No studying? Damn! Next thing they'll tell me is I'll have to eat jelly doughnuts or sleep with a supermodel to get things done around here. I ask you, how much can one man give?

Xander ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


DebetEsse - Jul 19, 2007 2:57:59 am PDT #3246 of 28197
Woe to the fucking wicked.

Yeah. And nicely put.

We've gotten serious reflections and echoes of characters in other characters (Peter and Neville, Draco and Snape), but with different choices. And it is our choices etc.


Jesse - Jul 19, 2007 3:54:38 am PDT #3247 of 28197
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I just saw a panicked post on LiveJournal that nytimes.com is spoilery for HP on the front page. Here's what it says:

J.K. Rowling’s spell-binding epic ends not with modernist, Soprano-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure, writes Michiko Kakutani.

I imagine the review gets into more detail, but that doesn't seem spoilery to me.


Aims - Jul 19, 2007 3:57:30 am PDT #3248 of 28197
Shit's all sorts of different now.

Jesse, it doesn't to me. But then again, if you read it very literally, every book ends with closure. Ya know - closing the damn book. Har.


DebetEsse - Jul 19, 2007 3:58:37 am PDT #3249 of 28197
Woe to the fucking wicked.

I heard a reference to that review on NPR this morning. I stuck my fingers in my ears and said, "lalalalalala".

And now, no more news for Abi. This slow dissociation from media is kind of entertaining..


Frankenbuddha - Jul 19, 2007 4:02:56 am PDT #3250 of 28197
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Runs off to nytimes.com

Runs back to thread

It's spoilery, but not outrageously so. I think I can read between the lines a little on a few of the things in it that it doesn't spell out, so I'd say read it at your own peril.


Jesse - Jul 19, 2007 4:12:26 am PDT #3251 of 28197
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Well, sure, like most any review. I mean, they have to talk about what happens!


flea - Jul 19, 2007 4:20:08 am PDT #3252 of 28197
information libertarian

I read the review in full, and while there are no specific spoilers, if you are spoiler averse I would avoid it. She talks generally about themes, and mentions deaths without naming names, but in a way that fans might find spoily.

Also, she apparently bought the book by walking into a store in NYC???


Jesse - Jul 19, 2007 4:22:12 am PDT #3253 of 28197
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Maybe she walked in and said, "I'm Michiko Kakutani."


sumi - Jul 19, 2007 4:33:24 am PDT #3254 of 28197
Art Crawl!!!

Yes - and now that it's been on NPR and the NYTimes I'm sure that Scholastic has contacted the store about their error.

(Also, I thought professional critics got advance copies?)


sumi - Jul 19, 2007 4:37:10 am PDT #3255 of 28197
Art Crawl!!!

In NON-HP book news: has anyone read Tasha Alexander?

I am currently reading And Only to Deceive, thoroughly enjoying it and think that others here will too. It's set in the UK (and France so far) at the end of the 19th century about a young widow.