are so many magic words in that one little sentence fragment. I was so wrapped up in the story that I read it in two days and I found myself worrying over whether or not Elliot and Kai would get together, which is not something I worry about when re-reading Persuasion. It reminded me of a moment in You've Got Mail where Meg Ryan's character says that she always worries that Lizzie and Darcy won't get together when she re-reads Pride and Prejudice, which never made sense to me before. When I started reading the book I was annoyed that several character names were a little too on-the-nose (Elliot North, Captain Malakai Wentforth, and Elliot's neighbors the Groves), but then I realized that that is a dumb thing to be annoyed by. Plus, I always enjoyed that the Mr. Elton character in Clueless is named Elton, so why be annoyed by these names?
The apocalypse of this post-apocalyptic world was interesting (though not explained as fully as I would've liked), the story was true to the original, and Peterfreund even managed to have Kai write his own version of Captain Wentworth's letter. Apparently there's a companion novel that discusses the apocalypse more fully, too, so I'll have to check that out. (Isn't that always the way? You knock one book off your TBR list and immediately replace it with another.)
Second, I finally saw The Host. I'd preordered it from Amazon and received it on the release date. I liked it and I'm glad I bought it, but I didn't love it. Since when is Melanie Southern? Did they just do that since Southern accents are easiest for non-Americans to affect? I actually have a bunch of complaints about changes they made in the movie, but I really need to stop focusing on them. They hit the important parts of the story and Ian was wonderful (even if he didn't look like Ian). I'll probably like the movie more the next time I watch it. At the very least, it inspired me to re-read the book again, which is awesome.
Huh, I just realized that For Darkness Shows the Stars and The Host were the two things I bought myself with the Amazon gift card I got for my birthday. I'd forgotten these things had that connection when I started this post.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Young Adult Fiction
My YA literature course ended six months ago, but I'm still reading a lot of YA fiction. Good stories are good stories and getting hung-up on labels is stupid. However, I realize that lots of people feel that YA books are somehow less because they are marketed to young adults (as discussed in that BBC News clip I linked to last week). If you have yet to embrace the joys of YA fiction, I highly recommend you read Chuck Wendig's blog post: 25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction (NSFW).
I'd never heard of Wendig before a link to that post showed up on my Twitter feed (don't remember who tweeted it, though), but I've enjoyed the little bit of his blog I've read so far (and not just because the post before the YA one argued for a female Doctor, which would be awesome). I realize that the post is aimed at authors, but he talks about the importance of reading YA fiction if one wishes to write for that audience.
I'd never heard of Wendig before a link to that post showed up on my Twitter feed (don't remember who tweeted it, though), but I've enjoyed the little bit of his blog I've read so far (and not just because the post before the YA one argued for a female Doctor, which would be awesome). I realize that the post is aimed at authors, but he talks about the importance of reading YA fiction if one wishes to write for that audience.
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