I'm still mulling over exactly what I want to say about HP7, but in the meantime, I followed this tutorial to do this... (don't worry, no spoilers here)
Hopefully, you just clicked on the read more link and it took you to the post's unique page, which is where you are now. I figure I can use this to post potential spoilers and then it will be up to you whether you read them.
It seems to work, yay.
Monday, 23 July 2007
testing...
Sunday, 22 July 2007
finished!!!
I've finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it was great!
It took me 14 hours, almost to the minute, from start to finish.
I'll probably be back tomorrow when I've had time to gather my thoughts and actually had some sleep to say more.
Friday, 20 July 2007
Two days before the end
Don't worry, no spoilers here.
In just 32 hours we will be standing with a (hopefully not too large) group of people waiting to get our hands on a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We are aware that we could travel the short distance into the centre of London and attend a massive party that will probably be quite cool, but instead we have decided to get it from the local bookshop and get back home as quickly as possible. The reason for this is that our primary concern is reading the book and finding out what happens without any key plot points being spoiled for us. The likelihood of us making it home from the city without being spoiled seems ridiculously slim, especially given that I have just found out that even the New York Times is not above acquiring a copy and posting a review full of spoilers. No doubt there will be people who will think it's highly amusing to find ways of spoiling it for people (such as the morons who drove past bookshops shouting out "_____________ dies" as book 6 was released).
Part of the problem with being caught up in the hype that is Harry Potter is that not all fans are created equal. To quote Graeme, in a conversation we had just this morning, "some people are just followers - not real fans... they are just caught up with the 'in' thing, ie. Harry Potter - and they don't really enjoy the books like true fans. because any real fan will want to know next to nothing about the book." As much as Harry Potter has been held responsible for encouraging children to read, the films and other related merchandise seem to have been responsible for teaching kids to not bother with the book, because you can just watch the movie. The number of students I have spoken with about Harry Potter is large. The number of them with whom I can actually discuss theories about book 7 is tiny. When they find out I'm a fan, they claim they are too, so I ask them about stuff only to find out they've never actually read the books and are basing all their information and adoration on the movies.
In fact, I'm not sure how many people out there are fans in the same way as I am. I'm not interested in fanfiction, I don't obsess over characters as if they were real people that I had some chance of marrying or sleeping with, I don't haunt Harry Potter fan communities and pretend I attend Hogwarts, I see the movies purely as one person's (or group of people's) interpretation of the book condensed into two and a half hours rather than something to be taken as additional information for the story and as much as I love the story and the characters my future happiness does not rest on the outcome of book 7. Sure, I've made a few crafty things inspired by HP, but they generally come out of my head and the way I've imagined the things described, rather than a book or website that is trying to make money by jumping on the HP bandwagon.
I guess its that I'm just a fan of JK Rowling and her books. I would be enjoying the books and anticipating the release of the next one just as much, even if there weren't hundreds of websites dedicated to it. I'd much rather discuss theories and interpretations with my family and friends than try to gain some sort of 'street-cred' by spending all my time on HP forums. I'm sure I will continue to re-read the series, even after it stops being "cool".
And why do I love the books so much? Because the characters feel real, the story makes me laugh and cry and scream and think. Because no matter what those "literary critics" say, they are well-written and captivating and even on a 5th reading I find it hard to put any of the books down. Because I think the story says a lot about humanity and some aspects of society without being preachy. And because it's just damn enjoyable.
I am excited about the release of the 7th and final book. I think it is an awesome thing to have experienced the phenomenon of Harry Potter - the eager anticipation of the next book, getting up early/staying up late to get the book the minute it is released, the mad sleepless day(s) spent reading it as fast as possible to find out what happens, the discussion of what happened and what it means for the next book, the re-read looking for more clues, the growing excitement as JK Rowling announces where she's up to in writing the next one, and so on. I admit I'm a little sad that it is coming to an end - I think it's about 7 years since I read the first one and that's a long time to be emotionally involved with a bunch of characters - but I am SOOOO looking forward to Harry kicking Voldemort's butt once and for all (and no, that's not a spoiler, just my assumption about what will happen).
