Review: Eight Days of Luke – Diana Wynne Jones

 

• Genre: Children’s Fantasy
• Published: 1975
• Pages: 203

I read this to take part in Jenny’s Books Diana Wynne Jones week from the first to the seventh of August. If you don’t know already, as I’m sure this author has cropped up a few times in earlier posts – she is one of my favourite authors. I won’t go on too much about how amazing I think she is and that I think everyone should just drop what you’re reading now and go and read Howl’s Moving Castle. I won’t do that. I’ll just let you know how I found this book.

It is the summer holidays and David Allard has to spend his summer with his awful relatives. He lives with Aunt Dot and Uncle Bernard and his Cousin Ronald and his wife Astrid. They’re all perfectly horrible, so he’s quite glum at the prospect of all those weeks being told to be grateful. Then Luke turns up and David’s summer holidays become a lot more fun – and extremely weird.

Typical of DWJ her books contain shoddy parenting and grumpy, sometimes evil gardeners. What more could you want? This was a fun, imaginative read that I had a great time reading. In typical Diana Wynne Jones fashion the fantasy and the magic just oozes out from around corners. She rarely spends much time explaining things because when you read one of her books you simply, just magically know and I can’t explain how.

I don’t want to say too much more about the book – it’s quite short and so I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. It probably isn’t my favourite of hers. One of her flaws is that she does tend to dash things out a little too quickly and this one didn’t seem to have the strength of characterisation that is so strong in the other books I have read. Luke felt a little generic and not as fleshed out as I’d have liked. It is however a good, fun, enjoyable read.

It loosely inspired Neil Gaiman’s American Gods in that he found out his fantastic idea had already been thought up by Diana Wynne Jones. I wonder if the Wallsey in this book is any relation to the town of Wall in Gaiman’s Stardust?

What I do love about her books is that I always feel that they never end and that they just carry on after the pages stop She always leaves you satisfied with the end, but she doesn’t let the characters or the world die, just because that part of the story is over. In that way, her stories are never ending. Diana Wynne Jones created a multi-dimensioned, multi-universed world in Chrestomanci – and in a way that is where all her books are based. In different worlds, different times, split by different histories but all inter-linked. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t need to spend a lot of time explaining the world, because if you read enough of her books, you’re already there.

If you are interested, you can also check out my Time of the Ghost review.

If you’d like to read more Diana Wynne Jones then I whole heartedly recommend Howl’s Moving Castle, Dogsbody and the Dalemark Quartet (starting with Cart and Cwidder), all of which are my favourite.

48 Hour Read-a-Thon

The 48-Hour Read-a-Thon is hosted by Wallace over at  Unputdownables.  

So I’m a bit late starting this I know but I thought I’d join in since I had been thinking about it (then forgot about it) and then saw the twitter chatter on #bookblogchat and well, I was planning on reading all weekend anyway! I already feel like I have been on a massive read-a-thon already what with Harry Potter, so why stop now?

Technically it started yesterday so so I think I can count The Housekeeper and The Professor as part of this read-a-thon! And so today I intend to read Trespass by Rose Tremain and then after that… hmm decisions decisions. I guess it depends if I can finish this book by today, maybe tomorrow. I am not the fastest reader on this planet however! And if I don’t make myself some breakfast very soon I’m not going to be fit for reading anything.

 

 

Read:   Reading: To-Read: ?

The Literary Lollipop’s 55 Quirky Questions

 

Check out The Literary Lollipop whose posted these 55 fun, quirky questions. Just a little way to get to know each other.

 

1. Favourite childhood book: Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones, since I was 9 years old.

2. What are you reading right now? The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa

3. What books do you have on request at the library? None at the moment as I have a big guilty stack of library books still waiting to be read that I ought to take back before I get more fines.

4. Bad book habit: Buying too many of the things.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? Ugh loads… Arabel’s Raven by Joan Aiken, Captain Pamphile by Alexandre Dumas, Watchmen by Alan Moore which I feel guilty about. Uhm and a load more but can’t remember now.

6. Do you have an e-reader? No way. Not the way things are. We should stand up and support publishers and authors by NOT getting an E-Reader. I don’t want to give up print books.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? One book at a time. I like to give each book my full attention.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? Not really, but they’ve changed since joining sites like Goodreads. My reading’s become a lot more active.

