Days 24-25 of 30 day book challenge

Day 24: Your favorite series (I don't know why the post is creating too much space between paragraphs...it's annoying).


Easy. Harry Potter. Hands down. 


I don't really think I need to explain this one much more, you just have to read the rest of the book challenge blog posts to know I'm in love with the series. 


Day 25: The nerdiest book you’ve ever read.


Uh...?


Oh! I got it! The Origins of the Specious. Not species. The book is by Patricia O'Conner, and I thought it was pretty fascinating. It's all about the English language and how we use certain words and not others. She shoves the "rules" right out the door!

"She reveals why some of grammar’s best-known “rules” aren’t–and never were–rules at all. She explains how Brits and Yanks wound up speaking the same language so differently, and why British English isn’t necessarily purer."

Days 14-23 of 30 day book challenge

I know. I'm terrible. I haven't updated in over a week! But, here are all of the days I missed in very short chunks. Very short.

Day 14: A book you regret not having read sooner.

Jane Austen novels. Love 'em.

Day 15: A book you haven’t read, but is on your “will read” list.

Oh, this is a looooooooong list. I want to read the Hunger Games Series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, and The Help. There are a lot more on that list...I just don't have the time.

Day 16: A book you haven’t read and have no intention of ever reading.

Lord of the Rings. Ew. Too boring.

Day 17: A book you want to like, but can’t get into for whatever reason. Why can’t you get into it?

Reading Lolita in Tehran. It's been sitting on my book shelf for a ages, and I've tried reading it many times. I don't know why I can't seem to read it. I will get there eventually.

Day 18: A book you think is highly overrated.

"Classics." Not all, but most.

Day 19: A book you think is woefully underrated.

I don't really know. I don't really think this is underrated...it's just not as well know. Well, it might be an Oprah Book Club member. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I don't know how famous it is, but I looked over at my book shelf and it was the first one to come to mind.

Day 20: The environment you most enjoy reading in.

Anywhere that is cuddly. When it's raining. I would love to have a little reading nook by a window someday. With lots of pillows.

Day 21: The most disturbing book you’ve ever read.

The Jungle. Hands down. It's gross. And unnecessarily long.

Day 22: A book you once loved, but don’t anymore. What changed?

Um...none of them changed? I don't think there is a book I liked that I don't enjoy anymore.

Day 23: A book you once hated, but now like. What changed?

Believe it or not, I would not read Ella Enchanted when my mom brought it home the first time. I didn't think it sounded interesting, but then I gave it a chance. I'm so glad I did! :-)

Days 7-9 of 30 day book challenge

I wasn't keeping up with my challenge over the weekend. I was out of town, so here are all three days in one post.

 

Day 7: The worst book you’ve read in the last year.

I think I'm going to have to go with The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. I was so bored with this book. First of all, it is separated into 18 separate books within the one book (yes, 18). I'm a little lazy, so I got this description off of Wikipedia.

Tom Jones is a foundling discovered on the property of a very kind, wealthy landowner, Squire Allworthy, in Somerset in England's West Country. Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. He develops affection for his neighbour's daughter, Sophia Western. On one hand, their love reflects the romantic comedy genre that was popular in 18th-century Britain. However, Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary.

It wasn't that funny, interesting, and Tom was way too good for an actual person. It is so long my professor actually let us skip parts of the novel that weren't relevant to the overall plot! Never again...

 

Day 8: Your favorite quotes from books (in no particular order and there are many more than just this small list).

• “It does not do well to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” –Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” –Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• “Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be ‘follow the butterflies?’” –Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secrets
• "From the very beginning— from the first moment, I may almost say— of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry." –Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice 
• Provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all. –Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey
• ABRAHAM: "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" SAMPSON: "I do bite my thumb, sir." ABRAHAM: "Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" SAMPSON: [Aside to GREGORY] "Is the law of our side, if I say ay?" GREGORY: "No." SAMPSON: "No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir."  –Romeo and Juliet, Act I 

Day 9: Your favorite quotes about books.

