Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 05, 2019

Favorite Science Fiction Series

Companion post to the "Favorite Fantasy Series", and again in no particular order of preference.   Leaving out well known classics such as "1984", "War of the Worlds", "Brave New World", etc.

"Foundation" - Isaac Asimov* 
"The Handmaid's Tale" - Margaret Atwood
"Salughterhouse 5" - Kurt Vonnegut
"Dune" - Frank Herbert
"Remembrance of Earth's Past" - Cixin Liu
"Exhalation" - Ted Chiang
"Science in the Capitol Trilogy" - Kim Stanley Robinson
"Snowcrash" - Neal Stephenson
"Rendezvous with Rama" - Arthur C. Clarke
"Ender's Game" - Orson Scott Card
"The Red Rising Trilogy" - Pierce Brown**
"Ancillary Justice" - Ann Lecke
"Collected Short Stories" - Philip K. Dick***
"Starship Troopers" - Robert H. Heinlein
"H2G2" - Douglas Adams
"Left Hand of Darkness" - Ursula K. LeGuin
"The Lathe of Heaven" - Ursula K. LeGuin

*a bit sexist and racist as I read it as an adult, but seminal
** a little pop, but great ideas
*** everything :)

Monday, February 04, 2019

My Favorite Fantasy Series/Books

In no particular order of preference, but leaving out well known classics such as "Lord of the Rings", "Chronicles of Narnia", "Once and Future King", etc. I have only included books/series I have read.

"The Powder Mage Trilogy" - Brian McClellan
"The Magicians" - Lev Grossman
"The Stormlight Archives" - Brandon Sanderson*
"Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne" - Brian Staveley
"The Shadow Campaigns" - Django Wexler*
"The First Law" - Joe Abercrombie
"Farseer Trilogy" - Robin Hobb
"Lightbringer" - Brent Weeks
"Mistborn" - Brandon Sanderson
"The Raven's Shadow" - Anthony Ryan**
"His Dark Materials" - Philip Pullman
"Kingkiller Chronicles" - Partick Rothfuss*
"A Song of Ice and Fire" - George R. R. Martin*
"Wheel of Time" - Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson)
"Lord Darcy" - Randall Garrett
"Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" - Sussana Clarke
"Broken Earth Trilogy" - N.K. Jemesin

* on-going
** the first book only

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Reading Updates for the Month: January 2017

A technology heavy reading list for the month.

How Statistics Lost Their Power - And Why We Should Fear What Comes Next
The Guardian, The Long Read
Thursday, 19 January 2017

The Data That Turned the World Upside Down
Vice, Motherboard (originally published in Das Magazin)
Saturday, 28 January 2017

The Great A.I. Awakening
The New York Times Magazine
Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Learning a New Culture...

A great article in The Atlantic that I stumbled upon thanks to Yohan John.  Learning a new language is one thing, but learning a new culture, that's something else.  I am presently reading a book by Tracy Kibber, "The Strength in What Remains"... (which I highly recommend) and I can appreciate the connection between the protagonist in Kibber's book and the author of this article.
Have a read.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Summer Reading List

Quick reviews of what I am reading this summer.  I was on science fiction and fantasy binge this summer...

1. Science in the Capitol Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson
Perhaps the most non-fiction science fiction I have read.  Dealing with the very real issue of climate change and the condition of scientific research and political machinations, this is one of the most immersive works of science fiction I have read.  It creates a believable reality that draws you into a future you believe is very likely.  It does not have lasers and fancy names... and that's the scary part.

2. The Kingkiller Trilogy - Patrick Rothfuss
Fantasy in the form of song and poetry, a combination of coming of age and immersion in the world of science and magic.  Wonderfully written, the first book "The Name of the Wind" and the sequel, "Wise Man's Fears", sets the stage for one of the most anticipated climaxes in popular literature since Harry Potter 7.

3. The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson
A trilogy in four parts by master fantasy writer Sanderson (who finished The Wheel of Time series).  A work of high fantasy, "The Final Empire", "Well of Ascension", and "Hero of Ages" weaves together religion, philosophy, magic, and politics with superb insight into the human condition.  I'm presently reading the fourth - "Alloy of Law".