9.Least favourite book you read this year: Hmm, possibly Stardust by Neil Gaiman, but i still enjoyed it somewhat. I haven’t read a stinker this year.

10. Favourite book I’ve read this year: Any Human Heart by William Boyd. Simply beautiful.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? I hate myself for this, but I don’t think always very often. I’m not sure. Hmm. I wouldn’t say I stick to one or two safe genes but I tend to stick with what I think I’ll like rather then read something I think I won’t. I rarely read non-fiction sadly.

12. What is your reading comfort zone? Not sure. A well written book? I don’t like post-modern literature or books with peculiar styles.

13. Can you read on the bus? I love reading on public transport. I’m tempted to just get a day ticket for the county and just read on the bus going all over.

14. Favourite place to read: In a cafe drinking a cuppa coffee.

15. What’s your policy on book lending? I don’t lend a book, I’ll give it. Saves the bother. If they don’t want it anymore they can give it away.

16. Do you dogear your books? NO!

17. Do you write notes in the margins of your books? No, wouldn’t mind doing so actually but I feel silly because who, other then myself am I writing it too and my handwriting is illegible so I’d never be able to read it later anyway.

18. Do you break/crack the spine of your books? Well, not on purpose but it happens. I’m not just going to sit there trying to read through a crack just in case a crease appears on the spine. Sometimes it depends on the book. Books from the US, I have noticed – their spines do not crease easily. UK editions though just about fall apart the moment you open the first page.

19. What is your favourite language to read? English seeing as reading in any other language would be impossible.

20. What makes you love a book? The characters mainly, I’ve got to love the characters. Without the characters there is nothing.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? Depends on the book and the person I’m recommending it to. If I read a book and find it ‘just ok’ but think someone I know might like it I’d still recommend it. I try not to recommend certain books to people if I don’t think it’ll be there thing. I do recommend some indiscriminately (I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Shogun by James Clavell) because they carried me away into a different world.

22. Favourite genre: Lately I’ve been really enjoying the historical fiction genre.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did): Non-fiction – on history, politics etc so I’m more worldly.

24. Favourite Biography: Samuel Pepys: An Unequal Self by Claire Tomalin. About the famoust 17th Century diarist who loved books, all sorts of culture, women, sex, politics…

25. Have you ever read a self-help book? (And, was it actually helpful?) No. I did try reading one once but it wasn’t very helpful.I’m afraid my brain just shuts off and thinks “you’re just a book filled with words" and I go read something else.

26. Favourite Cookbook: I don’t cook but I wish I did.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction): Hard. Not sure… probably my Harry Potter re-reads actually. I find HP so inspirational.

28. Favourite reading snack: tea and biscuits.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience: Uhm The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I don’t think I was ever destined to like it, but I was expecting something amazing and got nothing.

30. How often do you agree with the critics about about a book? Depends on the critic.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? Positive and Negative. They’re both the same, just different. There has to be balance and I review every book I read so if I read a dud I will review it and try to be fair. There are very few books I absolutely hate but if I read one any time soon, I’m not afraid to rip it to shreds. They’re just opinions. My opinion if I hate a book is merely my own I am not God, what I say doesn’t go it’s just how I feel about a book.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose? French for Alexandre Dumas, Russian for Dostoyevsky and Japanese for Murakami. Hmm. But to just pick one – I suppose Japanese actually.

33. Most intimidating book I’ve read: Argh, not sure. I guess Bleak House, my first Charles Dickens and really the biggest classic book I ever read. Before reading that I hadn’t really read many classics.

34. Most intimidating book I’m too nervous to begin: War and Peace by Tolstoy is probably a rather generic answer and besides I don’t even own it. Hmm… I guess David Copperfield by Dickens. I had a bad experience reading The Tale of Two Cities which I couldn’t even finish I thought it was that bad – so been reticent to dive into another one of his again, despite loving the ones I read previously.

