cheese never sleeps

New Blog

2007-08-02T17:32:52Z

I've gone and got myself a new blog. Not a new, specific to this purpose, blog, like the St. Pixels one or the WriShug one. No a replacement for this one.

Why?

In the end because there are just a few formatting niggles I have with LiveJournal. I'm sure I could have resolved most of them if I'd been prepared to spend more time learning. But life is short and what I want to do isn't that complicated.

So my new blog, for those that are interested is here.

Heroes

2007-07-29T20:47:06Z

So I've been watching Heroes. Having no life and an internet connection, I've watched nearly all of Heroes.

I just wanted to pause here (3 episodes to go) to post a couple of thoughts. Heroes is good, very good. It reminds me of first season Lost - lots of characters, plot-heavy, high production values. However much as I love Lost it is a shaggy dog story. Almost every time you get new information you get more questions than answers. Heroes appears to be going somewhere. I'll know in a couple of hours or so, but I hope that Heroes resists the temptation to spin out the story. They must've realised some time in the middle what a hit the show was and it must've been tempting to defer the climax. It's all been building to a show-down between Sylar and the others, an attempt to stop him exploding and destroying New York. I hope that plays out. Season 2 should be its own story. I could be wrong but if they try to stretch it out, keep Sylar alive, keep the same threat until next year, then it'll fall into the Lost trap.

I say have a proper ending, kill the bad guy and have a new story and a new bad guy for next time.

I hope they will.

Hermione didn't die!

2007-07-23T18:35:27Z

So I finished it. At around 7pm last night. No I didn't put it off that long, I started reading almost straight away after the last entry but M. rang me when I was nearly done. So we discussed where she was up to and favourite bits, possible theories about the end, though since I was nearly there that part of the 'discussion' consisted of M. asking me questions I wasn't allowed to answer. After we'd talked I finished the book.

First thing to say is that the 'slashdot guy' was lying.

The major death I was afraid of was Hermione - but she survived. As did Ron, Harry and pretty much all the characters I consider major. Snape died - redeeming himself as he did so. Fred Weasley died. Dobby the house-elf died - which was probably the most affecting since because of its impact on Harry.

I enjoyed the book. It was fast-paced and funny. Ron and Hermione's over-burgeoning relationship made me laugh out loud several times. It had some problems. The usual amount of exposition and plot excess. A surprising amount of ends weren't tied up. Details about the ending niggled but the ending itself I approved of. So all in all a good book.

I made the mistake of going online and checking out the Leaky Cauldron forum. Lots of the fans were really negative about the book. They hadn't liked that all the ends weren't tied up. Particularly things that had been mentioned previously in interviews etc. They felt that it didn't match up to the quality of earlier books. They thought the writing was poor. There were too many plot inconsistencies. A think a few suffered from having read the photos version and thinking it was fake, mentally, and no doubt on the forum, ripped it apart. When they found it was real they felt cheated.

Maybe it's because I was never an obsessive fan, but I've just read all 7 books back to back and I see no dip in quality. I see a step up in book 6, mostly because that's where the relationship stuff and the humour meet my preferences, and book 7 carries on in that vein raising the bar slightly again.

For me it was fun. Now I've got a whole backlog of movies to watch.

Why I'm not reading right now

2007-07-22T13:03:24Z

I said I wasn't going to do this but... well you'll see why I did.

I'm on page 512 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which has taken me a little over 12 hours in total. I'm averaging 41 pages/hour but it's a big hardback so the pages are bigger. I estimate I have about 2 1/4 hours of reading left. Despite what you may (or I would've) guessed I actually have been up since about 10:30 and I'm where I was in the book when I went to bed. I got up, messed around on the computer for a while, went out to the shop, came back, made lunch/breakfast and then decided, despite what I'd originally intended, to write my blog.

In other words I'm putting off reading the final 95 pages. The question is: why?

I have a number of plausible reasons.

I was getting tired at 3:30am so I went bed. But that's not it because I was up the night before until 5.

I was starting to feel tired and I didn't want to read the ending only being half-awake. True but that wouldn't normally bother me.

I wanted to have a slightly earlier night so my body clock was slightly more back in line with having to get up for work on Monday. True but if that was the only reason I'd take the hit of being tired for a day.

This morning I woke up early because it as hot and I needed to be awake for a while before reading. So turn the AC on and go back to sleep!

I needed to go to the shop. Everything I bought today was non-essential.

I should blog about the book so far. Since I'm not doing it in smaller sections it's actually better to do a single review rather than a 5/6ths review.

So why am I not reading?

I think there are two (real) reasons. One is that I've really enjoyed this book and I don't want it to be over. I can always re-read it but I'll never read it for the first time again. But that's a fairly small reason.

The second and biggest reason is due to spoilers. JKR has said that there are a couple of significant deaths in this book. Actually she said this and people took it to mean there were only 2 deaths, a couple of weeks ago when the movie came out she said in an interview that it was 2 really significant deaths but that it was "a bloodbath".

When I thought the photos version was a fake I read a story on Slashdot about the book being leaked. One of the comments claimed to list the deaths in the book. There were a couple of major ones and quite a lot of minor ones. That fits the "bloodbath" description. The major characters who die are ones that, quite frankly, I don't want to die. More so since I've read this book.

I'm not sure if this was based on the same version of the book that I have i.e. was it a fanfic version, and at the time I thought there were no real copies online. Now I know that's not true.

I've gotten up to this point in the book and there have been some nasty shocks but no really major deaths. 3 relatively minor characters have died. They were to varying degrees sad but I don't believe they are the significant ones JKR spoke of. And there appears to have started what may be the final big battle...

In other words I'm scared. I'm scared Slashdot guy got it right. More than that... see there are ways to kill off major characters which are upsetting but which work in the context of the story so that overall you accept it. And then there are ways to kill characters that just leave you feeling upset, cheated and angry. I hoping JKR can pull off the former but I'm scared of the later.

