I ended May by starting the second of the Harry Potter books and ended reading it on June 2. HP and the Chamber of Secrets. There's a big ass snake in that one. No, not Gilderoy Lockhart. A basilisk, a huge massive people killin' basilisk. Harry stabs it up good, nearly dying in the process. But Fawkes saves his bacon, first by blinding the snake and second with his magical healing tears. Then, it's back to the hospital for a nice kip in before the, even more exciting, next book. Those are the covers from Japan, Spain and the Ukraine. I like all of them quite a bit. Most of the countries seem to use the UK, or more often, the US edition art with their own language over it. At least these countries did some new art. Here's a site that offers up some fake book covers for people who want to read Harry but not let anyone know it. I got a good laugh out of some of them. They'd cover up Harry alright but who knows what people would think once they actually read the cover of the book you're holding. I don't think some of them would get the joke. I certainly know people who wouldn't get the joke.
There was a new Buffy book in and I read that next. The Deathless by Keith R. A. DeCandido has Buffy joining with the Russian witch Baba Yaga against Koschei the Deathless. It's was an ok read. I think someone got stabbed. I can't remember. Most of the Buffy books have been about average. I like the characters and I like following their story, other wise I wouldn't bother to read the series. This one takes place right after The Zeppo in season 2. The covers to the Buffy books are all photshopped cast publicity photos with other elements added to suggest some connection with the story. I don't care for them much. When you see the same Sarah Michelle Geller photo on 11 books it make you think. Yeah,unoriginal much!
Next it was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which made The Deathless all the more shabby by comparison. I sure liked this book. It's often spoken of as a favorite by hardcore fans. It introduces many good characters like the awful Aunt Marge, so easily inflated, Professor Lupin, so tragic, and Sirius Black, a great name, a great guy, greatly disturbed. There are good animals too. Hermoine's Crookshanks and Hagrid's Buckbeak are favorite's. Sadly only Buckbeak has been made into a LEGO figure. He's in two different sets. That's them below. LEGO quit making small sets for Harry Potter. Poor sales I suspect. I managed to get several duplicates of these sets when they were on clearance. There used to be more clearance LEGO in the past. You don't see it as much anymore.
Auld Lang Syne is an Angel Comic trade paperback. It reprints a 5 part story in which Angel joins up with Spike to punch things, including each other. Those guys just never get along. Everyone likes that. Here's a bit from the Wikipedia. They even have articles on comic characters.
Angel has taken up his job in L.A. again, but is quickly faced by mysterious figures from his past, and they seem to be quite real. Similarly, Spike is faced by the ghosts of his pasts, and the two accidentally meet each other, placing the blame for the occurrence with the other. A fight ensues, but they soon discover that they are being manipulated and are forced to work together again. The culprit turns out to be a demon both men have wronged in the past, who hoped they would kill one another. Angel and Spike are able to defeat her however, and both go their own ways again. Features the IDW comics debutes of Skip, Holtz, The Master, Nikki Wood and the Chinese Slayer (Xin Rong).
IDW has the series rights and they are making new stories that take place after the Angel series wrapped. Obviously Angel killed that dragon. What a dead guy! The art in these books isn't too my liking but I like the characters, and yadda yadda yadda. I see there is a new vampire private eye series on some network this fall, which I guess is right now. Damn, where did the summer go. I guess I was inside and missed it. I might have been reading. I count comic collections that are in books as books read but not as novels read. Currently I am at 75 titles read but 4 are comic collections.
HP and the Big Ass Dragon Goblet of Fire was up next. I started reading other books between the HP's. I didn't want to finish the first six books way before the last book showed up. I finished POA on the 9th and GOF on the 16th. The books above are from the Ukraine, Denmark and Sweden. I don't have any of them and while I wouldn't mind owning a copy or two from foreign countries I can settle for a nice scan thank you very much. GOF has so many things that I liked. A great creepy opening chapter. The Quiddich World Cup, and that great tent, which returns later in book 7. Only to be stolen by stinky werewolf guy. Tons of dragons. Fire breathing. LEGO did 4 HP sets for the GOF movie. I bought them but never put them together. They are still in their boxes in the box I got from LEGO back in 2005. They just didn't make me excited to see them. One of them has a dragon in it, but so does the new Castle set. Anyway, I still have them for later, and I still have GOF for later too. It's a good book to reread. I certainly have some favorite scenes in the book. Ron and Harry making up. Boys! And I always get all misty eyed when Dumbledore talks about Cedric at the end. I wasn't reading the series while people were waiting for the 4th book to come out in 2000. I was reading something else. It wasn't as good. I'm sure not to reread that, what ever it was. Luckily, I have it written down. I just went and looked. During the period for about 2 weeks before and after the July 8, 2000 release date I read only one book. I finished Freddy and the Baseball Team From Mars by Walter R. Brooks on 6-26-00 and I finished Mission To Universe by Gordon R. Dickson on 7-23-00. Was that Dickson book so uninteresting that I could not read it with any speed. Maybe I was watching a lot of tv. I certainly can't remember for sure. I understand how Alberto G must feel. I just don't remember. At least I took some notes. I don't think that bitch has a pen. Maybe he can steal one on the way out. I bet they have some nice ones at the White house he could have. I remember Reagan couldn't recall alot either.