35. Favourite Poet: Uhm, not sure. I don’t like poets on a whole, but I do like their poetry. This one is a favourite of mine:

Revenge - Luis Enriqu Mejia Godoy

My personal revenge will be your children's
right to schooling and to flowers.
My personal revenge will be this song bursting for you with no more fears.
My personal revenge will be to make you see
the goodness in my people's eyes,
implacable in combat always
generous and firm in victory.

My personal revenge will be to greet you
'Good morning!' in streets with no beggars,
when instead of locking you inside
they say, 'Don't look so sad.'
When you, the torturer,
daren't lift your head,
My personal revenge will be to give you
these hands you once ill-treated
with all their tenderness intact.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out from the library at any given time? Hmm 5 sometimes.

37. How often do you return books to the library unread? Usually most of them. :(

38. Favourite fictional character: Cassandra Mortmain, I Capture the Castle.

39. Favourite fictional villain: Severus Snape, harry Potter.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation: Depends what I’m in the mood for at the time I guess. Probably nothing too hard to pack.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading: Hmm, well I didn’t go entirely without reading at all but I only read about 30 books in 2 years once which is pitiful. I was at uni and just wasn’t reading reguarly. I kinda… I hate to say this – forgot I loved it so, filled my time up with something else.

42. Name a book you could/would not finish: The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I hate metaphors.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? People who play their MP3 players SO EFFING LOUD I can hear them from the back of the bus when they’re sitting at the front. Every little noise. TURN IT THE EFF DOWN YOU SELFISH LITTLE ZOMBIE. *breathes deeply*

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel: Oh, soo many. Uhm. I Capture the Castle made a really good film but I’m not sure if it is my favourite. It is one of the best I have seen though.Oh and Atonement.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation: Many of the Harry Potters. Some of the changes just didn’t make sense. I enjoyed the 6th movie but was pissed off by the fact they blew up The Burrow. What was the point in that? I understand cutting things out, but having to cut things out and then replacing them with something nonsensical like that, eh well! And there is so much they haven’t covered. Has Snape’s story ever been properly explained?

46. Most money I’ve ever spent in a bookstore at one time: coughcoughcoughcoughcoughcoughonecoughcoughcoughcoughcoughcoughhundredcoughcoughcoughcoughpoundcoughcoughcough

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? I don’t skim the writing really, I do have a quick check through to see if I fancy reading that kinda book at the moment if that counts.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through? When, for whatever reading I get bored and my brain stops reading the words on the page. If I have to read the same page more then three times and it isn’t going in then I stop. I don’t mean, if I can’t understand it, but that it’s just too boring or pointless. If I don’t see the point in torturing myself and I find myself losing all interest in plot or characters.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized? Mine are stuffed, wedged and hammered into a bookcase. I did sort it into genre categories so for a good part I can find classics in one corner, crime in another but as I’ve got them all out so I could get to something at the back (3 rows of books per shelf) then they’ve all got a bit higglety pigglty now.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once they’ve been read? Depends. I like giving books away because I like the idea of sharing a book. Nowadays I try to only keep the books I think I’ll read them again, or if they’re a particularly pretty copy. Most crimes I usually give away as they’re quick disposable reads. Most of them are also second hand ones, those that I own.

51. Are there any books that you’ve been avoiding? War and Peace. So long, so long…

52. Name a book that made you angry: The Lovely Bones. Crap.

53. A book I didn’t expect to like but did: Uhm. Shogun by James Clavell and I ended up adoring it.

54. A book I expected to like but didn’t: The Tale of Two Cities. I didn’t think Dickens would fail me.

55. Favourite guilt-free guilty pleasure reading: Uhm not sure. I always read guilt-free.

Character Connection: Four Men, Harry Potter Edition

Character Connection is hosted by Jen at The Introverted Reader every Thursday.

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too!

 

(Massive Series Spoilers Ahead!)

This character connection is going to be a bit different because it isn’t about one person. It is about four people from the books of Harry Potter. They are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort, otherwise known as Tom Riddle, Severus Snape and Harry Potter.  

Each one of these characters represents one of Rowling’s most prevalent themes: that of choice and the consequences and responsibilities that come with it. She does not condemn people for making the wrong choice, because that is part of life and no one person can be perfect. There are consequences, but just because you chose the wrong way does not mean that you cannot turn back and make the better choice later on. Each one of these characters conveys part of that message.