Of course I am exaggerating a little. All of the above is true but set against the desire to put off starting to read, is a huge urge to find out how it all ends. Which I will in a couple of hours or so.

Wish me luck. I'm going in...

Distraction, Dilemma, Decision

2007-07-21T13:21:45Z

I said a few days ago that I'd read a lot less because of a 'distraction' and that I'd tell you what it was later. So later is now.

You may be surprised to learn that I was never a particularly big Harry Potter fan. I gave up a couple of times on the early books. I started reading them again earlier this year because M. is a huge fan and it gave us something to discuss. So back in May I decided to pre-order Deathly Hallows from Amazon because I could save money that way. I imagined at the time that I'd be quite happy to read it a few days or weeks after it came out - not being such a huge fan.

Once I decided to do the re-read, and got into it, I started to feel that I wanted to find out how it ends as soon as I could. Since I'd pre-ordered so early I figured I'd get my copy at least the release day i.e. today (which I did - the postman woke me up, despite the fact that I'm sure it would have fit, just, through the letter box). However I wondered whether it would get leaked and make its way online.

I looked around a couple of weeks ago and sure enough found documents claiming to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - however you only had to read it for a couple of paragraphs before realising it was fanfic. Not particularly well-written fanfic. Bad spelling and grammar, the wrong 'voice' for the characters and an obsession with sex. Still every few days I kept checking. I kept on finding the same document.

Then a few days ago I came across a series of images, individually photographed pages (complete with someone's fingers at the bottom holding the book open). The thing was it had the right cover, it was a proper bound book and it had professional-quality illustrations (which the US copies do). I was convinced it was genuine and started reading. It was slow going as it wasn't all easily legible (or at all in some cases). I read a couple of chapters and started to doubt. It was well written but the style didn't feel like Rowling. So I googled "fake harry potter book" or something and found stories about possible leaks. The publishers were saying "don't believe what you read online" - well they would wouldn't they? On the other hand maybe they were referring to fanfic like the first document. One article pointed out that the cover, the dust jacket, was sellotaped to the book and wasn't this a bit suspicious? I went back and checked and so it was. I grasped this straw and chose to believe the photos were an elaborate fake - perhaps a deliberate one by the publishers - and went back to reading HBP.

That was the distraction. Reading that cost me time reading HBP.

The dilemma came when I read a post on the ship about the photos - "yes it starts off not sounding like Rowling but then it does later". Now I started to doubt my doubts. I read a couple more chapters. It was hard to tell. By the nature of the story it didn't follow the pattern of earlier books so maybe it was that making it feel different. It was darker in tone because that's where the story was at. HBP has a lot of 'romcom' stuff in it which is quite different from any of the other books. Now I wasn't sure what was real.

That in itself wasn't the dilemma. By this stage I wanted to have book 7 there to read once I'd finished book 6. i.e. Friday night not saturday morning. I wondered if my pre-ordered copy might get here a day early. It had happened in the past but they were making efforts not to do so again. Plus I couldn't rely on it. On the other hand if my 'photos' version was real I could just read that until the paper copy turned up. What to do?

The decision was this - M. who was dressing up, along with her sister, and going to queue to buy the book just after midnight. I told her the first line - no spoilers in that. She would text me once she had the book and confirm it was the same or not. If not, I'd pop down to the 24hour Tescos and get a copy.

It didn't quite work out that simple. Firstly I was low on food supplies any way. If I was staying up to read I fancied having some nice snacks. So began to think I'd go to Tescos anyway. I decided that if I finished HBP before M texted I'd go down there and do the checking thing myself. I finished HBP at 12:10. I got down to Tescos by about 12:20. I heard a manager-type bloke telling someone that they'd have another 200 copies in a few minutes. A few minutes later they had more copies - and a huge queue, most of whom had receipts - presumably they'd pre-ordered, or at least pre-paid a few minutes before.

So it wasn't a simply question of wandering along, picking up a book and flicking through a few pages. I'd have to find someone who'd just bought one, go up to them and ask them "excuse me does the first chapter start like this...". I wasn't going to do that, I'd feel like a berk. So I went and bought food. During which time - around 12:45 - M rang me. She'd queued since 10:30 and had only just got a copy. It was the same she said. We chatted briefly and then I went home.

So I read my 'photos' version - though actually by now I had a version with the same text as a text PDF document - someone had transcribed it (including, somehow, very blurry pages). I read til about 5am and then went to bed. Got woken up by the postman as I said and then went back to bed. Got up an hour or so ago and will start reading again in a moment.

Day 23

2007-07-21T12:47:31Z

So I finished. At around 12:10am I finished Half-Blood Prince thereby completing my re-read challenge more or less on time. In total I spent 65.6 hours reading 7 books consisting of 4,031 pages. I read that in just 23 days which means an average of 2hours 51 minutes a day - which when you consider I didn't read at all for of those days is going some. My pages per hour was pretty consistently around 60, though it started lower and ended at 61.45.

I definitely enjoyed the books. There were times when I didn't so much enjoy the reading if you know what I mean. I wanted to take a break and watch a movie but had to keep reading to stay on track. If I did it over again I'd start 3 weeks earlier and/or not worry about the movie coming out.

So here's the order I'd put the books in from my favourite to least favourite:

Half-blood Prince
Chamber of Secrets
Prisoner of Azkaban
Philosopher's Stone
Order of the Phoenix
Goblet of Fire

I could maybe swap Azkaban and Philosopher's Stone - there's not that much between the bottom 4, I still really like Goblet of Fire - but Half-Blood Prince is favourite by a clear margin.

