One of my favorite moments in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is when HP finds the Mirror of Erised.  He goes back two more times to look into the mirror, once taking Ron who sees something entirely different than Harry.  On the third visit Dumbledore finds him and talks to Harry about the mirror.  He tells him the happiest man in the world would look in and only see himself.  He also tells Harry that people have lost themselves looking into the mirror.  When Harry asks Dumbledore what he says he would see himself holding a nice pair of wool socks.  I don’t know if Harry doubted Dumbledore’s answer, but fans did.  Now that the seventh book has come out and we have learned more about Dumbledore, we can guess that what Dumbledore saw was not unlike what Harry saw.

In book six, Harry had special lessons with Dumbledore.  He also went on a journey with Dumbledore relating to Voldemort.  Something terrible happened to Dumbledore during this journey and Harry tried to reassure him.  Dumbledore, reminding us all how important Harry is to the future of their world, says, “I am not worried, Harry, I am with you.”

I am just kind of hanging out. We slept late, a consequence of sitting up all night reading, and T headed to rehearsal at 1:30. I have spent part of the day on the Leaky Lounge, a place I have never really frequented. (LInks may contain spoilers) I contributed to a few discussions. Read what people thought were the funniest or most ironic moments, how we wish the epilogue had gone, what we thought were still unanswered questions. I have two sets of unanswered questions: those I had going into the book that weren’t answered, and those that came up while reading the book that were never answered.

I know I will get over it soon, it is after all a fictional story, but it was heartbreaking and wonder, but open ended and somewhat unsatifying in some ways.

I am going to give Best Lady a chance to read the book and then I am going to post some of my favorite moments and lines from the book. I will awesome post my two sets of questions. I might even post how I would have written the epilogue.

I did it.  I read all 6 books before starting #7.  I had about 50 pages left in 6 when 7 came.  I waited for the postman and then was too afraid to see if he actually brought it (UPS maybe).  I started seriously at 4 pm and finished at something like 2:45 am.  That was with bathroom breaks (when i took the book with me) getting dinner (pizza from box to plate) and moving laundry.  I figured it took me about 10 hours total to read it.  Lots of tissues too.  T is still reading.  He didn’t get to start when I did and even went out and got dinner while I read.  He got mad because I kept sobbing and cheering.  He said I was spoiling the book for him.  Well, considering I started crying on like the 3rd page, I don’t know how that could be.  I have read the epilogue three time through now.  I am still stunned.

What did you think?  No spoilers, I am pretty sure at least Best Lady won’t have read it yet.  (You can borrow mine.)

I think I took this quiz before, and I think I got this same answer, but that was before the great blog disaster of 2007.

You’re The Poisonwood Bible!
by Barbara Kingsolver
Deeply rooted in a religious background, you have since become both isolated and schizophrenic. You were naively sure that your actions would help people, but of course they were resistant to your message and ultimately disaster ensued. Since you can see so many sides of the same issue, you are both wise beyond your years and tied to worthless perspectives. If you were a type of waffle, it would be Belgian.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

(via bookshelves of doom and Fuse#8)

10 days till Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I had this brilliant idea to reread all the books. I read 1-3 before 4, then 1-4 before 5. I tried to read 1-5 before 6, but I couldn’t read 5 again. I don’t know if I will make it through 5 and 6 again before 7, but I am 1/4 of the way through 1. We’ll see.

I don’t know how HP & the DH will end, but some famous writers had some good ideas. Check out The New York Times version of the end of Harry. I am partial to Polly Horvath‘s version, although Larry Doyle knew the right word to end it with. I liked Damon Lindof‘s essay, but I didn’t like Meg Cabot’s David Letterman interview. At right is Andrea Dezso’s image of the end.

I was going to blog about words again, but I found something better. Fuse #8 pointed me towards a fabulous read. She picked one letter, but I liked another.

Dear Editor:

It is with frustration and disappointment that I inform you that I am canceling my subscription to Babybug following the April issue. I am doing this not only because I have just passed my second birthday (on April 28!) and have begun to feel the attendant inclination toward Ladybug, your magazine for 2- to 6-year-olds. I had planned to linger among the beloved pages of my toddlerhood just a little longer, but that changed after Babybug’s dramatic drop in quality since January. Now, I’m willing to accept dancing koalas, preachy old frogs, and singing daffodils, but the strident tone adopted by so many of your characters recently (Exhibit A: “The Fluffy Duffy Bear”) has become tiresome and grating. Also, your stories too often reach facile conclusions (Exhibit B: “Singing With Our Barnyard Friends”). And the jarring deus ex machina so crudely inserted into “Monkey’s Birthday Party” was, for me, the limit. I can’t tell you how sorry I am to mark my youth’s end with so artless an issue.

Isabella Dunwhitty
Age 2 years and 1 month
New York, New York

from McSweeney’s

I am joining Callapidder Day‘s Spring Reading Thing. I am a little behind in starting, but I am ready! I only just started Son of a Witch, so it will be my first book. I am not one who can read a whole bunch of books at a time. I will pick up my first non-fiction when I am done with Liir.

For the Spring Reading Thing I am going to read 5 fiction, 3 non-fiction, and 5 DCF books. (I am not at home making this list, so I will update it later.) Summaries from Amazon listings.

Fiction

1. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire – Son picks up where Maguires highly successful Wicked (HarperCollins, 1995) left off, with the death of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

2. Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire – A dark and vivid retelling of Snow White transposed to the Italy of the Borgias. Lucrezia is the evil stepmother and five-year-old Bianca de Nevada grows into the role of Snow White.

3. Eldest by Chris Paolini – Surpassing its popular prequel Eragon, this second volume in the Inheritance trilogy shows growing maturity and skill on the part of its very young author, who was only seventeen when the first volume was published in 2003. The story is solidly in the tradition (some might say derivative) of the classic heroic quest fantasy, with the predictable cast of dwarves, elves, and dragons–but also including some imaginatively creepy creatures of evil.

4.

5.

Non-Fiction

1. Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd – Describing himself as a Shakespeare enthusiast instead of an expert, Ackroyd focuses on the bard as an extraordinarily talented theater professional rather than rhapsodizing about the intricacies of the man’s genius. He interweaves Shakespeare’s life story with England’s dramatic history and the fascinating world of the emerging Elizabethan theater.

2.

3.

DCF

– full list

1. Hattie Big Sky by Larson, Kirby – lone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle’s homesteading claim.

2. Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini by Fleischman, Sid – Here are the stories of how a knockabout kid named Ehrich Weiss, the son of an impoverished rabbi, presto-changoed himself into the legendary Harry Houdini.

3. Bread and Roses, too by Katherine Paterson – Paterson has drawn upon the facts of the famous 1912 Bread and Roses strike in the mills of Lawrence, MA, and the sympathetic response of the citizens of Barre, VT, to tell the story of two children enmeshed in complex events.

4. Gossamer by Lois Lowry – Fantasy is gossamer in this tale of memory’s role in bestowing dreams and inflicting nightmares.

5. Alabama Moon by Watt Key – oon, 10, has spent most of his life in a camouflaged shelter in the forest with his father, a Vietnam veteran who distrusts people and the government. Pap has educated him in both academics and survival skills. His life suddenly changes when the land is sold to a lawyer and his father dies.

updated April 14, 2007