16 posts tagged “books”

I've re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I have frankly changed my original opinion of it. I'm happy that Harry's story ended happily, with his marriage and his family and all, but somehow J.K. Rowling's treatment of the end of it all seems a bit off. It seems hurried for one, and the writing isn't too clean. From a writer's point of view, I'd hate to think that J.K. sacrificed the quality of her writing under pressure to finish the book. :(

Then again, I'm just glad it's over.

Still, for those who want more of Harry, and those who feel that J.K. has left so many things unsaid, this one's for you.

J.K. Rowling goes Beyond the Epilogue

[info from various sources including MSNBC and USA Today]

J.K. Rowling has announced in new interviews with the Today show on NBC TV today (July 26) that the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was vague on purpose.

She said it was her desire for it to be "nebulous," something "poetic," and that she wanted the readers to feel as if they were looking at Platform 9 3/4 through the mist, unable to make out exactly who was there and who was not.

She admitted her original epilogue was "a lot more detailed," including the name of every child born to the Weasley clan in the past 19 years. For example, Victoire, who was snogging Teddy, Lupin and Tonks' son, is Bill and Fleur's eldest child.

"But it didn't work very well as a piece of writing," J.K. said. "It felt very much that I had crowbarred in every bit of information I could ... In a novel you have to resist the urge to tell everything."

But now that Book 7 is in our hands, J.K. no longer has to hold back any information about Harry Potter. With 14 fans crowded around her in Edinburgh Castle in Scotland earlier this week, J.K. has now told us the following exciting information:

Read more here

So there's going to be more. I would definitely like to learn more about what happened to everyone at the end.

Did you see the Harry Potter movie this weekend?  Are you going to read the new book?

Yes I saw it. Yes I will read the new book (provided I can get my hands on one hehehe). Too tired to expound on that. :D

Met up with Den and Erin yesterday to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We decided to get reservations to avoid the rush of lining up and grabbing seats. Erin's cousin Amon got the tickets for us, and we watched it with his parents.

The movie was ok. It wasn't as spectacular as the other movies, despite their deviation from the books. This is difficult for me to admit but I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I did the book. Sure I had my complaints on the book, as much as I had my gripes with the other movies, but at least with the first four, there was something in them that still held my attention and had me going, oh wow. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie was more like a "guide" of sorts to the book, even though almost throughout it I was "That wasn't how it went in the book." Still, it's to be expected, as the book was pretty long and I know how hard it is to adapt books into movies (memories of writing script during BC class, hay). And people will watch this movie because, hey, it's Harry Potter. It's a given that up until the last movie, it will be a hit.

If you haven't seen it and don't like spoilers, don't click this.

Yeah, well, I'll be seeing the next two movies too. And book 7 will be out on Saturday!

Other kwento
On the LRT2: Somewhere around the Anonas Station, a dog walked by me as the train door was just closing. It took me by surprise until I realized that it was one of those K9 forces dogs. His human walked by after and they stood in the disabled area in front of me.

Passing by MRT Shaw: There was a black cat sitting quite calmly at the end of the platform. Nobody was paying mind to it. Maybe because the didn't know it was there.

At Serendra, after watching HP:OotP: A man walked by with his pet dog (small, furry and funny looking thing). He was gesturing to someone behind him. A few seconds later, a woman dressed in her gimmick finest (short, flowy, cleavage baring dress with high strappy heels) walked by. She was holding in one hand her bag, and on the other a tissue paper with dog poop. Then she called out (I don't know if it was to the man or the dog), "Nakakawalang poise ka naman!" Ching and I held back our laughs until we crossed the street.

Also saw a guy wearing a black t-shirt with the drawing of those tree creatures in Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke". I want!!!

Heaven
Ching took me to Fully Booked along Bonifacio High Street. The moment I spied it from afar I was already giddy. Then I stepped in, took a deep whiff of the book perfumed atmosphere and decided I was in heaven. I probably looked like an idiot exclaiming over the stuff I saw (Moleskine! Notebooks! Sherrilyn Kenyon! Tons of manga and Neil Gaiman graphic novels! Philip Pullman! World music cds! I could go on). Richard Gutierrez and Georgina Wilson passed by but I barely looked at them and moved on to the young adult section.

I was half happy, half irritated when I told Ching that I didn't bring any money. The happy half was because I wasn't going on a spending spree. The irritated half was of the same reason. :p There was this kid who was telling his mom, "Can I buy seven books mom? Just seven, please?" I could've cheerfully bopped him. Just seven? Wait until you start working boy. You'll find that those "just seven" books will be hard for you to get. *sulk*

This fits me! Hehehe.

Yeah yeah. I'll be back, my books. Just you wait.