Favourite character? Really difficult actually but a clear one does not emerge. I like Harry but there's times when he's too gung-ho or too much of a teenager. Dumbledore's a bit too perfect at times, except in Order of the Phoenix where he's a bit of an ass (though at least he admits it). I enjoyed Ron and Hermione's burgeoning relationship - which you really can see developing slowly from the first book - but individually they both wax and wane in my affections depending on their particular faults. I'm tempted to say Neville but he doesn't do a whole lot til the 3rd or 4th book.

The books get longer as you go along and I do think they suffer a little for it. Surprisingly its not the weight of back-story which causes this so much as JKR being unable to resist introducing new sub-plots - she's still doing it in book 7! You could throw out Quidditch altogether for my money.

Overall it was fun and I'm now primed to find out how it all ends. I have book 7 and I've read up to chapter 11. I haven't been keeping count of pages/time spent so I'm not going to do that but I will review it when I complete it.

Until then...

Day 22

2007-07-20T12:28:40Z

Page: 559
Which is: Hagrid has sent word Aragog has died
Lag: -28
Time Spent: 62.65 hours
Pages Remaining: 209 (95% Complete)
Favourite Character: Ron
Cool Moment: Harry day-dreaming about Ginny
Random Quote: "I love you Hermione," said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, "Don't let Lavender hear you say that."

Well back into lag for the first time in 20 days. Which is fine because today is basically it. 209 pages in 3 1/2 hours. Even if I choose to go out tonight to buy the book I've still got until midnight at the earliest - and it'd probably make more sense to go a little after midnight.

Not sure what to say since I've read so little since last time. How about a word about Harry's pensieve sessions with Dumbledore? They are a major feature of this book after all.

I have this theory that JKR - who famously had the whole thing planned out before writing book 1 - was carefully dropping hints, clues and information to be used later in the early books, thinking she'd drip-feed us the various bits of back-story we needed. Then, my theory goes, she gets to book 6 and realises how much of Lord V's history in particular still needs to be filled in. Huge swathes of exposition. So she invents the "private lessons with Dumbledore" idea and gives us the requisite information that way. A mixture of as-if-we-were-there flashback and straight story-telling from Dumbledore. And you know what? I find I don't mind. There's some interesting Harry-Dumbledore interaction and the back-story itself is fascinating. It's fuel for speculation about the ending to come.

Although, is it me or is the very first flash-back - visiting Marvolo, Morphin and Merope - straight out of To Kill a Mockingbird? And of course the scene in the garden at the Burrow with Scrimgeour was pure Pride and Prejudice.

Day 21

2007-07-19T20:26:37Z

Page: 486
Which is: Lavender asking Harry about Ron ('he's always asleep when I go and see him')
Lead: 74
Time Spent: 61.6 hours
Pages Remaining: 282 (93% complete)
Favourite Character: Hermione
Cool Moment: When Ron is poisoned.
Touching Quote: Er-my-nee
Emblematic Quote: You're Dumbledore's man through and through aren't you, Potter?

So still on track but I'll be falling behind tonight unless I make it a late one. The point's a little moot since I could always make tomorrow a late one. Still haven't decided if I want to go out and buy a copy at midnight or wait on my Amazon-ordered one that'll arrive earliest on Sat morning.

Oh and tomorrow I need to post questions on The Gunseller for the Ship's book thread. I know pretty much what I want to say but despite my best intentions I haven't written it yet.

Still enjoying Half-Blood Prince though it's getting darker now with Ron being attacked. I get a perverse pleasure out of seeing how it brings Hermione's true feelings to the fore. That Ron says her name in his semi-conscious state is just perfect (given that he's going out with Lavender and has just recovered from being Love-Potioned into liking Romilda Vane). I especially like it because it evokes memories of Willow saying Oz's name in Buffy all those years ago. I wanted her to say Xander and that she didn't meant I knew they weren't meant to be together. I hope this means the opposite.

Not got much else to say. I'm going to fill you in on "the distraction" after I finish this book I think.

Day 20

2007-07-18T19:50:58Z

Page: 346
Which is: breakfast before the first Quidditch match
Lead: 109
Time Spent: 59.55 hours
Pages Remaining: 422 (90% complete)
Estimated Completion: Fri 20th July
Favourite Character: Ron
Cool Moment: anything with Ron and Hermione's mutual jealousy-fest
Funny Quote: 'You've never been more interesting and, frankly, you've never been more fanciable.' Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper.
Fascinating Quote: the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.

Well, the pages remaining is steadily decreasing but then so is the lead. Which is ok in one way - it should equal 0 by friday when I finish right? Except that if it gets too close to that before then - i.e. tonight and tomorrow - it'll mean more reading than I really want to do since the lead was based on 175 pages (3 hours) a day. So I'll do my best to increase it a little tonight.

Actually I had a bit of a distraction last night - but I think I'll tell you about that some other time.

I'm really enjoying Half-Blood Prince. I think it's pitched exactly at my inner teenager. I mean I am on record as liking teen/young romcoms and this is the right age, kinda sweetly romantic and funny. Whereas in previous books, without at all disliking them, I could count real laugh out loud moments on the fingers of one hand, here they seem to come along pretty regularly. You've got the Ron-Hermione stuff I allude to in my funny quote above. You've also got Harry and Ginny. There's some funny dialogue, including internal dialogue, but also some great sight gags. If the producers of the movies - who I think have done best at realising humour in the films - don't make the most of moments like when Ron turfs a first-year out of a seat by the fire in the common room only to be turfed out immediately by Hermione who offers it back to the first-year, or the moment when they're bickering, with barely concealed jealousy about who's taking who to Slughorn's Christmas party, whilst Harry's battling man-eating plants - actually grateful for the distraction - well these are gifts for cinema I think.