• "A room without books is like a body without a soul." –Cicero
• "'Classic.' A book which people praise and don't read." –Mark Twain
• "Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book."
• Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one. –Augustine Birrell, Obiter Dicta, "Book Buying"
• Never judge a book by its movie. –J.W. Eagan
• Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. –Richard Steele, Tatler, 1710

Harry Potter: the end of an era

Well, I waited in line for 8 hours yesterday. Yes, I said eight. Compared to some people in line, this was nothing! And what did I wait in line for? Harry freakin' Potter, of course!

As the last movie of the Harry Potter series ever, I knew I had to be there at midnight to see it. I remember seeing the first movie way back in 2001. I was eleven years old, the same age as the kids playing the golden trio. After reading the first book in 1999, I didn't actually pick up the second one until after I saw the first movie. From then on, I was hooked.

I don't really want to get too sappy because anyone who reads this will probably think I am absolutely barmy (yeah, I pulled out barmy). But I was excited and very sad that it had to end. When the seventh book came out, I told myself that I still had movies to see. It wasn't really over. Well, now it really is. And the question on a lot of people's minds is, what do I do now?

It's a little sad to think that we have to ask that question. I mean, we will move on with our lives and be done with it. But I still thought it. Harry Potter was my childhood. I looked forward to every single one of those books and every movie. The books were what started me on reading. If you think about it, maybe I would have never been an English major if it weren't for those books. If I didn't enjoy reading and writing so much, I would have never picked this major, and HP was was kick started by drive for reading.

Okay, enough of that. On to the movie. If you don't want to be spoiled as to any of the actual details, I would stop reading now. Maybe come back later to see what I thought about it.

I waited in line with my friend Liz who is an avid Potter junkie which means she is very critical of the movies. If you are anything like that, you may not enjoy parts of it. They do deviate from the book in quite a few places. The overall meaning is basically the same, they just go about it in a different way. I'm not quite as critical; I don't mind the movies going slightly of course because it makes for a good movie.

Where I do get annoyed is when they leave information out that probably would have been very useful to explain to people that hadn't read the books. Liz told me last night that she thinks they dumb it down too much. And to a certain extent I would agree, particularly when Ollivander says, "Voldemort is after you Harry." Well no kidding. But, there are other times, they don't dumb it down enough and just skim over parts that were kind of needed.

This movie is the shortest of all of them which ticked me off a little. First of all, it's the last one! Go big or go home! I would have gladly sat through a three hour movie of awesomeness, but apparently the director wasn't having that. Secondly, with all of the action, the short movie just flies by. I wish they had slowed it down at the beginning, laid the scene, given the trio a concrete plan like in the book.

But, having said that. There really were some fantastic parts to the movie. SPOILERS!

The scene in which the battle begins, and the teachers protect the school was fantastic. You really could feel the finality in it all. When Voldemort kills Snape, I seriously felt bad for the guy. Now that's acting! Alan Rickman, you are the man! The scene literally was perfect. And just following his death, Snape's memories of the past with Lily and James Potter...wow. This sequence was nothing short of fantastic. The way the director integrated the kids within the sequence and intertwining it with more recent memories was a great way to connect the characters.

The other big scene that brought the whole thing home was when Harry went to face Voldemort, knowing that he had to die. It didn't happen quite the same way in the book, but it looked amazing. The castle in ruins, families crying over the deaths of loved ones, and all the while Harry is walking into the Forbidden Forest. Along with this scene is the one in which Harry opens the snitch that Dumbledore gave him in the first part. Inside is the resurrection stone that brings back people from the dead momentarily. I was crying, sniffling, and making a fool of myself. I always admired the way Rowling has Harry willingly die at the end. There is not a word to describe the bravery in that act, but Danielle Radcliffe did a great job as he was facing the end.

The ending battle scene between Voldemort and Harry is way longer in the movie, but we don't get that nice scene in which Harry calls out Tom Riddle.

“You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?”

“You dare -”

 “Yes, I dare,” said Harry. “I know things you don’t know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don’t. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?”

That was a little sad. In the book, the scene worked well, but it may have been too cheesy for the movie. What they did replace it with was ten minutes of Harry and Voldy going after it.

All in all, the end is the same. The wizarding world is saved, and I am left without any more movies or books. I'm giving it four out of five stars (maybe 4 1/2 after I see it again). You have to go into the movie understanding things will be different, and I think you will enjoy it more.

All is well.