These four men all entered Hogwarts as outsiders, they shared similarities in personal experience and yet they all turned out completely different.

Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore is first introduced as a wise, grandfatherly wizard. He is the greatest wizard alive and the only person that Voldemort fears. He is headmaster of Hogwarts and has always been relied upon to have the answer to everything. He is always so calm and so caring, so loving and compassionate. For six books he comes across as just that – a figurehead of wisdom and trust. No one bothered to question him, as Voldemort was evil, Dumbledore was good. This of course is never the case – in book seven the truth about Dumbedore’s past reveals him as someone not so perfect as everyone thought. What makes a person that they are today? What drives them to act as they do? No one is simply born good or bad, it is down to their upbringing and their choices.

In the seventh book we are shown a different side to Dumbledore, one we don’t want to know about and don’t want to accept. As a young man he was carried away with his own greatness, he was arrogant perhaps and seeking glory. Yet he had a troubled past. His sister Arianna had been abused by muggle children and her magical powers turned in against herself. His father was sent to Azkaban for killing muggles and his mother was left alone to care for his mentally damaged sister whilst he and his brother went to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore entertained ideas of wizard rule over muggles – his wild ideas were not so dissimilar from Voldemort’s only that they were born more from the idea of creating a great society where wizards didn’t have to be in hiding – rather then the wish to wipe muggles out completely and rule supreme. When his sister died in a tragic accident involving a fight between Dumbledore, his once old friend Grimdelwald and his younger brother – all his big dreams and wild ideas came to an end. He spent the rest of his life fighting against what he almost became and never recovering from the feelings of guilt and regret. He sort to redeem himself.

Dumbledore’s weakness was for power, not unlike Voldemort, but he recognised this weakness and chose not to take it when offered. He became a teacher and then Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Dumbledore, for all his greatness seemed to have no one close to him. His brother would not forgive him for what happened and though he had the respect of many, he never had anyone who was really close to him. Even Harry whom of them all he was possibly the closest to – but the reasons for that were not born out of paternal concern. Harry Potter was the key to defeating Voldemort and though Dumbledore came to love Harry as a person, he never forgot the greater purpose he needed him for. The only other person perhaps – was Severus Snape although again, out of necessity.

Tom Riddle, otherwise known as, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-know-who, the Dark Lord or Lord Voldemort

Tom Riddle’s existence is a sad story. His mother was the poor, abused daughter of Marvolo Gaunt who ran away with a muggle she entranced with a love potion who would never love her. She gave birth to Tom Riddle in a muggle orphanage and died, leaving him unhappy and alone.

Personally, I think Voldemort’s story is much more simple and not so much about choice. He was a psychopath and his choices were as much genetic as they were personal. Maybe he’d have been different if he had grown up in a loving family, or at least a proper home. Harry Potter grew up under not so different circumstances – and though he hated the Dursley’s, the hate never became malignant.

Voldemort, like Dumbledore was a magical genius and also like Dumbledore, he entertained ideas of a wizard rule, but he took his ideas much further then beyond paper – he started putting them into action when he was a teenager – developing a following and murdering his remaining family. Voldemort always saw himself as different, special and above everyone. The thing he feared most was death and so he went to extreme lengths to prevent it, by creating Horcruxes.

Voldemort had no friends, he did not want any friends – he wanted only to be at the centre of greatness. He made many terrible choices and he never learnt remorse and never wanted to know love. Dumbledore never trusted him, but he gave him the opportunity to turn back and choose a different path.

The only time he seemed to express regret, quite ironically, was when he killed Snape. It wasn’t remorse, nor really regret I suspect – more of an inconvenience of losing a good soldier.

Severus Snape

Perhaps the most complex and fascinating character I have ever read. From the moment he entered the page, Snape became a character you were not likely to forget. He is a nasty, miserable, small-minded man who allowed past prejudices and grudges to turn him into a bitter man full of anger and hate. There is no real justification for his behaviour throughout the books, although it might have been harder to do his job had he acted in a friendly manner towards Harry Potter.

Snape is, despite all this, my favourite character in the series. I cannot help but like him, despite his many faults. I do not think I would like him were I to actually meet him or a person like him in person – but as a character I do like him. He is ambiguous from the very beginning – one moment trying to get Harry expelled and the next trying to save his life.