My fascinating quote above jumped out at me because of course I now know the Prince is Snape. It's not fully formed but it's lead me to a sort-of theory about Harry and Snape. It's interesting that Harry really learns something from Snape, as the Prince, that he is fascinated by what he's got to say. Without the usual enmity being expressed between them some common ground, common personality traits even, are exposed. Harry not only learns from but likes the Prince. He appreciates his direct, no-nonsense approach ('just stick a bezoar down his throat'). I'm also reminded of Snape's speech about the Dark Arts in his first lesson - afterwards Harry tells Ron and Hermione how disgusted he is that Snape seems to love the DAs, and Hermione remarks that he reminded her of Harry when teaching DADA himself.

So what if there's more than a passing similarity between the two. Harry may perhaps be like his father and perhaps his father was quite similar to Severus Snape. Certainly the cruel bullying behaviour James Potter displays is not at all un-Snape-like. What if that was one reason they never got on? What if Snape is the road-less-travelled/dark-side version of James? The Faith to his Buffy? If that's so, then Snape - who has been a real Death-Eater once, whether or not he is now - might model, rather than simply growing out of some bad behaviour, embracing it, revelling in it, but ultimately repenting of and reforming from it. Perhaps that will be important to Harry?

I read people say Harry will need to forgive Snape in the final book, I think he may need to learn from him too. Perhaps we'll see - temporarily - Harry's darker side, given a full reign.

Failing that we've always got Ron and Hermione to make us laugh.

Day 19

2007-07-17T18:55:12Z

Page: 213
Which is: in Snape's first Dark Arts lesson
Lead: 151
Time Spent: 57.6 hours
Pages Remaining: 555 (86% complete)
Estimated Completion: Fri 20th July
Favourite Character: Ginny
Cool Moment: Draco stamping on Harry's nose

So I chose a 'cool moment' that is Harry's enemy triumphing over him. Why?

Well I didn't have a lot of choice because I only read 58 pages yesterday. However I like this moment, not because I like to see Harry suffer (though there's a very slight element of payback for me having to endure his teenage bad mood through most of Order of the Phoenix) but because it shatters any remaining pretensions that this will be a "childrens' book"[1]. It's just so violent and unnecessary. Just as Harry has through his adventures come to a greater level of responsibility and awareness of his destiny, so Malfoy has graduated from school-boy bully to fully-fledged villain. Well maybe there's a little fledging left to fill but basically we have a nasty piece of work on our hands now.

Not much to say about the not much else I read. Snape's now DADA teacher and therefore doomed. Harry's Gryffindor Quidditch Captain and therefore I'm doomed to a minimum level of boredom. And Slughorn has established himself as a 'collector' of influential and talented friends. I like that he chose Ginny.

Well more to read before I sleep.

[1]which is not to say children won't read, and I dare say enjoy, this book.

Day 18

2007-07-16T21:57:16Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Page: 155
Which is: Draco Malfoy in Borgin and Burkes
Lead: 268
Time Spent: 56.7 hours
Pages Remaining: 613 (85% complete)
Estimated Completion: Thu 19th July
Favourite Character: Dumbledore
Cool Moment: Harry and Dumbledore chat in the broom cupboard
Random Quote: Let us not deprive Molly any longer the chance to deplore how thin you are.

So I'm a good healthy way into Half-Blood Prince and its not hard. I enjoy this book. Not sure if it's just my imagination but this book already seems funnier than the others.

Maybe it's my kind of funny. There's humour in the early books but a lot of it is aimed squarely at younger kids. Slapstick humour with people falling off brooms rather than lines like the quote above.

Not a huge amount has happened story-wise. In that respect it's just as over-long as the last couple of books. But I don't mind so much. Harry is neither annoyingly teenage, nor do we have the bore-fest that is the Quidditch World Cup. Just some aimiable stuff with Dumbledore, some disliking of Fleur and some scenes of the three friends acting like friends and getting involved in solving a mystery again. They even used the invisibility cloak.

Good stuff.

Fedora 7 wireless connection

2007-07-15T17:33:42Z

I apologise to readers expecting more Harry Potter but I need to record how I did something technical for future use.

I just installed Fedora 7 and it took a while to get the wireless connection working - though not as long as last time. It almost works automatically using NetworkManager but you need to tweak it for WPA authentication.

So in NetworkManager I edit the wlan0 device and set the following parameters under Wireless Settings

Mode: Master
SSID: Specified (SSID_NAME)
Channel: 11
Transmit Rate: Auto
Key: (leave blank this is for WEP keys)

Also under General I set the IP address etc. Then save and (re-)activate the device.

Alternatively it should lead to a file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 that looks like this:

# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
DEVICE=wlan0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
HWADDR=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
DHCP_HOSTNAME=hostname
IPADDR=192.168.2.2
DOMAIN=domain
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
ESSID=ssid_name
CHANNEL=11
MODE=Master
GATEWAY=192.168.2.1
RATE=Auto

Then you need to edit /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf so that it looks like this:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

network={
        ssid="ssid"
        scan_ssid=1
        proto=WPA
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        psk=xxxxxxx.....
}

You generate the psk={hex string} line with wpa_passphrase. Also I need to change /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant. It had -Dndiswrapper as the DRIVER when I needed -Dwext

Once this is done you restart the wpa_supplicant service and restart the network service.

Useful commands to see what's happening are

dmesg - kernel messages, including dmesg -c which removes the current message
iwconfig - to manually configure the device
iwlist wlan0 scan - shows you what networks are within range and your status with relation to them.

Oh and I added wpa_supplicant to the list of services which start automatically using chkconfig.

Day 17

2007-07-15T17:08:23Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Page: 7
Which is: beginning of the book
Lead: 295
Time Spent: 54.65 hours
Pages Remaining: 761 (81% complete)
Estimated Completion: Friday 20th July
Favourite Character: Luna
Random Quote: It's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?

So, I finished Order of the Phoenix on the train on thursday going into London to see the movie, and I haven't read any Harry Potter since. I did have a 4 hour 'nap' on Friday night after work - so I think maybe I've caught up most of my sleep.

