On Wisconsin!

[przed]

Wisconsin played UNC tonight, and wow, it was a tense, great game. The two teams kept trading the lead, and for a while I thought the Badgers were sunk, but they really pulled it off in the last five minutes. On to the Elite Eight!

In other news, we nearly had a Harry Potter emergency yesterday. Ros and I are just about to finish the Chamber of Secrets, so I popped into the big Indigo bookstore near work to pick up the Prisoner of Azkaban. Not only didn't they have it, but their database showed none of their stores in Toronto had it either. And they only had The Deathly Hallows of the other books. And they weren't taking orders online for Azkaban, and neither was Amazon. Looks like the publisher is in the middle of changing editions and we're caught in the middle.

Fortunately I called our last remaining mini-chain bookstore, and they had Azkaban and all the other Potter books at a store not too far away. So I dashed up there last night and bought the lot.

We finished reading the big climax of Chamber of Secrets tonight, and man, that was intense. We'll be on to Azkaban tomorrow. And after the Sweetie told Ros about his boss' family going to the Harry Potter park in Florida last week, she's pretty insistent that we have to go back to Florida for our family vacation next year. Awww, my budding fan.

Comments

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

That's a pleasing triumph for smaller bookshops there *g* I think you should remind Ros that some of us had to wait up to *years* between books as they first came out! (Oh dear, I'm starting the 'when I was young...' remonstrations aren't I? *g*)

Azkaban is the best book by far and away in my opinion. Although that is partly because even as a teen/child I wanted to read about adults with complex issues more than I wanted to read about teenagers.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I'm always in favour of buying from the smaller bookshops. Though there are perishingly few left and none of them are close to us.

Ros' ambition is to finish all of the books before we get to England. I have pointed out that this is extremely unlikely to happen. *g* Though I wasn't reading the books as they were coming out, I remember our neighbours' kids waiting on the porch for the special Saturday delivery of Deathly Hallows. (Canada Post made special arrangement to work on Saturday just to deliver the final book.)

My vague memory of the movie of Azkaban is that I liked it more than most of the others. Because of Oldman/Thewliss Black/Lupin, of course. *g*

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Azkaban is where it all starts to get very interesting, and where I arrived: it had just come out in hardback, and the local shops were promoting the first two in paperback heavily. Clearly to hook people in time for the hardback. It worked on me :) I read the first and then went out and bought the next two. And then realised I had a long wait ahead of me for the next!

I hope she has as much fun with them as I do! (Although if she races through them so fast, hmm, the later books' complexity and themes might take some work?)

Are you watching the films as well, or are they for after you have read all the books?

[przed.livejournal.com]

I definitely looking forward to the appearances of Black and Lupin in Azkaban.

She's definitely enjoying them loads. Though I'm curious to see how she does with the later ones.

Our M.O. is to read the book and then watch the movie. (Win/win for us! Suddenly she's keen on both reading and movies!) I'm already looking forward to revisiting Branagh's Gilderoy Lockhart. He was so good at playing such a nob. *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

You *will* be going to FL again... :-)

You know, I never got past book #4 / movie #1. Not because I didn't like them - they were fine - but I wasn't obsessed while everyone else was (and this was after trying book #1 in French). Guess I was waiting for things to calm down.

I always meant to get back to it... and you're making me think it might be about time. ;-)

And yeah for smaller bookstores! Go, przed :nods:

[przed.livejournal.com]

FL is now a foregone conclusion. :-/

I've never been a huge Potter fan. I only read the first book on my own and wasn't too impressed, and I only watched the movies because they were chock full of actors I adore. And I never even got around to watching the final movie. I am, however, enjoying them much more as I see them through Ros' eyes. The flaws still irk me, but I'm more forgiving when I see how much enjoyment Ros is getting from them.

A definitely yay for smaller bookstores. I just wish there was one a bit closer to us.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I get most of my books from abebooks.com

They have thousands and the prices are reasonable most of the time.

Have fun reading!

[przed.livejournal.com]

I use abebooks.com for out of print stuff mainly. I still like buying new when I can. Though these days I'm trying to stick to reading the bazillion books I've acquired over the years before I buy anything new for myself.