He is a rather tragic character and I can’t help but feel for him. He obviously had a rather difficult upbringing with a violent muggle father, growing up in poverty in a poor, deprived neighbourhood. It is perhaps understandable that as a child, he grew up hating his father the muggle, and dreaming of a time when he could escape to Hogwarts. His mother was from Slytherin and so that is where he was probably conditioned to to think he should go.

He was socially awkward, skinny, poor and weird. He first met Lily as a child, before Hogwarts although his first encounter went wrong and he was left feeling bitterly disappointed. I think this was a common trait in Snape’s life. He was a lonely child and Lily was his first friend and of her he was possessive, hating anyone who came between them. Lily became his only true friend.

Snape was not a confident person, he had many insecurities and lacked self esteem. He bottled up grudges and stored them close to his heart, never relinquishing them throughout his life. Snape lacked confidence and self esteem – he probably felt worthless and unable to see himself as just himself. He had to find a bigger stronger power – he aspired to become a death eater. He never admitted to Lily that he loved her – he could not see that he, himself on his own could be attractive. He was too afraid of failure and of rejection and grew infuriatingly jealous of the more popular, attractive people, especially that of James Potter and Sirius Black. He knew James fancied Lily and he wrongly perceived him as a threat. He was never able to rise above his bullies and could never stand up for himself properly. When angry he loses control and become incoherent, in the end his lack of confidence in himself causes him to sink to low standards – cursing and hexing rather then being able to come back with a smart remark.

Had he chosen to listen to Lily and hear what she wanted – he might have chosen to give up his fascination with the dark arts, stand up to his bullies and have become a better person. Rowling said in an interview, post-Deathly Hallows that Lily loved Severus as a friend and might have come to love him romantically. But she didn’t – because Snape could not separate himself from his fears and he broke her last straw by calling her a Mudblood because his pride had been too broken.

I’m not sure what Snape would be to love – he would have been possessive and selfish. Even when he turned against Voldemort and told Dumbledore what he had done, he did not think that James or Harry’s lives were worth saving if only Lily could survive. After what must have been about four years as a Death Eater he probably did some quite unforgiveable things. I doubt he was ever happy – his loss of Lily, the only tie he had to becoming a decent person cast him off into that dark world. I think there must have been something good in him though for Lily to have been friends with him for so long. She must have seen that light in him.

He was the victim of bullying as a child and yet he ended up becoming the bully. If he had been born with confidence perhaps he would have been the bully to begin with – who knows, some people are like that – they learn to behave from the examples they have been given. It is unfair to lumber the child with all the responsibility of becoming a good person. Changing the way you think and feel isn’t easily done. However, Snape had the chance – Lily gave it to him, but he turned her away.

I suppose though, that acting as a double-agent and having to lie to Voldemort – he could not have changed too much. He would need to maintain close contacts with the Malfoy’s and treating Harry Potter with any kind of kindness probably wouldn’t go down well with Voldemort. Maybe the trick to becoming good at occulemency is to be as miserable as possible. The only time Harry managed it was when he was feeling the loss of Dobby.

Dumbledore forgave Snape because he had chosen the wrong path too – perhaps had his sister not been killed he would have gone down a different past. He blamed himself for providing Grindelwald with ideas that he put into motion. Dumbledore knew the influence of guilt and regret. There is no one that hates Snape more then himself.

Afterwards, when he changed sides, I think he came to redeem himself. In the chapter ‘The Prince’s Tale’ when Harry visits Snape’s memories – Snape said that lately the only people who died were the ones he could not save. Snape would never become a nice person, he would forever be a miserable git. Some things after so long I guess, you just cannot change. He bottles all his feelings up like a potion, and stores them alone near his heart, never letting them out unless it is in a fit of rage or jealously. Yet, from the moment he realised his gravest of mistakes – he worked closely with Dumbledore to protect Harry Potter and defeat Voldemort. He was indeed a very brave man and also, incredibly loyal.