It looks as though watching the movies is out of the window. At least I need to follow a 2+ hour/day reading plan to finish the final book before Friday. Which is fine, and I might get to watch a couple of the movies as well, but given that they're nearly all in the 2.5-3 hour range I can't see me watching them all. Especially as I really don't like watching movies in bits.

Which I'm a bit down about, but it's ok. I feel like I haven't lived up to my plan, but at the same time it was tough going and I needed a rest. The last thing I want is to hate the sight of anything Harry Potter at the exact moment the new book arrives on my doormat. I guess part of what took the wind out of my sails was the new movie.

In retrospect it was a mistake re-reading the book in time for the movie. By doing that I think I hyped myself up into thinking the movie was going to be better. The book is too long and the movie will be shorter and bring the story to life more. Not quite. Don't get me wrong the movie is ok. It doesn't suck, but it's not great. There were moments I enjoyed but it's funny how many of them weren't in the book and many of my favourite book moments were done badly or missing (meeting Neville in St. Mungo's being a prime example).

I also didn't like Gary Oldman's Sirius - which is odd because I really like Oldman as an actor. I can't quite escape the feeling Oldman didn't take it seriously enough. There's a moment at the end where he turns up to fire off a defensive spell to save Harry, thus announcing the arrival of the 'cavalry' in the form of the Order. It should be a cool moment (a 'I'd like to test that theory' moment if you know your Buffy) but it falls flat because his wand movement looks a bit camp. Now I realise that's an inherent danger of flourishing a small stick as a method of battle but the other actors, Gambon especially, managed much better.

There were other things too. There's so much in the book that I felt like the movie was ticking off a checklist of must-have scenes and characters - so you're left with a series of cool moments and set-pieces rather than a coherent story.

Stuff to like? Imelda Staunton just nailed Umbridge perfectly. The actress playing Luna Lovegood was perfect - strange other-worldliness but with a good heart and a connection with Harry that made you wonder if they could be a couple later on. I got that feeling when I read the passage in the book that the quote above is from. I got it from the equivalent scene in the movie.

So now with a week to go I'm starting book 6. I should finish it without it feeling like a chore. It was my favourite book when I first read it and 2 hours is not much compared to what I have been doing.

Day 14

2007-07-12T12:12:25Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 928
Which is: Dumbledore just explained a lot of stuff, including why he's ignored Harry all year
Lead: 782
Time Spent: 54.28 hours
Movie Target: Read the last chapter
Pages Remaining: 796 (80% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sun 15th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Cool Moment: The fight scenes in the Department of Mysteries
Random Quote: don't you think you've got a bit of a - a - saving-people thing?

Movie's tonight so very excited. I have one chapter left - which I'll start in a few minutes and finish on the train in tonight.

So the two related questions are: Does Harry have a saving-people thing? and Is Dumbledore a complete idiot/git?

On first reading this I was a bit taken aback by Hermione's comment. Mostly 'cos it comes from Hermione. That Harry's being rash, not thinking about the possibility of a trap, acting more on emotion than reason is fair enough. That he has a messiah complex is an odd complaint. Harry normally detests anything that makes him different, he just wants to be a normal boy (much like Buffy in that respect). Hermione's normally more shrewd than that. There are lots of valid criticisms of Harry's behaviour but having a "saving-people thing" jars - and not just in the clumsy language.

Dumbledore's behaviour on the other hand is more understandable but almost as unsatisfying. The explanation he gives for not wanting to interact much with Harry or for not telling him more about the Prophecy make sense, and from a writing point of view they allow Rowling to have the "no-one understands me" teenage thing going - but it's just so frustrating. Also, why didn't the Order of the Phoenix simply destroy the prophecy once they knew that's what Voldemort was after. They knew the exact contents of it after all. They had people in the Ministry. These are things that seem to exist largely to create the story - which of course is always true - but when it's so apparent the story suffers.

Day 13

2007-07-11T19:40:07Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 780
Which is: in the midst of everything they're taking their OWL exams
Lead: 812
Time Spent: 52 hours
Today's Movie Target: Finish the book! (p956)
Pages Remaining: 944 (77% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Cool Moment: Dumbledore not coming quietly
Random Quote: A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen.

So yet another way in which we get "Harry grows up" in this book is the disillusionment with parents. We've had that in one way with the apparent uncaring Dumbledore but now we get the "was my father actually not a nice person?" question.

This is tough for Harry and it restores some more of my sympathy for him because it does start to look like James was a bit of a jerk and a bully, at least where Snape's concerned. What we need to remember of course is that these are Snape's memories. Naturally he remembers what had biggest impact on him. Sirius or Lupin mentions that Snape tried to jinx James every chance he got and that it was a mutual feud - but that's a piece of dialogue that washes over you, the scene where James actually hangs Snape upside down and humiliates him is described in detail and therefore has bigger impact.

I suspect in the final book we'll get more about James Potter's schooldays - along with more information on Snape and Lily.

So you'll notice the time and that means I didn't write my blog at lunchtime, which means I didn't read then either. That's not a problem - I should easily finish Order of the Phoenix tonight. I hope I can make it not too late. The last thing I want is to be falling asleep during the film.

I'm excited about seeing the movie. For its own sake - it's had good reviews - but also because it represents a break from such a punishing schedule. On Friday I'll have one book left to read. At my normal reading speed it'll be no problem to finish it by Monday which will give me the chance to do a movie a night before the new book comes out next Saturday. Which means it's all a heck of a lot easier after tonight.

So I'm away to start reading.

Day 12

2007-07-10T12:38:47Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 581
Which is: Returning to Hogwarts after Christmas on the Knight Bus
Lead: 788
Time Spent: 48.7
Today's Movie Target: 776
Pages Remaining: 1143 (72% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: Neville
Cool Moment: Meeting Neville in St. Mungo's

Slightly behind on the movie target but not irretrievably so. I didn't get any reading done at lunchtime yesterday so... but ah, I've realised that me talking about how I'm managing the time is not really interesting.

