Not surprisingly, there are folks at various bookstores around the country who are already standing in line for the seventh and final Harry Potter novel. Personally, I think this is kind of ridiculous. I know I’ve been as eager to find out how it ends as the next HP fanboy (or girl), but it’s never occurred to me that it might be a good idea to stand in line for hours ahead of time to lay my hands on a copy of the book. For one thing, I’ve got much better things to do with my time. For another, I think I can delay personal gratification long enough to walk in at some point after the book hits shelves and buy my own copy. Besides, it’s not like any of these bookstores haven’t anticipated this book’s release and won’t have more than enough copies on hand to meet the demand for it. Just seems kind of silly to be that darn impatient. It does say something about Rowling’s writing, though, that her fans are that eager to find out how it ends.
Tags: books, harry-potter, j.k.-rowling
The final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is set to be released on July 21st. This is music to my ears, especially considering that I wasn’t expecting it until next summer. Rowling says that two more characters will die in this one. You won’t find any predictions from here as to which ones, though. Rowling has been deliberately tight-lipped about it, refusing even to provide hints as to whether Harry himself will survive his trial with Voldemort. But the cast of characters she has created is broad, so there is hope yet that not only Harry, but Ron and Hermione, as well, may yet live to tell the tale.
And now we wait. The end is near. Who will die? And who will triumph?
Tags: books, fantasy, harry-potter, j.k.-rowling, magic, voldemort
Comingsoon.net has posted up 5 pictures from the upcoming fifth film in the Harry Potter series, due to hit theatres on July 13, 2007. I’ve been wondering how they were going to go about portraying the toad-like aspect of Dolores Umbridge. Turns out, they’re not even going to try, which is, to me, quite disappointing. It would have made her much easier to hate if they had been able to make her up to look short, squatty, and amphibian. Just one of the many departures from the book that I am sure HP fans the world over will have to deal with.
Oh, and Harry gets a haircut. It doesn’t really suit him.
Tags: dolores-umbridge, harry-potter, harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix, j.k.-rowling
I don’t get it. Why are some people so antagonistic toward adults who read, and enjoy, youth fiction? I’ve met a handful of such people, listened to their scorn, read their sarcasm as they condescend toward those of us who thrill toward some youth fiction authors. They can’t understand why aficionados of well-written prose would make such a big deal out of stories “written for kids.”
In my experience that’s because a lot of these people are not avid readers. They wouldn’t know a good book if it smacked them square in the face. Just because such books are written for kids does not mean that they are childish. What attracts me to authors like J.K. Rowling and Christopher Paolini is that their writing, while geared toward kids, doesn’t ‘talk down’ to kids, and thus becomes very enjoyable reading for adults, as well. This is aided by the fact that the writing is top-notch – the geographies of these new worlds are very detailed, the plots twisted and constantly surprising, the characters developed and believable. That, my friends, is what so attracts me to some authors of youth fiction. And because the books are so well-written and enjoyable, I don’t mind that their primary target audience is for someone ten years younger than I am. I simply have a good book in my hands that is engaging and entertaining – and I intend to continue enjoying good writing wherever it may be found.
Tags: christopher-paolini, fiction, j.k.-rowling, reading, youth-fiction
Now is the time that we must choose between what is right, and what is easy.
~Albus Dumbledore
This quote from the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a variation on a quote from the book itself, and it carries a valuable lesson that can be applied to the Christian walk (though that was almost certainly not Rowling’s intent). This statement by the Headmaster of Hogwarts begs the question, Why is ‘right’ so hard and evil so easy? And the answer, at least from a Christian perspective is simple—because evil appeals to our fallen and sinful nature. It has always been, and always will be, easier to go with the flow than against it. And when the flow goes the way of doing what is wrong, most of us are content to simply drift along with a lackadaisical disinterest.
Fortunately, God grants more grace through the person of His Son and the working of His Spirit. He gives light where there is none and opens the eyes of those who would believe. As such His children are then able to be light to a dark world on His behalf, standing against the tide, sometimes at great cost, to do what is right and just and holy in the eyes of a powerful, loving, and righteous God. It’s not always easy to do what is right, particularly when the allure of what is easy is oh-so-tempting. Yet, the most satisfying times are when the surge races past and we find that we are standing fast on the Rock, safe and sound when all others have given in to their own sinful whims. We’re not perfect, of course, but it is most rewarding when we find we have stood the test and faced the trials and come out the other side victorious.
Tags: albus-dumbledore, books, christianity, god, harry-potter, harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire, hogwarts, j.k.-rowling, movies
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
How do you condense a 734 page book into a 2.5-hour movie? The answer is that you don’t. Goblet was an exercise in thumbnail moviemaking. Each scene was little more than a visual sketch of each chapter in the book, jerking through the plot with all the grace of a wounded bird in flight. Each episode in the movie was clipped, transitions between abrupt. It was very obvious that the point was to get to the final graveyard scene, where more time and energy were spent on development and detail.
That said, I did enjoy the movie. It was interesting to see where the shortcuts were that made up for the lack of detail everywhere else. Character and relationship development were made more obvious, dropping subtlety in favor of the conspicuous to develop the storyline. The challenges were well-done, even if everything else was a bit shallow or gaudy. Most of the important parts of the story were brought out, and the things that were dropped or ignored were ultimately the bits that have no real effect on the final outcome of the story.
Tungsten T5 from Palm 
I recently purchased a Tungsten T5 from Palm. I probably wouldn’t have had I not received a bit of cash as a gift for the completion of my Master’s degree. Prior to owning the T5, my PDA had been the original Palm model—the M100, a monochromatic, 2 MB dinosaur that finally failed several months back. The upgrade from the M100 to the T5 was extreme, and I was exceptionally pleased the moment I got the battery charged and the device fired up.
The T5 has a color screen, optional Portrait or Landscape viewing, a new version of Graffiti®, and Documents To Go®. It plays mp3s and video, and you can create, carry, and move documents from your Palm to any PC with a USB port. The ability to add storage and functionality to your Palm via memory cards is another powerful feature.
The only problem I have had with my Palm is that Windows does not always recognize it when you plug into the USB port to perform a HotSync®. It has been very problematic, and as yet I still have no solution to the problem. But my T5 has been a workhorse already. Add the infrared keyboard, and I have the ability to write whatever whenever and wherever the urge strikes.
Empyrion I: The Search for Fierra
Stephen R. Lawhead’s Empyrion saga is science fiction with a Christian perspective. Orion Treet is sent on a mission to a colony world and, along with his companions, is quickly thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue. His mission requires him to seek out a lost colony of humans before the rigors of barren Empyrion can claim his life and those of his companions.
The Search for Fierra is the tale of a man on a journey, one that is as much spiritual as it is physical. His trek and transformation across the desert is symbolic of the rebirth of the Christian faith, and his discovery of a utopian culture of love is a glimpse of what the future could be for those who follow the Infinite Father. The story is strong, though perhaps a bit clichéd at times, and the characterizations are, for the most part, believable. Fierra is the first of two books and ends with a cliffhanger as Treet heads back to the cesspool of Dome to find a way to prevent the inevitable war that will destroy Fierra utterly. Treet, in essence, becomes a missionary of hope to a dark, dying land slowly being undone by its own selfishness and lack of vision.
Fierra is a good read—a little less than engaging at times, but the plot drives forward to the promise of an explosive confrontation with the leaders of Dome.
Tags: book-reviews, books, empyrion-i, harry-potter, harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire, j.k.-rowling, movie-reviews, movies, palm-pilot, Reviews, stephen-lawhead, Technology, tungsten-t5
