Books

Finished reading The Book Thief. What a great book. I'm getting really into WW2 historical fiction it seems! Started this book called Night by Elie Wiesel. It's about his experiences in Auschwitz. Seems like a pretty short book because I've already read half the book last night. But so far it is pretty interesting. It is pretty gut wrenching hearing stories about how a person was picked to work in the crematorium and had to stuff his own father into a furnace... Interesting, but heartbreaking.

You should read The Magic Army by Leslie Thomas. It's set over here in my part of the country, with quite a lot of it taking place in my area of that area. One of the best World War II fiction  books I've ever read. Even contains the US Army for you 😉 as it's set around the time they come over to help out.

Rhys have you linked anyone to your books that you wrote on the forums before? I've read two of Rhys' books, they are pretty good. You all should check them out!

Finished Night, was a good short read, if anyone wants a nice recollection of the Halocaust you should read it. Stuff is heartbreaking though. Last night I went on Amazon and bought Dan Brown's newest book called Inferno. I've read every one of his books except for this one and am finally getting around to it. Can't wait! Then after that I will be reading The Bear and The Prince, its apart of the Luron Saga, written by our very own Rhys Clark!

Rhys have you linked anyone to your books that you wrote on the forums before? I've read two of Rhys' books, they are pretty good. You all should check them out!

Thanks for the plug lol. If anyone is interested, I have three parts to an ongoing series of fantasy ebooks published online, you can get them either at Smashwords or Amazon. It should be noted the first book is free on Smashwords but not free on Amazon. So you're better off buying from Smashwords.

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/6748

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Luron-Saga-3-B … 139&sr=1-3

Thank you for all and any support.

Just finished reading all 7 Harry Potter books. Read them all in a row over two months.

Some thoughts:

• Reading them back to back throws up some annoyances, Especially in the first few books were you get huge paragraphs explaining what you already know. I'm sure if I read them with a year or more between them, like when they were released, the little reminders about things might have been useful. But too together was annoying - do I really need reminding about what happened in the previous book? No, because I just read it, Not a serious complaint though, as like I said... a year apart and it probably would have been a useful memory jog,
• Harry is a dick. In the sixth and seventh, I could tolerate him. Previous to that, really didn't like him at all. He's a complete dick who even gets happy at one of his best friends getting injured out of spite.
• Opposite Harry though, Ron and Hermione were great.
• Kreacher was hilarious when grumpy.
• I get some changes that they made in the films - that's always to be expected. But there were some from the books that just seemed unnecessary to change. Little things that really bothered me because they seem to follow that particular part of the book and then have someone else say the lines, despite the character in the book being there.
• Harry is a dick. I want to reiterate this. I seriously don't understand how people like him. I get the anger issues... but he's a dick.

OK something I can sink my teeth into! SPOILER WARNING for anyone who hasn't read the books. I'm actually reading the series for the umpteenth time and I just started Askaban.

Just finished reading all 7 Harry Potter books. Read them all in a row over two months.

Some thoughts:
Reading them back to back throws up some annoyances, Especially in the first few books were you get huge paragraphs explaining what you already know. I'm sure if I read them with a year or more between them, like when they were released, the little reminders about things might have been useful. But too together was annoying - do I really need reminding about what happened in the previous book? No, because I just read it, Not a serious complaint though, as like I said... a year apart and it probably would have been a useful memory jog,

I can see why this would be annoying but it's a pretty standard practice to recap previous books in an on-going series.

Harry is a dick. In the sixth and seventh, I could tolerate him. Previous to that, really didn't like him at all. He's a complete dick who even gets happy at one of his best friends getting injured out of spite.

Harry is a dick. I want to reiterate this. I seriously don't understand how people like him. I get the anger issues... but he's a dick.

Harry can be a dick. But that's what makes him a human character. Keep in mind he has a bit of Voldemort's soul inside him, so in a way, he is like the locket or the diary and the effects they can have. Also, he was abused growing up by his own family, has suffered multiple deaths and things that most kids growing up would probably go insane experiencing. Gotta forgive him for being a dick at times. Also remind me, when was he happy one of his best friends gets injured? I'm not sure what you're referring to.