I said yesterday that the bratty teenager stuff is done well even if it hurts the likeability of the character. Today I note that the lovesick teenager stuff is done very well and it's funny.

There's more of this to come and in some ways there are better examples, but I think JKR really nails this. I can only speak from a male perspective but that combination of nerves, excitement, fear and total bewilderment at the working of the female mind is communicated very well.

Also the "plot" is starting to kick into gear a bit more. It's darker than we've had before. Cedric dying was harsh, Arthur Weasley nearly dying is much more so because we're closer to him. So the stakes are being raised. Harry's feelings about being the snake feel now less like him being bratty and more like a fear I can genuinely identify with. Though an excellent moment is when Ginny points out that he's not bothered to talk to her about it, the one person he knows who has genuinely been possessed by Voldemort. Nevertheless I'm less inclined to be annoyed with Harry and more likely to feel empathy for him at this stage.

The scene with Neville in St. Mungo's is heart-breaking. The way he's uncomfortable with others knowing and his gran, incorrectly, thinks he's ashamed of his parents. That Harry is aware enough to try to think how he can help (he can't) speaks highly of him.

Day 11 part 2

2007-07-09T12:32:32Z

I said on a comment yesterday that one of the cliches of the Potter books is that the books "grow" with the characters - so the themes, situations and even language become more adult as they do.

One way in which this is definitely true in Order of the Phoenix is that Harry becomes the bratty teenager. It's quite clever how JKR finds story reasons to make it seem like everyone is against him, life is unfair and to alienate him from his father-figure. Unfortunately it slightly falls into the "how do you write about boredom without being boring" trap. I know many people find Harry less likeable in this book. For me that's true but the book itself doesn't suffer. There's still a lot going on that I like. Umbridge is a great pantomime villain (you love to hate her).

Day 11

2007-07-09T11:47:51Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 412
Which is: Umbridge's hand appears in the fireplace seconds after Sirius' head has left it.
Lead: 794
Time Spent: 45.7
Today's Movie Target: 596
Pages Remaining: 1312 (67% complete)
Estimated completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: not Harry
Seriously, Favourite Character: Ernie Macmillan
Random Quote: Harry had never before appreciated just how beautiful the village of Hogsmeade was. (after hearing Cho couldn't keep her eyes off him)
Cool Moment: I must not tell lies

Ok, so that's 'cool' as in the sense of 'disturbingly creepy' but still...

Tough weekend. Despite my stated aims I dragged myself out of bed this morning feeling like I could do with another, oh, day's sleep at least. But I am on track. I now only need to average 3 hours a day to complete Order of the Phoenix on Wednesday. I can usually get half an hour in at lunchtimes (after writing in this blog) so that's 2 1/2 hours in the evening. Which means the possibility of early nights and/or maybe an hour of TV. So I'm pleased with that.

The lead figure, which you'll recall is based on a target which has me finishing the books on Fri 20th, is now so large as to be effectively meaningless. So I've added the movie target - which is which page I need to be on by the time I go to bed tonight. That doesn't take into account any reading time on Thursday, when I'll still have lunchtime and time travelling into London on the train/tube. But I'll ignore that and treat it as safety net. (I may reserve say, 20 pages, to read on the train anyway, just so I have that "just finished" feeling.

I've just been asked to do something at work - perils of taking your lunchbreak at your desk - I'll be back with a part 2 in a wee while.

Day 10

2007-07-08T12:34:47Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 52
Which is: Chaos and confusion at Privet Drive, Dementors have attacked Harry and Dudley, Harry might be expelled for using a Patronus, he's waiting to hear more.
Lead: 609
Time Spent: 39.25 hours
Pages Remaining: 1672 (59% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sun 15th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Random Quote: If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
Cool Moment: The duel with Voldemort

Phew! Some big numbers there.

Whilst the lead looks impressively huge it's about what I need to be on track to finish this book before Thursday night. What's frustrating is how much time seems to be wasted. I read for 9 hours yesterday. I hoped/planned for 10. I got up at around 12 (thanks to my late night friday) I went to bed at 3am. That's 15 hours - I felt like I did little else other than read and somehow 6 hours slipped by.

Where to? Well I watched half an episode of Life on Mars while I made lunch and finished off the rest with a break later. That's an hour. I watched a 20minute interview with Rowling on Youtube - part of which I watch twice so call it half an hour. I know it took a long time to get going yesterday - getting up, bathroom, dressed, first coffee etc - about an hour. I wrote my blog - half an hour. I cooked and ate my tea - a microwaveable thing so half an hour? That's 3 1/2 hours. The other 2 1/2 was "breaks" none of which were meant to be more than 10-15 minutes but I suspect some were longer.

So today I got up again at 12 and I'll probably be starting reading in 10 minutes (1:30). I've got to go to the shop before 4pm which will probably take 1 1/2 hours... and I need at least 6 hours reading to be on track about 8 if I want to have a few early nights. If I can finish today before midnight that would be excellent. We'll see.

Ok, Harry Potter. You want to hear about him? Well Goblet of Fire is my favourite Harry Potter movie and as I think I said, prior to this I'd read less than half the book itself. So it's tempting to talk about all the differences. However, if I follow through with my idea of watching the movies I'll do review/compare then - keeping up the blog every day tradition.

I enjoyed Goblet of Fire but it does suffer the same problem as Prisoner of Azkaban in that it overloads on exposition towards the end. Voldemort treats Harry to a long drawn-out explanation of how he returned, Crouch/Fake Moody does the same then just for good measure Dumbledore uses truth potion on him to get even more. Even as the book is in its closing pages we've got Hermione explaining how she stopped Rita Skeeter. I think Rowling is excellent at setting up all these threads but bad at tying them up. Really the scenes with Voldemort should be the climactic of the book followed by a short denouement and then end. In reality we have an overlong exposition scene in the middle of the climax and three longish chapters afterward.

