Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling and Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen
A lot of you guys probably haven't seen me do this before since it's been such a ridiculously long time since I finished a book (with pages!) that I was reading for pleasure, but I keep a record of every book I read, with stuff like how many pages are in it, what year it was written in, etc., along with a grade (A-F) and my reaction to it. My reactions are generally non-spoilery; I'll mark them as containing spoilers if they do. But anyway, since it is now (FINALLY) summer, I'm going to be doing a lot more reading of Actual Books than I have been in a while. I'm kind of stupidly excited about this. Reading books on the beach, man, that IS summer for me.
So anyway, I've finished a couple of books in the past few days, and neglected to write them up. So:
5.
Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling
Pages: 607 (British version)
Year of publication: 2007
Genre: Fiction -- children's literature (er. kind of.)
Grade: A
Finished on: 23 July 2007
I can't even be rational about this book. It is the freaking LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK. I started reading this series when I was twelve, and I spent the entire summer after I discovered SS and CoS trying to write my own stories and being incapable of not setting them in wizarding schools. (This was before I knew about fanfiction.) There were some things I didn't entirely love about DH, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that these things are tiny and nit-picky and ridiculous. There's so much to love about this book, and about how it ties up the whole series in general. I kind of wish JKR had ended the book at the end rather than including the epilogue -- I think it would have been stronger without it -- but again with the tiny nit-picking. I'm definitely going to be rereading this soon.
6.
Title: Strip Tease
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Pages: 418
Year of publication: 1993
Genre: Fiction -- literature (another case of 'er. kind of.')
Grade: B
Finished on: 26 July 2007
A South Florida stripper named Erin gets caught up in the middle of a blackmail/murder/corruption scheme involving a Congressman and a sugar corporation. Hiaasen is a humor writer in the same league as Dave Barry, although Hiaasen's humor is kind of darker than Barry's. Also 100% nuts. Another of Hiaasen's books involves a guy who loses his arm and, instead of getting a prosthesis, replaces it with a Weed Whacker, just to give you an idea. This isn't the funniest of Hiaasen's books, but the way he ties up one of the sub-plots is possibly the best thing ever.
So anyway, I've finished a couple of books in the past few days, and neglected to write them up. So:
5.
Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling
Pages: 607 (British version)
Year of publication: 2007
Genre: Fiction -- children's literature (er. kind of.)
Grade: A
Finished on: 23 July 2007
I can't even be rational about this book. It is the freaking LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK. I started reading this series when I was twelve, and I spent the entire summer after I discovered SS and CoS trying to write my own stories and being incapable of not setting them in wizarding schools. (This was before I knew about fanfiction.) There were some things I didn't entirely love about DH, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that these things are tiny and nit-picky and ridiculous. There's so much to love about this book, and about how it ties up the whole series in general. I kind of wish JKR had ended the book at the end rather than including the epilogue -- I think it would have been stronger without it -- but again with the tiny nit-picking. I'm definitely going to be rereading this soon.
6.
Title: Strip Tease
Author: Carl Hiaasen
Pages: 418
Year of publication: 1993
Genre: Fiction -- literature (another case of 'er. kind of.')
Grade: B
Finished on: 26 July 2007
A South Florida stripper named Erin gets caught up in the middle of a blackmail/murder/corruption scheme involving a Congressman and a sugar corporation. Hiaasen is a humor writer in the same league as Dave Barry, although Hiaasen's humor is kind of darker than Barry's. Also 100% nuts. Another of Hiaasen's books involves a guy who loses his arm and, instead of getting a prosthesis, replaces it with a Weed Whacker, just to give you an idea. This isn't the funniest of Hiaasen's books, but the way he ties up one of the sub-plots is possibly the best thing ever.