OK, back to my spoiler-free, internet avoiding day.
Happy Reading!
Thursday, 19 July 2007
The end is near
I wanted to write a post about Harry Potter and what it means to be living through the phenomenon before the 7th and final book is released this weekend, but I woke up this morning with a killer headache that sent me back to bed for several hours and I'm still not feeling too hot (this is pretty much what happens to me every time a school term/year ends and my body stops using stress to hold off disease). I may still write it and come back to post it tomorrow, but I'm not too sure...
See, I plan to have a self-imposed internet ban for the next few days - it has been confirmed that some people have already got their hands on a copy of the book and I really don't want anything to be spoiled before I get a chance to read it on Saturday. Besides that, I want to make some little bits and pieces, like finishing a wand and making some more SPEW badges, by Friday night, so not having my computer to distract me will be handy. So I won't be around, to write here (although I've been slack about that anyway), to read your blogs, I may even avoid email until I've finished the book, which I'm expecting to probably be Sunday. My internet presence will be virtually non-existent until then, but I will be back.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Is it really only 5.30pm?
I guess we've just had a much more productive Saturday than we have in a while... We went out for breakfast, did some shopping, came home and hung out some washing, went back out to watch the Acton Carnival parade then into the park to check out the actual carnival, walked along Acton High Street to get some cash and do some 99p store shopping and came home. We've been back home for about 2 hours and in that time I've sorted out a bunch of photos and even uploaded some to flickr FROM TODAY! It's ages since I've uploaded photos the day I took them, so go check them out by clicking on this one of a golden old-school bus.
Saturday, 14 July 2007
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
I'm not going to post any spoilers, so I'll just say:
- We saw it last night (Friday 13th :D)
- It was the best Harry Potter movie so far by a long shot, I reckon
- Sure there were bits that they changed/deleted from the book, but they did it in such a way and kept the story moving fast enough that the changes didn't annoy me as much as when I saw the others for the first time.
- I'm glad that the same people are making movie 6
- It made me even more desperate to get my hands on book 7
Thursday, 12 July 2007
My husband is old...
...ok, so he's only a month and a week older than I am, but for 38 days, starting today (sometime - I don't know what time of day he was born and that would be Australian time anyway, so who knows), he is 27 and I am still 26. 27 does seem pretty damn grown-up right now, especially when you consider that we were both 17 when we started going out - scary. Oh well, we're both still kids at heart :)
Monday, 9 July 2007
Happy July
I've been slack and this is my first post this month. I can't believe 2007 is half way over...
Anyway, we went to Lisbon last weekend and had a great time (excepting the last few hours when we spent way too much time in the airport). You can read about it here, if you like. The rest of the week was quite uneventful - working, paying too much money to get the car fixed, etc.
Yesterday we went into Hyde Park to see some of the Tour de France.
It was very crowded and hard to see much. And really, there wasn't much to see anyway, once you'd seen one little group go by - police bike followed by cyclist followed by team car carrying spare bikes, sometimes accompanied by a brave guy on the back of a motorbike with a tv camera - you'd pretty much seen all that was going to happen for the whole day. We ended up on one of the big open areas watching the coverage on the big tv screen, which seemed kind of silly, but at least London was getting one of the first real warm, sunny days of the year, so it was nice to just soak up the sun for a bit.
On the way back to the bus, we saw a swan with a bunch of furry grey signets - they were so cute.
Last night we watched the first Harry Potter film. We were going to watch some special on itv about the fifth film, but after watching 5 minutes, it seemed it was going to spoil too much (it was showing a LOT of the scenes) so we decided to just watch the first film - we're going to watch all 4 this week before we see the fifth, just for fun :) Or maybe just to get our heads in the right space where we're not expecting it to be too close to the book, so we're not too disappointed. Read More......
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