Rereading Old Favourites - Harry Potter

When the first few Harry Potter books came out they weren't yet a big deal here (South Africa) and the only reason I knew of their existence was because my aunt from London had given the first two books to my little brother and sister. I thought the names sounded funny and I had no interest in reading them (after all, at the age of 13 I had far more superior taste in books!).

Then my first high school end-of-year exams came along and my English teacher used an exerpt from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" for the comprehension questions. From that moment, sitting in a classroom tense and anxious in the middle of an exam, I was HOOKED! 

I rushed home, found the first book on my sister's shelf, and started reading. For as long as it took me to read the first two (those were the only ones out at that time) that's how long I spent tucked away in my room, pretending to be diligently studying, the books propped open inside my school file so that my mother couldn't see them when she came in to check on how hard I was working...

I recently took "Harry Potter and the Philospoher's Stone" off my shelf and began rereading it. Eleven years later, I still love it! 

It is such an interesting experience going back to the beginning of a series, after having travelled with the characters for so long, watching them grow while you yourself grow, experiencing their hardships and their joys, laughing with them and crying with them, seeing them become whoever they're meant to be... (Anyone who's read and loved this series, you KNOW what I'm talking about!)

I lay on my bed reading Harry and Ron's first awkward meeting on the train to Hogwarts and I couldn't help but think to myself.... You guys have NO idea what's in store for you!!

Have you ever tried this?  

Pick a friend you've known for years and years. 

Can you remember the very first time you met that person? What you said, what they said, what you thought of them?

I find it fascinating to think of those first few moments... knowing everything that I know now about that person...

This says it all!

From despair.com

My No. 1 Distraction...

... just got worse!

Because I discovered BLOGFEST 2010!!

I will admit it here: my No. 1 Distraction is reading book blogs.

I mean, reading a new book is obviously the best, but second to that is reading about new books and what other people think of them. So most days, after I get home, I check my e-mail and then "quickly" check blogger to see if the book blogs I follow have been updated. I'm always desperate to know what my next fiction fix could be! The problem is, "quickly" checking isn't always "quick"...

So what is Blogfest 2010?

A Journey of Books can tell you...

"BlogFest is a massive carnival of giveaways with a great collection of participating blogs. Each blog has a giveaway and the idea is to hop from blog to blog, entering all the giveaways your little heart desires. Hopefully you might even come across a few blogs you might want to bookmark and continue visiting."

Sounds FABULOUS!! There are over 200 book blogs participating (now how many book-related giveaways is that...) and you can find the list here.

Oh yes, and Book Blogger Appreciation Week is almost here :-)

Book Review: Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

This book has been on my reading list for a number of months now.

I wish I hadn't waited so long!

First line: In these dungeons the darkness was complete, but Katsa had a map in her mind.

In the land Katsa lives in there are certain people who are Graced with special skills. Katsa was born with a Grace that set her apart at an early age as a weapon for the king to use - for hers is a killing Grace. She can kill a man with her bare hands and is faster and more skilled at combat than anyone she has ever come across - until she meets Prince Po.

There are many things Katsa never expected: she never expected that she and Po could become good friends, she never expected to discover something new about the Grace she always thought she understood, and she never expected that she might meet a threat one day that she couldn't protect herself from...


The gender roles in this story are somewhat reversed: Katsa can kick some serious butt while hardly breaking a sweat, and Po, unlike many men, is completely unthreatened by this! It was refreshing to read a book with such a strong, independent and self-sufficient heroine.

Judging books by their covers

Books are often released with different covers in different places (or at different times). You might buy one and then see the same book a year later and think, "Wow, that cover is so much cooler." 

I generally tend to prefer covers that have some kind of abstract picture on them, rather than covers that show actual, real people. Although I don't really mind real people on a cover as long as I can't see exactly who a person is, the reason being that I want to make my own picture in my mind about the way the characters look. It's fine if I can only see part of a person, like half their face, or their neck and shoulder, or their eye...

The following are some examples, with the first cover being my preference in each case:

I LOVE the original cover for "Twilight". I think it perfectly depicts what the novel is about, more so than the covers of the other the three books.

The second cover looks like some kind of erotica novel that I would never pick up, whereas the first cover has a mysterious air about it that is much better suited to the type of fantasy novel that it is - and that I'm far more likely to pick up!

The first one, definitely. Like I said, I want to be able to imagine my own characters. If there's a person on a cover and I don't like the look of that person, I'm not going to pick the book up.

There are, of course, exceptions to my own "rule"...

The second cover might leave you thinking that this is a story for little children - which it isn't. The first cover, however, is absolutely perfect for this story, and if you've read it I'm sure you'll agree. I can't see exactly who the boy is, and so my imagination is still free to conjure up it's own version of him.

What do you think?