This book also suffered more than the previous ones of me knowing how it ended. Which is mainly due to knowing the main plot points from the movie but not having read the book itself. Lent itself to a "get on with it" feeling at times.

But having said that I did really enjoy the book and I would have wanted to know what had happened in the various threads of the story. The end of the book is a real turning point in the overall 7-book arc and that's fun. I liked some of the relationship stuff, some of the stuff about Harry and Ron falling out and about how Ron feels about money - all felt very true.

Day 9

2007-07-07T11:55:02Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Page: 260
Which is: Discussing the Triwizard Tournament after Harry has resisted the Imperious curse
Lead: 196
Time Spent: 30.25 hours
Pages Remaining: 2260 (44% complete)
Estimated Completion: Wed 18th Jul
Favourite Character: Moody
Random Quote: 'Can I have a look at Uranus, too, Lavender?'
said Ron.
Cool Moment: The Weasleys arriving at Privet Drive and getting stuck in the chimney

So big jump yesterday huh? Nearly five hours of reading, 45 minutes of which were at lunchtime. Thing is I worked out the numbers for finishing Order of the Phoenix before the movie and they are scary.

It is the weekend but I'll still have to spend a lot more time reading than I'd realised. Last night I stayed up until the early hours and I'm not sure if it was a good idea. Every hour later I stayed up is either adding to my lie-in (and reducing my reading time) or meaning I'll be tired today. I'm really trying to avoid going into next week tired.

One thing I briefly considered is that what I really don't want to do is be in the middle of reading OotP when I watch the movie, so maybe I could read it after. Goblet is about the same length as Half-Blood Prince so that would mean roughly the same (insane!) amount of reading from Friday 13th July to Friday 20th as I otherwise have to do from yesterday (when I started Goblet) to Wed 11th. But whilst that's a couple of extra days it would still mean a lot of reading and probably preclude watching all the movies, which I am now kinda keen on.

The reading itself - well this is the first of the books where arguably she needs to cut it down. I actually don't mind too much apart from the Quidditch World Cup. Quidditch bores me to tears but at least in the previous book it's usually combined with something happening that advances the plot. The actual Quidditch in the World Cup doesn't advance the plot at all. As the movie shows, all you really need is to show the setting and have the Death Eaters turn up. However now we're back to Hogwarts I think I'll enjoy it more. Especially since I've never read this before - I tried to read this book in anticipation of the movie and didn't get very far - so gave up once I'd seen the film.

I've put Moody as my favourite character of the moment. He is but it requires explanation: I like the character Moody appears to be. Of course I know it's really Crouch junior pretending to be him and some of the stuff that appears very heart-of-gold-shining-through-the-gruff-exterior actually has an unpleasant agenda behind it. I felt kinda cheated by that. I fondly imagine that at least the real Moody is somewhat like that and Crouch had to impersonate that accurately to be believable.

The quote? Well a) it's funny in a puerile kinda way and b) it's funnier when you realise Ron goes out with Lavender in book 6. Perhaps he eventually did get to see... No, let's not go there!

Day 8

2007-07-06T11:40:08Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Page: 411
Which is: Lupin transforms into a werewolf
Lead: 54
Time Spent: 25.5 hours
Pages Remaining: 2577 (36% complete)
Estimated Completion: Friday 20th July
Favourite Character: Lupin
Random Quote #1: 'I can't Harry, I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!' said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical.
Random Quote #2: 'You fool,' said Lupin softly. 'Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?'

So, I've burned up some of that lead. Didn't have a particularly early night in the end though. Quote #1 is because I recognise the slightly obsessive focus on pages read!

I'm now into the final run of book 3, just past the big expository scene where we find out that Scabbers is Pedigrew and that it's he, not Black, that betrayed Harry's parents. I don't particularly like that chapter. I've been thinking about this and that this is perhaps why I prefer the ending to book 2 (see also yesterday's comment on that). I like Rowling's writing generally and she's good at setting up a mystery, laying clues upfront, planting misleads. However she often writes herself into the kind of corner where she's left with a lot of exposition to do.

So here for instance we have a whole lot of Black-Potter-Lupin-Pedigrew-and-Snape backstory explained. Also there's a tendency for extra characters to turn up just in time to have their part explained. This happens with Lupin, Snape and Pedigrew (who's there but as a rat). So although there's talk of murder I almost get the feeling of a stage farce.

Having said that once we've gotten through the exposition we've got a clear run at the ending - Lupin turning wolf, Harry facing the Dementors, the time-turner stuff - all good fun and all in my immediate (next 30 mins) future. (I mention them now because I suspect tomorrow's entry will have a lot more to do with Goblet of Fire.

A word about quote #2 - I like this because it demonstrates one of the reasons I like Lupin. Overall he's in the wrong - he was party to bullying Snape - but he's also right about the issue in hand. That he has the confidence to rebuke Snape's grudge-bearing without either losing sight of his own wrongs or over-reacting (he says it softly) speaks volumes.

Day 7, 5th July

2007-07-05T19:55:08Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Page: 268
Which is: Lupin teaching Harry the Patronus Charm
Lead: 86
Time Spent: 23.1
Pages Remaining: 2720 (33% complete)
Estimated Completion: Thu 19th July
Favourite Character: Lupin
Cool Moment: Finding the slashed portrait

So - a third of the way through. It feels like I should be further along but I guess the books are a lot bigger from now on.

I am struggling a bit to keep up the page count. Mostly cos I'm getting tired. So I may burn off a little of my lead and get an early night tonight.