4. Bloodsong - Anthony Ryan
Another high fantasy novel, the start of a trilogy, this self published work by Ryan feels like an homage to "The Name of The Wind", but what a wonderful homage it is.  A coming of age story, of love and politics, it is like "Game of Thrones" with a hero.  A great addition to the genre.

5. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
I re-read Ender's Game in anticipation for the movie release.  I can see no way a film can do justice to the sheer scope and angles of the book.  I'm also presently reading "Speaker for the Dead", book 2 in the Ender Sextology.

6. The Gate Thief - Orson Scott Card
I was a little disappointed by OSC's latest, a work of contemporary fantasy.  The characters seem crude and even the cruelty, which was poetic in "Ender's Game", seems forced and random.  I trudged through the sequel too, but no more.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

A Round-Up Of Interesting Reads...

Continuing with my recent effort to raise awareness about climate change using scientific arguments and not hearsay and mumbo-jumbo, I bring you another great article from Time Magazine, emphasizing on the lesser understood and far reaching impacts of climate change.

And from the world of insanity and humanity, here is the brilliant story of a smuggling operation, very reminiscent of KIS.  I think this fellow would do great business here too!

For the geek in me, a book review about the coolest scientific minds, making the silliest blunders... "Brilliant Blunders".

And lastly, for all the budding wannabe bankers out there... Here's the truth. 

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

In The Company of Heroes

I have a Kindle now and I love it.  Best investment I've made since buying gold early last year.  I've already read several books and thanks to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library and Amazon's Daily Deals, I've discovered some great stuff, and also quite a few disappointments.

The Settlers of Catan - seriously, it's a book now!  Rebecca Gable, a German historical writer took the classic board game elements and set it up as the Nordic settlement in Iceland in the 10th century.  As literature it wasn't that great, but I was curious to see how the elements of the game will be woven into the book.  To be honest, it was fairly disappointing.  Not recommended.

Earth Strike: Star Carrier: Book 1 - Famed military sci-fi and space opera writer returns to what made him famous - humans on the brink of obliteration from an all-powerful galactic empire.  This is no Battlestar Gallactica - this is unadulterated space battles with singularity drives and "kinetic-kill" nuclear tipped Krait missle stuff.  Pretty fun stuff, but again, not recommended.

Call for the Dead - John Le Carre - Where it all began, with the introduction of George Smiley - the slovenly looking unassuming spy, whose ex-wife lovingly called him toad becaue he looked like one.  The precursor to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  This is where is starts.  Seems ancient by modern spy standards (What, no GPS tracking devices? It's 1966!)  Brings me back to the classic noir writings of Mickey Spillane and co.  Great stuff if you're interested in clandestine genre.

Finally, In the Company of Heroes - Mike Durant.  Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite war movies of all time.  Nothing else comes close to bringing the science, chaos and horror of modern warfare to cinema and Mike Durant brings alive his tale of being a Somali POW in the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 with amazing candor.  Rivetting read.  I think I'm going to pick up Bowden's Black Hawk Down after I finish this.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Dry Land and Other Stories

The work week was hard, so of course, distractions were necessary.  Here's what's distracting me now.

King Henry is back at The Emirates.  Unfortunately, Sir Robert will not be joining him - but he might come to India!  Whoa.  Move over India vs. Bayern Munich and testimonial matches.  What a great night though at the JN Stadium.  Poor Baichung, not the best farewell match to have.  Final score 4-0...

Granted Bjork has done some decent music, but most of the time I can't tell the difference between Bjork, Yoko Ono, and a seal whose flipper has been smashed into a car door.  Still, even without Bjork and the economic crisis music from Iceland survives.  They gave us Sigur Ros - check out their fantastic documentary "Heima" - here's a taste of their music.  There was also Ryoksopp in between.  Then they gave us Bloodgroup.  Their first album "Sticky Situation" was tonally harsher with a lot of heavy synth sounds (well they are an electro pop group so I should have expected that), but their second album "Dry Land" is a bloody revelation.  Beautifully arranged with lounging Enyaesque vocals.  Great stuff, definitely warrants a listen.  Here's a couple of my picks from the album:
"This Heart" and "Wars"... don't want to give the rest away.  And if you think these guys hide behind distortion have a listen to this version of "This Heart" at the GogoYoko Studio.