Oh, and my dad arrived from Zambales. Both he and his namesake got locked in the bathroom. I was the one who had to help the both of them get out. :D I hope it doesn't spell bad karma.

A very good friend just passed me an e-book copy of what is supposed to be the legit copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." I say "supposedly" because of course, it's hard to tell. Perhaps I may be able to tell the difference if I read it, but then, J.K. Rowling's writing style hasn't been that consistent as of the last three books. And with the abundance of good fan fiction writers and die hard Harry Potter fans, I won't be surprised if this copy I have is the infamous fanfic that has been making its rounds over the Internet.

Hoax Harry ending tricks thousands online
Potter's 'Deathly' secret

I've never been one to shy away from fan fictions. Being an anime fan, I've read my fair share and found that there are some that are quite well written. If indeed this so called Book Seven is a fan fiction, well, I've got to hand it to that person who has the time and the patience to write it.

But I think it'll suck big time if the fan fiction work would have a better story than the original :p

My friend A-chan posted a meme (or quiz) about "What Daemon are you?" and I found out that it was on the website for The Golden Compass movie!

I've read Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" a year or so ago. It's a rather interesting book that deals with science in a fantastic sort of way. Time travelling, warping, death and alternative worlds exist. Plus, you get a cool daemon... well, in Lyra's world anyway.

Lyra is the main character of the series, and she lives in a world similar to our own. In my mind, it's a sort of modern Renaissance, or kind of like a world you'd encounter in a CLAMP manga: old fashioned, but high tech. As it is, Lyra lives in Oxford, England.

In her world, humans have a daemon. I suppose it can best be likened to a familiar. However, if my memory serves me right, a daemon is a person's soul, and is usually of the opposite gender. Daemons go through a growth period as well. When they're young, they can take on any animal form they (or their human) wish, but once they "grow up" or reach maturity, the form they decide on will be permanent.

Usually, the human adapts to his or her daemon. I remember there was a character in the book who's daemon chose to be a dolphin, and the man had to live near the sea. A human and a daemon can't stay apart for very long, as a daemon and human are part of each other. There was a part in the series where Lyra had to be apart from her daemon and it felt like she was being ripped apart.

I was really fascinated by the book and the worlds and things that come with it. And like I always do if a book captivates me, I draw a scene or the character that catches me the most. I think I did something about the promise Lyra and Will Parry have about meeting on a specific spot on a specific date, even though they were in different worlds. It was rather bittersweet, that's why I did a sketch. Now if only I can find it...

Anyway, here is my take on that quiz. Help me and my daemon decide on his final form. :)

When skimming a magazine (or book or newspaper) do you flip through the pages from front to back or back to front?
Submitted by enSue.

Back to front. I thought at first it had something to do with my reading manga habits, but I realized that I really read magazines back to front.

Books, I read from the start. No sense reading it the other way around because really won't make sense. I'd say Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" would be an exception, because I started reading the last chapter, but I didn't understand it, so I started from Chapter one.

Book: Show us a book you started reading but never finished.

Around lunch yesterday I met up with Toni at G4. She graciously went with me to the second day of the Read or Die Convention at the Intercontinental Hotel, Makati. After lunch we went to the hotel, got our tickets & selves stamped and went to pre-reg for the forums. I wanted to attend the Ang INK and Spec Lit, but the latter was full (which I wonder what was the purpose of my emailing the RodCon Sec for priority seating. Oh well ^_^). We ended up going to the forum on Philippine Romance novels.

Yes, that. I'll have to admit that I'm part of the regiment who does not read Pinoy romance novels on the belief that it's 1) baduy, 2) rip-offs/fan fiction of more popular shows/stories/telenovelas/movies/etc. (apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought this) But I was looking at it as a potential outlet for writing (now, how hypocritical is that?), as Den and I were talking about sometime before. Unfortunately, the speaker was late, so Toni and I went around the booths first.

I thought I would be spending alot for books, as there was so much of them. But the first book I got was free. While going around, there was a trivia quiz going on. Quite a few of the questions I knew the answers to, but other people beat me to it. The question I got was, "In Diana Wynn Jones' book "Howl's Moving Castle," what is Calcifer's original form?" I took a hunch and said, "Star." Yay! I got it right, and I choose the 911 Report from the book pile (going to give it to my grandfather).

We went around again, checking out more booths. I also saw Presea's submissions for the Portrait of the Filipino as a Reader contest (but voting was closed by then, wah). Then someone (a RodCon marshall, I think) told us that the speaker for the romance forum arrived. Having nothing else to do, we went. It was rather interesting, really, and I saw that there were alot of people who did read Philippine Romance. I enjoyed listening to the speaker (she's actually quite nice and fun) and admire her talent (she's been in the industry for three decades, and used to be a comic writer for publications such as Liwayway). If we had more time I'll probably ask more about the comic side of her experience.