Not sure what to say about the book. I'm enjoying it but not sure what there is to say about it. Harry's seeing "the Grim" everywhere, Dementors are giving him a hard time, he's not allowed to leave Hogwarts. Basically things aren't going well. The mystery is unfolding nicely. Oddly I don't find it as dark as the previous book. Maybe because I know the big threat is actually not a threat at all which is not to say there isn't danger in this book. Also Voldemort's not the threat.

Anyhow - ploughing on.

Day 6, 4th July

2007-07-04T12:08:27Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Page: 89
Which is: Harry, Ron and Hermione on the train, just before the Dementor attack
Lead: 82
Time Spent: 20 hours
Pages Remaining: 2899 (28% complete)
Estimated Completion: Thu 19th Jul
Favourite Character: Harry
Random Quote: It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are (Chamber of Secrets)
Cool Moment: The Knight Bus

So on to book 3 - which is thicker than the first 2 but not the real thickness of the next 3 which are all 750+pages. The past 4 days I've been on a different book. That probably won't happen again for a while.

My quote today is very important thematically.

It crops up again in book 6 where Dumbledore explains that the Prophecy about Harry and Voldemort only works because Voldemort believes in it and therefore makes choices that make it come true. I was a little annoyed by that when I read it. It's odd in a series about magic to take such a non-supernatural approach. But when I re-read this quote in Chamber I realised that it is a consistent theme of the books. Harry makes good choices, or aspires to them. It is sometimes his abilities that allow him to defeat/escape Voldemort. However often it is outside help. In book 4 his ghostly parents allow him time to escape. In book 5 the "cavalry" arrive just in time. In book 2 not only is it Fawkes the Phoenix that rescues him but Fawkes comes to him specifically because Harry remains loyal to Dumbledore. In other words he's rewarded for making the right choice.

In real life we have to struggle with the fact that making the right choice may not lead to "rescue" or success. I suppose in book 5 Harry suffers under Umbridge for insisting that he's not lying about Voldemort returning. But that's the only example I can think of off the top of my head where Harry makes a good choice and suffers for it.

So I agree with the sentiment that it's our choices that are telling about who we are as people. I think the hidden message, that if we do choose right then we'll ultimately win through in the end, perhaps even directly because of it (like the Fawkes incident), is harder to accept. But these are stories and stories aimed largely, if not exclusively, at children - so perhaps such morals are not unexpected.

Still enjoying the reading. I only did 2.5 hours yesterday and did just about my quota. I guess I've got the weekend coming up but still I'd like to get a little bit ahead each day. Oh and I've decided what to do about yesterday's finishing early dilemma: aim to finish OotP in time for the film, finish HBP and then use any remaining time to re-watch the other movies. In particular there's supposed to be some unintended foreshadowing in movie 3 that Rowling spotted.

Day 5, 3rd July

2007-07-03T12:06:16Z

Book: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Page: 273
Which is: Someone's stolen Tom Riddle's diary from Harry
Lead: 73
Time Spent: 17.5 hours
Pages remaining: 3083 (24% complete)
Estimated Completion: Thu 19th Jul
Favourite Character: Moaning Myrtle
Cool Moment: Harry discovering he's a Parselmouth
Random Quote: This wasn't the first time Snape had given Harry the impression of being able to read minds.

Definitely the hardest part of this whole thing is finding what to write in my blog every day.

I confess I secretly thought that by doing this I would achieve some of my blog goals - being about one thing, short succinct posts, a topic that others are interested in - but that rather assumes I can think of things to say. I think part of the problem is that I'm reading so much between posts that I've tended just to give broad general overview type statements.

Maybe I need to pick an incident to focus on.

For today though I think I'll explain why I've put Moaning Myrtle down as my favourite character. On SoF there was some discussion of the likeability (or not) of Snape. Some said that this has less to do with the character on the page and a lot to do with the casting of Alan Rickman in the movies. In the same way I think the memory of Shirley Henderson in the movies helps me like Myrtle. I do think the character is funny and I do feel somewhat for her. Whilst she's clearly irritating to Harry, Ron and Hermione, she's also got reason to feel aggrieved.

Back to my vague generalisations - I am enjoying this. For the same reasons as previously mentioned - the brisk pace and the way mystery unfolds. When she doesn't take too many diversions Rowling is good at plotting. I also think that there's more of a sense of brooding menace about this book. People are being attacked and 'frozen', whispers of blood and killing. The books do get darker and more adult as Harry grows up and you can see the progress from book 1 already.

On the challenge itself, I am of course happy that I'm building up a lead. On the one hand I don't want to get so far ahead that I finish too early, on the other, it would be nice to finish Phoenix before the film. But if I do that it means I'll have a week to idle through Half-Blood Prince. It's a dilemma.

Day 4

2007-07-02T18:17:42Z

Day 4, 2nd July
Book: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Page: 68
Which is: In Flourish and Blotts, Arthur Weasley is about to attack Lucius Malfoy
Lead: 43 (hoo, and indeed, ray!)
Time Spent: 15.2 hours
Pages Remaining: 3288
Cool Moment: The puzzles at the end of Philosopher's Stone.
Quote: It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

One book down. OK two but one Harry Potter book down. Five to go.

And I enjoyed it. It whisks along at a fair pace. By the time you've introduced how Hogwarts and wizarding generally works there's not much time left for plot so it's fairly concise.

The resolution of the "puzzle-spells" that guard the Stone are aimed at the age this book is written 10-12ish. But I kind of like that kind of thing. I also think the mirror of Erised is a just the sort of thing that would have had me thinking about it for days as a kid. A bit like the Deplorable Word in the Magician's Nephew.

The early part of Chamber of Secrets follows the pattern of the first book to some degree, though you've got Dobby appearing. Certainly there's an attempt to bring the reader up to speed in case they haven't read the first book. That's mildly irritating.

Overall though I am enjoying it, which is good.