Shravan introduced me to the wonderfully quirky and funny world of David Sedaris - a comic writer - yet insight-fully cynical and sarcastic.  Presently reading "Me Talk Pretty One Day".

Maggie brought Neon's "Skydiver" as my staple office work listen.  You won't be able to get your hands on this easily since Neon only released this as a 12" LP vinyl single.  Trippy seven minutes.  Reminds me of Japanese DJ Quadra's "Get it by Your Hands".

Of course, what's been making the rounds even faster than "Kolaveri Di" is Walk of the Earth's cover of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" - over 11 million views in a week!  What a fantastic video - do have a listen.

Ok, everyone says this is one of the most overplayed songs of 2011, but I only discovered it recently.  Yes, it is Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks".  While the original might be over-played, I discovered two amazing covers.  The first a bluesy take by internet sensation Karmin, and the second by a one-man-band internet sensation Basement Alchemy.  Have a listen!

That's all folks!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Growing Up...

Things that made me grow up...

1. "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" - Salman Rushdie
~ My old English teacher gave me this book for my 13th birthday and I've read it every year since then, each time finding something new to relate to, a joke I had missed, a subtle reference that was too clever previously... a story about family that I appreciated at the times I needed it most.  Above all, it put a smile on my face.

2. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - Robert M. Pirsig
~ Helped my get over my cynical days... a period where I thought the world owed me happiness, that I was entitled to it simply being alive.  Although this book has nothing to do with Zen and little to do with motorcycles for that matter, it is what got me interested in contemporary Japanese literature.

3. "The Romantics" - Pankaj Mishra
I hated his first book, "Butter Chicken in Ludhiana".  It was a wannabe Khushwant Singh and it failed miserably.  Then I met Pankaj Mishra.  He was roommates with my old literature teacher at JNU and I saw a lot of myself in his experiences.  So I gave his second novel a shot and I felt I shed a lifetime of naivete.  No one I have recommended the book to has ever loved it, perhaps you wont too, but to me it was a watershed moment.  My autographed copy of the book was stolen on a train in 2007... I haven't read it since then, but its lessons are etched in where they matter.

4. "The Catcher in the Rye" - J.D. Salinger
~ Perhaps the most famous coming of age story.  I never understood it the first time I read it in high school, perhaps in A form.  But now when I see it on my book shelf, much thumbed and dog eared, it reminds me of an old friend who is always there with a warm hug and sage advice... I don't need to read it again.  It taught me it's okay not to know what to do and to be scared.  That's more than I could ask for.

5. The Poems of Pablo Neruda
~ What can I say, the man understood love and socks.

6. "Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids" - Oe Kenzaburo
~ Scared me.  Put my world in perspective.  Made me realize how often humanity is missing from humans, yet how quickly we learn to laugh and love again; and how much brighter little specks of happiness shine the darker the backdrop.  Oe wrote this at my age... how little I understand.  Can the fear of impending destruction be made poetic?  Can violence be poetic?  Sadat Hasan Manto did so with "Black Margins"... now Oe has done so with this.

7. "In My Life" - The Beatles
~ My favorite Beatles song that was the soundtrack of my life during the cold walks across the Thames from Bankside to LSE.

8. "Big Fish" - Dir. Tim Burton
~ When this movie came out Nikhat Kazmi wrote R.I.P Tim Burton in her review for the film.  I have never trusted reviews since then.  I watched this film on my own in an empty theater in Satyam in Delhi at 10 am during the middle of Jan tests at Stephens'.  The film made me appreciate stories and the joy of hearing and sharing stories.  It made me want to tell stories, to make people laugh at the oddities of life, to weave together the real with the fantastic, to pay attention to the details, to fill in the gaps with tall tales...

9. "Ikiru" - Dir. Akira Kurosawa
~ (trans. "To Live")  This lesser known movie by Kurosawa is perhaps one of his best, I mean apart from "Rashomon" of course, but "Rashomon" did not shake my understanding of life like "Ikiru" did.  I watched this movie when I was reading Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Illych" for Professor Ceballes' Philosophy 115 class at Hamilton and I remember my paper on "Death" got an A+... it was all raw emotion evoked by "Ikiru".