But Harry also has a lot of good character traits. He's brave, he will do anything to protect his friends, he's modest. I don't think he is an unlikable character, he's just not a perfect one.

Opposite Harry though, Ron and Hermione were great.
Kreacher was hilarious when grumpy.

I love book Kreacher or more specifically his character arc. This is pretty much ignored entirely in the movie and it's a shame.

I get some changes that they made in the films - that's always to be expected. But there were some from the books that just seemed unnecessary to change. Little things that really bothered me because they seem to follow that particular part of the book and then have someone else say the lines, despite the character in the book being there.

You know my biggest gripe that they left out of the films? Sirius giving Harry the mirror in Book 5. They even have the exact scene where it happens but they miss out the giving the mirror bit. This makes it confusing for film fans when in Film 7, he suddenly has a broken mirror shard , whereas anyone from the books knows he smashed the mirror in Book 5 after Sirius died and then found the broken piece at the bottom of his  trunk at the start of 7. It's a key part of the story -and is completely shuffled over in the films. This among other things is why Book 5 is one of my favourites but Film 5 is one of my least favourites.

When Harry wanted to know what was going on, he wrote to Ron and told Hedwig to bite him if he didn't respond quick enough. He later sees Ron with hands covered in cuts from Hedwig and is glad about it, even though he's had it explained that they couldn't write back to him. Can't remember what book that was though. I want to say 5th.

6th and 7th Harry seemed more likeable and a bit more human. Before that, to me, he was just a dick. He was still occasionally in the last two, but that's like everyone really. Previous to that it's like they're making it very clear that he'd have fitted in perfectly well with Slytherin. Although he might have started changing mid way through 5.

I get why he was a dick. His Aunt and Uncle were awful, etc. I had sympathy during those times. But when he was away from them he just wasn't a nice person a lot of the time and I lost all sympathy. Thank god for his friends.

Also Luna who was also amazing. One of my favourite characters I'd say.

Isn't the 5th one where they have Sirius shoe Harry a photo of everyone, whereas in the books it was Mad-Eye... But in the film Mad-Eye was right there. Why change the character that showed Harry a picture. It's a little thing, but bugged the shit out of me when I saw the film on TV past month right after finishing the book.

When Harry wanted to know what was going on, he wrote to Ron and told Hedwig to bite him if he didn't respond quick enough. He later sees Ron with hands covered in cuts from Hedwig and is glad about it, even though he's had it explained that they couldn't write back to him. Can't remember what book that was though. I want to say 5th.

Ah yeah, right... but this was right after the events of book 4. So Cedric was killed in front of him, and then his friends basically ignored him all summer. But yeah, Harry isn't likable in book 5, I'll give you that. In fact a big theme of book 5 is how he doesn't like the person he feels he is, questions if he's a bad person etc. so I can see why you'd get that vibe in book 5, but the other books, I don't see him being a bigger dick than the average person.

Also Luna who was also amazing. One of my favourite characters I'd say.

Luna is fantastic. One of my favourites too.

Unrelated, but Snape's story is also told just a little bit better in the books, even though the films did a good job.

Isn't the 5th one where they have Sirius shoe Harry a photo of everyone, whereas in the books it was Mad-Eye... But in the film Mad-Eye was right there. Why change the character that showed Harry a picture. It's a little thing, but bugged the shit out of me when I saw the film on TV past month right after finishing the book.

Another example is Luna finding Harry on the train in the sixth film after Draco breaks his nose. In the books, it's Tonks who finds him and we get a little insight into her mood and it becomes a whole subplot in book 6. They didn't have to make the entire sub plot but they could have had her in that one scene. They rush past the fact her and Lupin are not only married but pregnant - and there's that whole scene in Book 7 where Lupin wants to abandon her and the baby to help Harry and they have that big argument - it's a strong scene in the book, but they just completely left it out of what was quite a boring Deathly Hallows Part 1, which could have added a lot more to it with that scene.

I'm most of the way through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Christ, that's a good read.