Harry Potter

And finally, the forth generation. An orphan after his parents were killed by Voldemort and brought up by his Aunt and Uncle who treat him so badly I wonder why he never phoned Child Line. Harry is very much like Snape in that he was brought up in an unloving family and suffered many the same kind of humiliations and feelings of loneliness. Unlike Snape however, he didn’t lack confidence or self esteem and he could stand up for himself without losing control.

At a very young age, Harry Potter made an important choice. He chose to enter Gryffindor rather than Slytherin. However, had he not met Ron Weasly at the King’s Cross maybe his life would have gone in a slightly different direction, who knows.

Also, unlike Dumbledore, Voldemort and Snape Harry developed some very close friendships, especially with Ron and Hermoine and these are what kept him strong – and probably the reason why he’s alive. He never became over enamoured with his fame or powers, as Dumbledore and Voldemort did and he chose a different path then Snape, not allowing his past to effect his future.

Harry Potter was surrounded by love. Love from his parents who died for him, love from his friends who would fight beside him and would have died for him. Love from Dumbledore. Even in a way – Snape’s love also influencing his life. It all sound rather sappy, but Rowling's message strongly promotes the idea of love and friendship being the strongest qualities that a person can hold. Her message is etched into each of these four characters, but the message is subtle and doesn’t patronise or preach.

These four men are all linked with each other and together – Dumbledore and Voldemort, Snape and Harry. They are the polar opposites of each other and yet they are all the same. Harry Potter is the youngest – and the product of the other’s life’s learnings, successes and failures. He is I think what they could have all become had they had the right friends and made the right choices.

Dumbledore and Snape both made grave mistakes in their earlier lives which resulted in a death or deaths of people they loved and many others. Both of them redeemed themselves. Voldemort never felt remorse despite being given the opportunity. Harry Potter felt guilty for everyone who died for him and felt remorse for every single one – well apart from the Death Eaters perhaps.

Each of these four men represent an important journey in the Harry Potter series and an important moral story that carries through each book until the very end.

 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Series spoilers)

 

"We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." – Sirius Black

 

 

This has always been one of my favourites of the Harry Potter series, along with the Prisoner of Azkaban – one introducing Sirius and the other killing him.

This time around though I found it a more difficult read. Harry spends much of his time stressed out, like all pubescent teenagers in their growing years. It’s been a while since I’ve felt that stressy and this book is jam packed with action and the raging hormones of boys. I never remembered the stress effecting me so much in previous years – maybe it is because I am becoming calmer, the further away I travel from my own teenage, angsty self.

Order of the Phoenix is simply an amazing book though – it is fraught with danger, tension and impending doom. For the whole 700 odd pages it keeps you on your toes throughout and then rips your heart out in several places.

My favourite part of this book is the bits about Snape. His character is further unravelled and I love seeing what made Snape the man who he is. More on that later. I like the fact that we are, along with Harry, forced to empathise with him and that Harry is made to realise that his father isn’t the knight in shining armour he imagined him to be. Snape is a rather sad character in that he feels like he’s been bottled and never grown up.

On my first few reads – Sirius’ death made me cry the most – but now it is not so much his death, but the lives of Neville’s parents that wrenches my hear. That kind of a life is by far, worse then death. Sirius at least went in a blaze of glory. Neville’s parents who sacrificed their sanity perhaps – remain living, their lives never resolved, never given that chance of happiness or peace that Sirius will have.

Harry’s grief at losing Sirius felt so real – the way Rowling describes it and how real she describes it makes me empathise so deeply with Harry – especially his terrible guilt at the end knowing that he could have prevented Sirius’ death just by speaking into the mirror, or listening to Hermoine. Without his panic though no one would have believed that Voldemort had returned, however I doubt that really makes it up for Harry.

When I first read the book I remember chucking the book on the floor in a fit of disbelief and rage. I guess it had to be expected and I had been expecting it – but still you hope in vain, don’t you? Even reading it through again, I hoped against hope (that somehow the text in my books had magically changed) that Sirius would be alive by the end of it.

I don’t think there are many books like Harry Potter that leave me feeling quite so emotionally drained. I’ve finished the series now, as I catch up on my reviews – and I have been so immersed in Harry Potter that just about every night I have dreamed about it. My waking moments have been ruled by when I can next open my Harry Potter book or thinking about something that has happened or I know to come.