(To be continued...)

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Just So Stories [1]

Last week, James Head and I entered into a little duologue similar to our duel of bad poetry in October 2005. This time each of us had 12 hours to respond. Here are the results so far. It's still going on and I'll put up the new ones if we come up with anything good.
James:
"So, what about that big, glowing, floating hat behind you?"
"Are you retarded?"
"Yes."
Maity:
So a baby walks into a topless bar, and is really confused. Then he puts his hat down and gets a drink. All the girls try to hook up with him. They coo, whine and serenade him with intelligent conversation. He puts down his scotch and says, "Sorry ladies, I don't speak retard", and walks away without his milk.
James:
So the milkman is going on his early morning route when he comes across Mrs. Macabee - who is in her front yard, in her nightgown, watering the petunias. The milkman is a little puzzled by this, since it's 4:30 in the morning and it's still dark out. He approaches Mrs. Macabee and says, "Exuse me. Mrs. Macabee? Your petunias are on fire." And she says,"Well that's why I'm watering them, asshole!"
Maity:
So Mr. Petunia hated his name. All his life he had been teased about flowers. "Wimp in the Wind" they sang for him. He traveled far and wide and sought a wise man to weed his thoughts.
"Why must I live with such a name?" he asked the wise man.
"Because you are a flower, my son."
The next day, Mr. Petunia shot himself.
James:
So they're shooting a scene for this movie at a local diner. It is supposed to be a fight scene between two men, but the second man is nowhere to be found. For three hours they wait, meanwhile they are constantly trying to reach him by phone but to no avail. Just when they are about to give up and leave, the makeup artist volunteers to play his part.
"I'll do it," she says "I know his entire part."
The director says, "But you're a woman. The part calls for a man. You don't even resemble him slightly!"
And she says, "Well you don't even resemble Danny Devito's dick!"
Maity:
So Danny DeVito is playing chess with the leader of his local motorbike gang - The Unsteady Serpents when his phone rings.
"That's my missus", he says, "she has a special vibrator."
"Aww phooey, you're just saying that", the leader replied.
"No, no, really, you do."
And they made love on the giant chessboard.
James:
So Gary Kasparov is playing Deep Blue when Deep Blue takes one of his pawns en passant. Being Russian, Kasparov tries to accuse Deep Blue of cheating.
"Confounded machine!" he cries "Somehow the Americans fixed it to cheat against me!"
Deep Blue says, "En passant - it's French, bitch, you wouldn't understand."
Kasparov drinks himself into a stupor and goes on a rampage, destroying six chessboards and a child's bicycle.
Maity:
So Tweedledee and Tweedledum were riding their tricycles down Le Rouge de Spassky when they smell Chinese food in the crisp night air of Champagne. Tn'T park their ride on the curb and walk into an old drinking house made entirely of used Dell computers. They had heard rumors that the maitre'd there spoke a Spanish that reeked with an odd New Zealand accent. Tn'T didn't really care though, tonight was not a night to give in to their explosive nature.
As they enter, the maitre'd walks over to them and asks "qué la voluntad usted tiene?"
Tweedledum just shakes his head.
Tweedledee glances up from the menu and says "I'll have the sex on toast, please. [2]"
James:
So a clown heard about this great dish called sex on toast from his colleagues Messrs. Dee and Dum, and is riding his bicycle to the diner where it is served. While rounding a corner his front tyre sinks into a huge pothole and the wheel shoots off, hitting a small child and killing him instantly. The clown is ejected head first over the handle bars and into an open manhole cover, but instead of making a clean entrance he hits every possible rung of the ladder going down, breaking all the bones in his body above the waist. He is rushed to the hospital but is pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, the mother of the dead child decides she cannot go on living and throws herself into oncoming traffic and dies.
Maity:
So in a hospital just outside Panhole City, a large man, clad in Samurai battle armour and a doctor's apron, walked into the waiting room carrying a large katana and a grave expression. The sword was soaked in blood and left a crimson trail as he walked through the room to a very worried looking couple at the far end. The couple looked at him questioningly and the samurai said, "I'm sorry ma'am but your clown died in surgery."
(To be continued... maybe)
[1] Nothing to do with Mr. Kipling at all.
[2] Consider it as a homage to Murmurlark.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Hamilton Summer: The Ballad of Pragyan Pradhan