[forthewistful.livejournal.com]

I love it how Ros seems to become a bigger Harry Potter fan each day. It must be wonderful to slowly grow into that world. Part of me wishes I had still been a girl when I started reading the books, but alas, I've been in my early twens (I managed to avoid it all for about four years after the first book had first been released). And enjoyed it a lot all the same. Well, most of it.

Only recently I made my parents watch the DVDs (meaning: I sat down and watched every film with them so that I could jump in with further explanation where necessary. It's been a lot of fun. And they both finally understood why so many people are such big fans of that series that they even queued up for the books in the middle of the night.

Have fun reading!

[przed.livejournal.com]

It is fun seeing her interest grow with each chapter. Harry Potter trivia is now one of her favourite new games. (Her father is horrible at it. I'm pretty good, but then I've soaked up a lot of the Potter stuff by osmosis contact with fandom over the years. *g*)

I doubt we'll get my mum watching the movies. She made the mistake of going to the final movie with a cousin of mine, and then complained bitterly when she didn't know what the heck was going on. (Yeah, mum, because there's seven films worth of continuity before that one. ::sigh::)

[forthewistful.livejournal.com]

Oh no, why didn't your cousin tell your mum that the film is part of a long series? Or did he/she expect her to know that? (Which wouldn't be surprising, I'd have considered that common knowledge, too, so...)

Please keep on letting us know of Ros' progress with HP. Does she have a favourite character yet? (It's probably Harry, right? Although, I never liked Harry all that much, but I might have if I'd have been younger.)

[przed.livejournal.com]

Oh, my mum knew what the score was going in. She just liked going to films with my cousin and his husband. And she likes complaining. ;-)

Ros' favourite character is Hermione. Which I am totally encouraging. (I'm finding myself awfully fond of Neville Longbottom this time through, poor long-suffering boy that he is.)

[forthewistful.livejournal.com]

Hermione is a good choice. I like her a lot. Okay, maybe not in the beginning when she is really an annoying know-it-all (for good reason, though, she really does know everything, doesn't she), but she grew to me with the later books.

I've never been too fond of Neville, but he's alright. And he proves himself in the end, which was great to see.

I am very fond of Draco (as my icon tells), Remus, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape. And of Draco's parents too, somehow. It's so hard to witness their demise. Seems as if I had a thing for characters that are definitely not black and white and that have quite a burden to bear, be it due to wrong choices they made or because they got the short end of the stick.

[przed.livejournal.com]

Crikey, I meant to respond to this right away, but it's been a mad weekend! Not bad, but busy!

I'm fond of Hermione and Neville probably because I was a combination of the two of them in school (accident-prone, forgetful and always up for answering the teacher's questions *g*)

I'm also fond of Remus and Snape, and also Dumbledore and McGonagall. The Malfoys are so far not quite to my taste so far, though I have to say that casting Jason Isaacs as Lucius is definitely a Good Thing. And I do think that J.K. creates an unnecessary strawman with the Slytherins.

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Yay, Badgers! I read about that game this morning--it must have been wonderful to watch. Well, wonderful given the way it turned out. *g*

Eek for the near-catastrophe! I'm really surprised that they didn't have it in stock. I see what you say about changing editions, but...man.

I read all the books, slowly, at the insistence of my nieces and nephew. *g* I enjoyed them, but I likely wouldn't have read them all on my own. According to my second niece and nephew, the Harry Potter park is highly enjoyable. They really liked the Butter Beer.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The Badgers/Tar Heels game was thrilling but very, very tense. Mind you, my relief when the Badgers finally turned it around was, shall we say, boisterous. *g*

I never thought I'd have trouble laying my hands on a Harry Potter book, but there you go.

I would totally not read Potter on my own (the Sweetie and I are always picking apart the various narrative stupidities) but it is fun seeing them through Ros' eyes. I have to say, the Harry Potter park sounds like a blast, and I've totally wanted to try Butter Beer since a friend told me about it.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

It's fun to read about the growing fan girl. :D

I never got into Harry Potter myself, my main experience with the books was selling them but I do think they're great books for kids because they're not dumbed down.

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's fun seeing her fannishness develop. Especially since she's not particularly fannish in general.

I'm not a huge fan of the Potter books, but I have to credit Rowling for making kids stretch a bit with the writing. Plus, it's fun inflicting more British slang on Ros. (She's been using telly and dosh since she was a toddler, courtesy of us. *g*)