The Ang INK forum started directly after that. I really want to join them, but I think I need more practice if I'm going to be serious about it. It really looks like a fun organization, plus it's a good way to get exposed plus develop skills. After the talk, I'm more convinced that I'll really be sticking to the art field.

Toni & I went back to Glorietta since she needed to withraw (and we didn't know if there was an ATM in the hotel). Afterwards we pigged out on the desserts at the hotel and went to the Comic Forum held by Gerry Alanguilan, Elbert Or, Jonas Diego and Carlo Vergara. I've met Jonas before, and I almost didn't recognize him with his short hair! The forum stretched for about two hours but it was good. Mostly the panelists shared their experiences on their work on comics, how they overcame obstacles and how they got to where they are now.

Afterwards, we went back to the booths, and I got Isabelle Allende's Kingdom of the Golden Dragon. The quiz was still underway too. I had passed on some of the questions because I couldn't really recall the answer though I know it's buried somewhere in my head. Anyway, the question I got was, "In Philippine Literature, who is the most popular insane woman character?" What's funny is everyone there said "Sisa" in a chorus, but no one went near the mic to answer the question, not even the ones who were one step away from it. So I strode over, said the answer and picked a book again. ^_^

We waited for the bands to play: Swizzy, Up Dharma Down and Radioactive Sago Project. I wanted to talk to Armi and say hi (but she was mobbed by alot of people so I looked for Pards instead. I didn't see Pards until the minute before they went onstage. Afterwards, I approached him (everyone else ran to Lourd first ehehe) and had a very interesting conversation.

Me: Pards
Pards: (He looks at me with a polite smile) O?
Me: Kilala mo pa ako?
Pards: (Still has a blank look on his face, but after a few seconds) Parang namumukaan kita. (thinks) Ikaw yung kasama ko dati...
Me: Clue. Baguio, your (ex) girlfriend.
Pards: Ikaw yung nagbigay sa akin ng drawing!
Me: Ayun, naalala niya. Sige, ano pangalan ko?
Pards: Ah, Mitch?
Me: Sino si Mitch? O sige, si Jolly, si Ritchell, si Tinay...
Pards: Shit... oo.
Me: Hahaha, di mo maalala name ko!
Pards: Sige na sino ka na ulit?
Me: Si Kat
Pards: Ah oo! Asa akin pa yung drawing.

Which flattered me to no limits. It was something I did really quickly, and it was mostly just to annoy him because we used to tease him of having bug eyes. ^_^ We talked a bit about people we know. I asked him about my roomie (di na sila and she's married to someone else), he asked about the other people (including my ex and Jolly's ex) and in between we were interrupted by people who asked for his autograph. Afterwards I said goodbye and left. Hopefully I can get to talk to him again and introduce him to my brother (para mag usap sila about music hehe).

I really enjoyed RodCon, even though I only got to go on the second day (work, work, work). I like this con because 1) it's about books, 2) I wasn't bored, 3) free swag (yeah, who doesn't like them?), 4) got to listen to interesting people talk about interesting topics, 5) reconnected with an old friend. RodCon is also (to me) very well organized. Plus, it's not so crowded that you don't feel overwhelmed (I suppose the future cons will have more attendees through word of mouth na rin), and you get to feel that the people were there because they really loved books, unlike in anime cons nowadays, where half of the attendees were there kasi gusto nila maki-uso (yeah, I miss the old days haha). It was also good to see families attending, with parents encouraging their kids to get good books and even talking about it. I was quite impressed by the kids who read out books. At that age I was happy with just reading it and running the scenes in my head.

I'm looking forward to the next RodCon. Congratulations to the organizers!

P.S. If anyone who went reads this has pictures (especially of the forums I mentioned here, and the band performances, please leave a comment if it's ok for me to get copies of them. Will credit! Thanks!

Final 'Harry Potter' title announced

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
42 minutes ago

NEW YORK - We now have a title for Harry Potter VII. But if you want to find out for yourself, visit J.K. Rowling's Web site and play a little game of hangman.

Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc., released a brief statement Thursday announcing the name of the world's most anticipated children's book, the finale to her phenomenally popular fantasy series.

No publication date or other details were offered. Rowling is still working on the book, she explained on her Web site in an entry posted early Thursday.

"I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more," she wrote. "I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will.)"

Meanwhile, she set up a test for her Potter fans.

If you go to jkrowling.com, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.

In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. They click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.

Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman.

Or you can just take Scholastic's word for it: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Found this on PEx. Now all I have to do is wait for it to come out. Yay! 2007 is really going to be a good year!

Heading over to J.K. Rowling's official website to try and solve the puzzle for myself... even if I already know.