This is to welcome Pragyan Pradhan (formerly known as The God of Small Things) of Jae and Silent Pradhan fame to enter the world of blogging; adding yet another eclectic voice to "Listening to the Weather". Pragyan is presently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics at Hamilton College. When not studying, wasting time, or fighting for civil rights issues in Nepal, Pragyan enjoys fighting crime under the guise of Proverbman. We look forward to a glimpse of his never ending river of wisdom...

On another note, I am dead tired. Thinking is taxing. I should stop.

I did not do any work the whole summer. Maybe read a couple of books: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", Kawabata's "Master of Go" and Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Everything" among others. Watched a lot of movies, some useless, some brilliant, like Kubrick's "The Shining" on HD... finally eh? Played a lot of games, learnt how to mix a mojito and the fact that Miami cops can afford Ferraris... one could say that all summer was one lazy sunday.

This weekend I did more work than the whole summer. Pragyan and I have our research presentation due at 6 pm this evening. We started working on our research paper 2pm on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say the next 48 hours were spent bent over three laptops, thousands of loose sheets of research papers and raw data and a bottle of Johnny Walker Gold Label.

I'm still trying to recover from the onslaught. Twenty eight pages of, quite frankly, bullshit. Albeit it's not spectacular, I'm proud of it. I just hope my boss feels the same way.

(Edit: The dinner-presentation went off great! I think...)

"I'll procrastinate tomorrow..." ~ Pragyan Pradhan

Monday, June 12, 2006

Have An Adequate Day

This semester I was hit with the Marx Brothers fever, but this is not about that. This weekend amidst World Cup fever, Ntokozo's birthday and a good-bye party for Claire, I went to New York City to bid adieu to Shraddha.

I had a chance to visit the 24/7 underground Apple store on 58th Street. Fondly known as "The Cube", this is a Mac-paradise, a real fun place.

On the walk back to Shraddha's appartment, we saw 2 Ferrari F430s, a Mercedes SL500, a Bentley Continental, an Aston Martin Vanquish, and a Porsche 911GT in that order in a span of five minutes. A Lambourghini would have wrapped up the day nicely.

I've been trying to catch up on my reading for the past couple of weeks. So far I've re-read The Chronicles of Narnia, a lot of Feynman, Brave New World and am presently cruising along an annotated version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I also have American Bartending on the side (thanks Shraddha!).

As for the World Cup, so far there hasn't been anything of note, except for the last three Australian goals against Japan in the last eight minutes...

Friday, July 29, 2005

Hazaar F*cked

The last one week has been exciting, not just in terms of events, what with the Mumbai floods and fires and NASA shuttle launch, but at a personal level as well.

Perhaps it’s just my naivety speaking, but I feel I would have enjoyed the 80s more than the present. Yeah, sure, not all was right with the world then either, but for some reason Upamanyu Chaterjee made me feel that I’d be very much at home.

I first read Chaterjee’s debut novel English, August in school and shelved it as a ho-hum fun read book. Last week I reread it and also managed to watch the movie. I sincerely recommend both. The sequel Mamaries of the Welfare State and Chatterjee’s other novel The Last Burden both, for the lack of a better word, sucked. But I digress…

In many ways I relate very well and empathize with Agastya, the protagonist. We’re both Bengalis who spent their formative years in boarding school, lost a parent very early, and went to college in Delhi (partially in my case) and then were lost; with no idea what to do except fantasize our ideal world with no actual inclination to try and reach there.

Agastya, who spends most of his time smoking marijuana and masturbating while training as an IAS officer in a small, hot town called Madna, does not want much from life. He just wants to bask in the Delhi sun in the winter, read, listen to some music, smoke and drink. Not quite the American Dream, but close enough for me.

So where do we go from here? We get hazaar f*cked. But I’m sure it’ll be fun. You see there in lies the rub. I’m unable to break away from my societal obligations of actually amounting to a normal Bengali man and take a chance.

