I loved Go Ask Alice when I was young. If anything, it's probably one of the reasons I never tried drugs.

Oh - to continue the saga of my trying to get Deadline - release date was officially May 31, but the local Barnes & Noble (only bookstore downtown at this point) said it was June 1. When I went down on June 2 to pick up a copy, it was nowhere to be found. I had two people looking for it - seemingly, it was hidden somewhere in their back area. When I went down at lunchtime to get something else, I checked - it's STILL not on the shelves. grrrr

So I've hit the endless camping section of Deathly Hallows. Which is, in fact, endless. My Doylist explanation is that JKR felt bound to wrap the novel up at the end of the school year the way she did with all the others, even though this one wasn't set at Hogwarts.

I find this a poor consolation for endless teenager bickering and flailing about. And while Ron comes off as a jackass, and isn't actually helpful at all that I can see, he's not wrong in his disgruntlement. After the fabulous suspense of the trip into the Ministry, this whole sequence just brings the narrative flow to a shuddering halt.

Additionally, the fact that Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas, and the two Goblins just happen to camp next door to their invisible tent and spend the evening telling each other all the Wizarding news is ludicrous.

These kids have got to be very smelly by now, unless one of Hermione's charms is some sort of sonic shower. (And if this was any other fannish property, Hermione & Harry would totally have got it on at least once, but JKR doesn't do that kind of betrayal storyline.)

Lisa Bright and Dark ! I totally read that one too. But it wasn't an assignment.

erin - i just wanted to say that Roy Dotrice is reading A Dance with Dragons.

Happy Dance of Jubilation! I'm still listening to _Feast_ cuz my reading time is devoted to _deadline_ and i just can't give up partway into the story. It's improving, he's corrected some the name pronunciations. I can't believe the editors didn't go back and update the earlier transgressions!

I read Lisa, Bright and Dark in fifth grade, I think. Loved it, but it was sort the lighter version of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.

I hated the endless camping of Deathly Hallows. Felt like filler, and the book was plenty long enuf to not need filler.

I clearly remember reading (and re-reading) _Go Ask Alice_ and also avoiced drug use in large part because of that. Very effective.

Oh - to continue the saga of my trying to get Deadline - release date was officially May 31, but the local Barnes & Noble (only bookstore downtown at this point) said it was June 1. When I went down on June 2 to pick up a copy, it was nowhere to be found. I had two people looking for it - seemingly, it was hidden somewhere in their back area. When I went down at lunchtime to get something else, I checked - it's STILL not on the shelves. grrrr

Grr! I'm sorry you're having such trouble finding it! Hell, a couple local Oakland bookstores had it on Tuesday, so step up, Barnes and Noble!

You should come here for the release party at Borderlands on Saturday. They will have lots of copies!

My Doylist explanation

Doylist? Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Because you're solving a mystery? I haven't heard this one before.

When I was a teenager, I read a lot of mysteries (Agatha Christie, E.W. Hildick, Mary Higgins Clark) and horror (Christopher Pike, R.L Stine, Stephen King, Dean Koontz) and fantasy (Patricia C. Wrede, Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville...most of the stuff I read when I was a pre-teen, really; I never really graduated to "grown-up" fantasy) and thrillers (Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child). I don't know that I ever felt like anything I read was therapeutic, but even if I didn't know it at the time, I suppose it's clear my reading choices were very escapist.

I love Linda Holmes and she is my new hero.

Although, when I was ranting about the WSJ's gender-segregated lists ("and they said that ONLY BOYS should read Farenheit 451 !!!"), my friend replied, "So, girls should burn their copies?"

Which is really all that needs to be said about the WSJ article.

Oh, I have a copy - as I said, I had TWO "sales associates" (aka retail peons) ransacking the store and one finally came up with a copy ... my very own copy, my precious. I just think it's rotten that, after I'd waited until the release date so her first week's sales would be recorded, B&N (damn them) has their copies hidden in the back.