Tom Swift and His Airship by Victor Appleton sure was a change of pace. This was another of those original reprints by Applewood Books. It's the 3rd book in the series and it was published in 1910. Not an exciting time, although Tom does crash his airship into a building full of girls. He gets a date out of the deal. There's a lot of flying in the airship. A bit of excitement, but not too much. It's no Hardy Boys, or Nancy Drew. Someone is still writting Tom Swift books. There is a 6th series going on right now. I don't think I'll look them up. The old Tom Swift book was ok but I wouldn't bother with any more. I just didn't like the writing style too much and the book just wasn't that interesting.
The Hidden Myth of Harry Potter by David Colbert was not such a great deal. Only 32 small pages, most of which had an illustration on them. And a poster size map, which is where the illustrations that were used in the booklet came from. It was $9.95 list. There's not a lot of info in this book, which is mostly aimed at the young reader who wants to know a tiny bit more about some of the references or names etc in JK's books. You can get most of that in other books in more detail, or off the web. There are so many Potter books and webpages with lots of info and links to more. One book is by the same writer as Hidden Myths of HP, which I read in 2003. It's just another way to repackage the same material to make another buck. Still I am glad I picked it up after it had gotten remaindered. They had copies at Half Price Books. The map is kind of nice, illustrated by some lady, but it's all folded up in a book. Not very handy to look at. Here's the book description from Amazon.
Book DescriptionAn illustrated map and guide book to the legends behind the Harry Potter series Hidden in the Harry Potter stories are references to mythical crea-tures, legendary characters, real history and J.K. Rowling's own life. A beautifully illustrated poster-sized map takes readers on a worldwide treasure hunt to uncover those hidden clues. The accompanying Book of Secrets reveals even more incredible facts behind the magical places and people readers will come across in their journey.
About the AuthorDavid COLBERT is the author of The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts and The Magical Worlds of the Lord of the Rings: The Amazing Myths, Legends, and Facts Behind the Masterpiece.
Here's Colbert's defense of Hidden Myths:
Unfortunately, some people seem to have mistaken this item, which is a large map that comes with a very short booklet of explanations, for my full book on the subject, "The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter." The map, which was drawn by Virginia Allyn, is great. (She gets all five stars in the rating I gave it.) It's interesting and it's very funny. There's a lot of Rowling-like humor in Virginia's drawings. But obviously a map isn't going to have the same amount of information as a 40,000-word book. It's a fun poster that also happens to have substance, and it's meant for either very young fans or for those older fans who already know the background of myths and legends in Potter but want to see it all as a picture.
Oh, I get it. It's a map with a book, not a book with a map. Silly me. What one reads when one has an obsession, huh.
The Saga of the Bloody Benders by Rick Geary is another comicbook. Geary must have done a dozen of these historical true crime
comics. Most are pretty darn interesting and I really like Geary's style. The Benders were a murdering family that had a resturant, where they killed you as dessert. They don't even eat the people they kill, just rob 'em.
The Ultimate Unofficial Harry Potter Trivia Book by Daniel Lawrence was just that. Pages and pages of questions followed by pages of answers. Questions in multiple choice formatt. It right boring to read a bunch by yourself. After a while I just read the answers. It's short and it was half price with a 15% off coupon. Glad I waited on this one too. I'd show the cover but it's crap, especially when compared to the ones below. Japan, Denmark and the Ukraine.
I finished the month of June with HP and the Order of the Phoenix. This is the first book that I actually waited for. I got mine at DreamHaven, which opened for employees, ones who had keys that is, at midnight. I actually got it a bit early but I didn't read it until after I got home and made a cup of tea. Then it was after midnight, and it had turned into June 21, 2003. I had read all the first four books at the end of April and beginning of May. For some stupid reason I joined the Science Fiction Book Club, gotten a bunch of cheap books, and quit after buying my allotment. I got The Hobbit, LOTR in one volume, and the first 2 or 3 of the Harry Potter books in my first package. I thought the books were pretty poorly made. The printing was very uneven. Many signatures were fairly faint at times. I liked Harry so much that I sold the ones I had to a guy at work and bought all new hardcovers. Which I read in June. Now I could see the illustrations like they were intended. The nice thing about HP is that there are a ton of them about. They can cost a little or a lot. This guy I know, he only buys them when they are a buck or less at HPB. He's up the fifth book so far. Won't be long before he gets to read HP and the Half Blood Prince. I bet I will have reread it before he finds that dollar book. I doubt I will wait a year before I get into them again.
I hadn't gotten to mentioning the book yet. I liked it of course. There is so much stuff going on in the book, it's like it's bursting with ideas, spillin' all over me. My only complaint about the size of the book is the physical size. The US hardcover is so big my arm gets tired after a while. Holding that big ass thing up for hours on end makes my old flabby muscles ache. I have to prop it up on something. I actually like reading the Canadian or UK editions when I read the series. They are lighter, with less pages. They suck in most ways so I don't mind getting them dirty while I am reading them. Something always seems to happen. And there's something always happening in the new Harry Potter. Dementors in Little Whinging, Grimmauld Place, Harry facing the Wizendgmot, Arthur getting bite by a snake, the trio meeting Neville's grandmother at St Mungo's, Dumbledore's Army, Ginny and Luna, the Department of Mysteries, the battle at the Ministry. So much going on. It's a corker all right. Great for rereading. I finished Harry Potter number 5 on the 26th and started the next one before the month ended. More on that later.