Last week I also went to IS-CON, Mayapur. Shady is perhaps the first word that comes to mind. All around were clean shaven (all the way round!), saffron clad, stoned foreigners, tripping on acid and religion. To the non-discerning eye nothing seems suspect. Dad never caught anything! But one can clearly see that the euphoria on the young devotees’ faces are artificially induced. I, of course, had my little adventures during my little stay at Mayapur which I won’t delve into. Let it suffice to say that it was a welcome trip for me. It wasn’t easy. The first guy I asked gave me a look as if I had asked if we could shit together.

“Saddam Hussein is a lawyer! I feel sorry for the first guy who told him a lawyer joke.” – Jon Stewart, The Daily Show.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Sixth Seduction of the Papal Kind

Seriously there’s no news like bad news is there? These days the news is filled with a blast here, a kill there, a Mamta Banerjee here, and more detonations in London. It could be the handiwork of enraged Aussie fans, considering their dismal Day 1 performance at the London test, but I’m skeptical.

But instead of tripping over the pitfalls of tragedy, we should focus on the lighter-side of things…

Well it appears that like Ms. V, there are a lot of Harry Potter haters out there. One of the more hardcore ones is a German, Gabriele Kuby; who hates HP enough to actually write a book about it. Get a job lady. Wait sorry, I forgot Germany was in recession.

The Pope happens to be another aggrieved anti-HP activist. In fact he was quoted as saying that the HP books are “…subtle seductions of children which act unnoticed and by this, deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.”[1]. Subtle seduction of children, eh? Who better to know about that than the clerics, right?

Apart from boring stuff like China re-evaluating its currency and Francis Fanthome being asked to “take a holiday” (never liked that guy, he really screwed my ICSE!), I picked up two rather interesting stories. Three, actually:

Bulletproofing the Ayodhya shrine? Come on mate, surely the good people at DRDO are not that vella.

“Dear terrorists, new firman issued. Kill 10, take a branded T-shirt and be the best terrorist in the group. Jihad begins from July 18-20. – Osama.”
ICICI Prudential actually used this to motivate their insurance salesmen. One wonders why they didn’t dress them up like black bucks, paint a large bulls-eye on them and send them to Pataudi’s home.

On a graver note, a girl was molested in Presidency College at 11:30 am on a staircase after a sociology class by some “outsiders”. What I don’t understand is how this girl was all alone after class on a staircase in the middle of the day in a college with five thousand students? Either Presidency has a serious attendance problem, or this girl lacks friends. But who cares really, it was after all a legitimate reason to call a student strike! Disappointing world we live in, isn't it?

[1] Courtesy "The Daily Show".

Sunday, July 17, 2005

If Dumbledore was a Mumbai Godfather…

Yesterday I managed to watch Sarkar and finish Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

It’s clear that Sarkar has been heavily influenced by The Godfather, but that doesn’t take away the fact that Sarkar is still a brilliantly well made movie. Stellar performances, excellent background score (though very reminiscent of Company) and some rather smart dialogues and camera angles made Sarkar a very worthy watch.

Half Blood Prince on the other hand was a bit of a let down after all the hype, much like Order of the Phoenix. One was hoping that the Harry Potter franchise would not become another Star Wars. Alas, it’s too late now. I still don’t understand that if the potions book was fifty years old, how could it belong to Snape? [Edit: It was originally his mother's] Interestingly enough, the contents of HBP and what is to be expected bear a remarkable similarity to a brilliantly well written fan fiction that Nisha had once showed me.

I noticed a bunch of printing errors and typos in the Bloomsbury edition. They forgot to add Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in the list of previously published HP books in the back dust cover. There was a lot to be wanted from HBP, but in the end I agree with one review I read in ToI (forgive me!), HP6 is nothing more than a tie up of loose ends before embarking on a grand finale that is to be HP7.

However, HP6 has sparked a lot of speculation, particularly about the mysterious R.A.B. and Snape. Snape of course remains the most enigmatic character and after the movies (cheers Alan Rickman) he's become my favorite!

The HP news on television has been very irritating. It’s like the Beatle mania all over again.

I wonder if HP will become another Sherlock Holmes, to be brought back from the dead by an enraged readership?