The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged harry potter
Read and That’s It 2008
Jan 12th
This used to be called “Read and Watched 2008″ but I stopped keeping track of movies I’ve watched. It got too tedious and I was never sure if I should count movies I was only half paying attention to (aka watching movies on t.v.). Maybe I should start again and only log in movies I’ve seen in a theater, or something like that. That sounds good actually. But in any case, 2008 is a bust for movies. And not great for books either. Here we go:
| Title | Author | Series | Series Part | Reading Date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 003 | 4/21/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 004 | 7/13/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 005 | 8/16/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 006 | 9/5/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 007 | 10/12/2008 | 8 |
| Twilight | Stephanie Meyer | Twilight Series | 001 | 10/17/2008 | 6 |
| Stardust | Neil Gaimen | 10/22/2008 | 6 | ||
| Fool Moon | Jim Butcher | Dresden Files | 002 | 11/7/2008 | 8 |
So yeah, pretty much just read Harry Potter this year. It was good, but I got sick of it towards the end. Stardust turned out to be one of the few instances where a movie is better than a book, and Fool Moon’s main character cried once too many times, so I gave up on that series early.
As for this year, I don’t know what I feel like reading. I’m not in the mood for anything. I’m humming and hawing about reading the DS9 Relaunch books, but I’m often disappointed in “franchise books” and I don’t know if I want to start down another series road, or read some stand alone stuff for a while. Maybe I should read a book on how to read faster!
Two Rings To Rule Them All
Oct 13th
The Girl and I went to San Francisco and hit up Giraux’s again, to get both my ring and her wedding band. No pictures because we had to order the right size, but I think they looked great. Once again, went a bit over budget, but I have to look at this thing the rest of my life, so I might as well be happy with it. Going to be weird to wear jewelry all the time. I have a feeling I’m going to be playing with my finger habitually for a good while.
Last night, I finally put an end to the Harry Potter series. I’ve been working on them off and on (mostly on) since 2007, so it only took me two years to read seven books. Very sad. An extremely enjoyable adventure that I am more than happy to be done with, because I can’t wait to read something else now that doesn’t have a character named “Potter” in it. It’s been a while! But exhaustion aside, it really was a pretty good series, especially after it got past the first few books and started getting serious about all-out-war. It was a nice transition from boy to man, and I’m glad Rowling wasn’t afraid to kill very important people along the way. I have some objections to the last book, but I’m not sure if they’re legit problems or just fanboy reactions as to “how I would have done things” even though it’s not my book. Probably the latter, and the fact that I’m still thinking about means it was impactful, one way or the other. So two thumbs up for Harry Potter, as if the entire rest of the world didn’t already know that.
Speaking of “two thumbs up,” I also managed to watch between chapters the two and a half hour epic There Will Be Blood. Well uh…I liked it but again, much like No Country For Old Men, it kinda went nowhere and close to three hours is a long time to invest in something that goes nowhere. That said, I give TWBB a much higher mark than NCFOM, and found this review by Roger Ebert interesting, specifically this passage:
“There Will Be Blood” is the kind of film that is easily called great. I am not sure of its greatness. It was filmed in the same area of Texas used by “No Country for Old Men,” and that is a great film, and a perfect one. But “There Will Be Blood” is not perfect, and in its imperfections (its unbending characters, its lack of women or any reflection of ordinary society, its ending, its relentlessness) we may see its reach exceeding its grasp. Which is not a dishonorable thing.
So…NCFOM is a perfect film, but TWBB isn’t, and one of the reasons is the ending? I’m sorry Roger, I like you and junk, but that’s insanity. NCFOM HAS NO ENDING! NOTHING HAPPENS! You sit there for three hours mesmerized by performances and waiting for the big payoff and everyone just walks away to do their own thing. The protagonists death is so inconsequential and random I didn’t even know he was dead for fifteen minutes! The bad guy gets away, the good guy never comes close to catching him, never even meets him; Woody Harrelson shows up to give us hope and is gone ten minutes later. Neither film is perfect for me, but I enjoyed TWBB much more, and even if the ending is somewhat random, at least the squirmy jerkboy gets what’s been coming to him, and that’s satisfying. Okay, venting done. Perhaps I should stick to chick flicks. They always end nice.
I haven’t had soda today, I brought food from home instead of buying something, and I flossed this morning. Go me.