Order of the Phoenix is one of the most exhausting books I have ever read. I love how it mingles with my thoughts and emotions, but it’s very tiring. I was quite glad to move onto the calmer, relatively peaceful Half Blood Prince.

The Big Fail

You know that uhm… book ban I was telling you all about and how I’d lasted five weeks and all that rubbish? I was probably in my seventh or so week which for me is actually not that bad. Admittedly I was getting a bit big for my boots, boasting I could go into a bookshop unscathed and that I wasn’t even really feeling the pangs.

I failed. I joined the book ban over at 25 Hour Books which meant I was supposed to give up books for the month of June and well… here I am. I fell off the wagon. I purchased books from Waterstones.

I shouldn’t have gone in, I know, I know. I am weak. I am stupid. I kidded myself that I could be strong, that I could cope being in a bookshop without buying. I’d done it before so why not now? I have no excuses really. Apart from the fact they were playing some truly atrocious music that made it hard to really look at a book. So I just bought them so I could look at them later. Had they not been playing that awful music, I would probably have spent a few minutes looking through the books and been satisfied with that. As I couldn’t concentrate for more then five seconds though and I couldn’t be satisfied by a brief perusal, I had to leave with four tucked under my arm.

The products of my failure:

Twenty Years After

The Vicomte De Bragelonne

Louise De La Valliere

by Alexandre Dumas

 

This completes my Three Musketeer collection – I already own The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask. I have been desiring these three for a long time and thought that once I get around to re-reading the Three Musketeers I would get these from the library… well when I saw them in the shop, in one of my favourite editions (Oxford World Classics) and all together… I couldn’t resist myself.

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  The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

This one realy isn’t my fault… it’s the Japanese Reading Challenge's fault for making me want to read more Japanese literature. Anyway, isn’t it just the most beautiful cover? It looks really good as well, I almost fell into reading it yesterday, but of course I have to finish reading Harry Potter first. It might be my next one… maybe.

 

 

I also received a book from Liz, over from Consumed by Books because she had heard of my recent obsession with anything Japanese.

 

 The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley

You can read Liz’s review here. I’m looking forward to reading this hopefully soon…

I’m becoming very excited about my TBR (which is now towering at 419, oops) seeing as I have been on a long break from it and I have been thinking hard about what I want to read next.

 

After Harry Potter I want to read a Diana Wynne Jones because Jenny’s Books is holding a Diana Wynne Jones week at the beginning of August, which I hope to be part of because I absolutely love this author, as you may already know going by the amount of times I’ve mentioned her in this blog.

 

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be reading – I hope I’ll have finished Harry Potter by then but I really would like to read another Diana Wynne Jones book. Maybe I will read The Dark Lord of Derkholm or Archer’s Goon or whatever takes my fancy. I have so many yet to read – I can’t bare to be finished with them all. 

 

 

And then I will probably read The Housekeeper and the Professor, as I mentioned earlier. I’m also in the mood for a bit of historical crime so I’m thinking of He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott.

After that I don’t know what I’ll be reading… I don’t really like planning too far ahead, even though I find myself doing that lately. I am a mood reader – I say I’m going to read one thing and it takes me until the year after to actually pick it up. So don’t be too surprised if you don’t see a review for any of these books for a long while yet.

As for my ban – well I’m back on it I guess… hopefully I can whittle the TBR down a bit before I have another moment’s weakness.

 

Music, Alan Rickman and Reading

I’ve been listening to the truly fantastic soundtrack to the Order of the Phoenix by Nicholas Hooper. This is Umbridge’s theme and it is absolutely perfect! It really captures all her fake, pink evil in that mockingly cheerful tune. Ugh! I hate her more then ever before, if that is even possible. I just want to rip up the pages she’s on with my own teeth!

I’ve also been in a very Alan Rickmanish mood (yes, I am a Snape-fan) and one of my favourite ever movies is Truly, Madly, Deeply staring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson. I truly recommend it. It’s about a woman who has lost her husband… and then he comes back to her as a ghost. Mainly though it is about grief.

So I’ve been listening to The Sun Ain’t Going to Shine Anymore a lot recently too – including the original by the Walker Brothers and the cover by Keane. I really love these scene in the movie though.