Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7? by Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull & Jamie Lawrence

Emerson Spartz was a bored 12 year old homeschooler in 1999 when he started MuggleNet.Com, which apparently exploded along with the popularity of the books. One assumes he’s not one of the Ultra Religious Homeschooler crowd like we have here in Georgia who were trying to get Harry Potter banned from school libraries.

The web popularity even enabled him to do a personal interview with J.K. Rowling. So, huzzah for him.

The book, which I borrowed from my brother’s girlfriend, is a somewhat tedious read. It is highly repetitive and written without elegance. But, then again, I am reading a fan book, so none of this is surprising.

What I was really hoping for was a cliff notes to the series, with all the likely important plot points listed. If they were trying to fill space by repetitiveness, I think they might have considered doing a plot and key info breakdown of each book. That would’ve padded the tome out nicely.

Regardless, there were some interesting theories suggested, with supporting data from the books and interviews with J.K. Rowling.

Not spoilers, since it’s just rehashing known information, but…

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

To me, the appeal of Douglas Adams was not so much the concepts of the universe he invented, but rather the way he described the universe he invented, like a ship hanging in the sky “in much the same way that a brick doesn’t.” P.G. Wodehouse, who served as inspiration to Adams and many other writers, was much the same way.

Christopher Moore does it now and again, and while his books are kind of silly with endings you can see coming a mile away, they are an enjoyable, addictive ride. A Dirty Job is another whimsical journey into the world of anthropomorphic Death. I say another, because it’s more or less been done similarly in Terry Pratchett’s Mort and other Death-themed DiscWorld novels. I’m sure there are others. Plot summary: Reluctant Pseudo-Death struggles to figure out How “It” All Works while trying not to Screw “It” Up.

While the subject matter may be well-trodden, it is still an enjoyable read. I wish I could find some of the choice turns-of-phrase, but they’re lost in the depths of the book. I really need to read with a pencil on hand to make notes in margins for these Book Logs.

The Best American Essays 2006 Edited by Lauren Slater, Series Editor: Robert Atwan

A great collection… to start with.

Highlights:

Kinsey and Me by Laurie Abraham, about her visit to (and testing at) the Kinsey Institute prior to the release of the recent biopic¹.

501 Minutes to Christ by Poe Pallantine, about a man’s search for a place in life.

Death of a Fish by Adam Gopnik, about the unintentionally philosophical backlash resulting from the death of a pet goldfish that is actually a betta.

Grammar Lessons by Michele Morano, an essay about grammar that has very little to do with grammar, and more the dissolution of a relationship. Very David Ivesish.

Lost Dog by Susan Orlean², about the amazing search for a lost dog that actually happened here in Atlanta.

These are all in the first half of the book. The second half of the book has a much more melancholic feel to it… mostly about grief, loss, and illness. Perhaps Lauren Slater’s intention was to draw you in and then leave you wanting to slit your wrists. Hard to say. If so, I beat her, as I skimmed the last few essays.

¹The most boring movie about sex ever made.
²I have read and recommend her book of essays, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 Edited by Dave Eggers

This was probably the best of the series thus far.

It included the “best American first sentences of novels in 2005”, excerpts from that Chuck Norris website, a very funny piece from Kurt Vonnegut on writing, Julia Sweeney’s “Letting Go of God” piece, comics and many other funny and poignant bits from everywhere.

I don’t have it with me, lest I’d make more notes, but… if you’re ever going to read anything from this series, make this one the first.

The Best American Science Writing 2001 Edited by Timothy Ferris

I touched on this lightly in a previous post, which I’ll reproduce here:

I also read a couple essays from The Best American Science Writing 2001, one about the effects of testosterone and the other about how the catholic church and the inventor of the pill really screwed women over by insisting on the “natural” 28 day cycle, which turns out to be not-so-natural after all. Apparently, pre-industrial women have an average of 100 periods during their lifetime (due to repeated pregnancy and extended breast-feeding), compared to the modern woman’s average of around 400. The increased number of cycles is the catalyst for diseases(such as cervical cancer) that happen very rarely to women in non-industrialized cultures. Had the inventor of the pill not been so all-fired driven to appease the catholic church’s desire for a”natural” cycle, many women might have had access to the types of birth controls that are just now coming into vogue where they’re on the drug for 3 months or more without break, reducing the total lifetime ovulations and accompanying risks. Interesting stuff.

Also of note:

– Decoding the human genome and the story behind the public sector vs. private sector companies involved.

– The use of DNA in trials

– The attitudes of South African government that are hurting the battle against the AIDS epidemic

– An unsettling piece about SV40, a simian virus, a possible culprit in some cancers, that has made its way into the human population, possibly because of the polio vaccine many years ago.

– How and why the Roswell UFO legend got started

Ironically, one of my favorite authors, the late Stephen Jay Gould, wrote a piece about Syphillus that I got bored with and skipped. They can’t all be gems.

The Best American NonRequired Reading 2004 Edited by Dave Eggers

My guilty favorite of the Best American series, filled with pieces chosen by high schoolers. Mixture of essays, stories, comics, whatever they feel like putting in there.

Highlights of this one are:

We Have a Pope!: An imagining of a marketing master trying to manipulate the system to get the first American pope. Funny.

The Hidden Lives of Lakes: People of a small, wintry village notice that underneath the ice of their lake, all of the people who ever died in their town seem to be living a watery second life.

The Fifteen Year Layover: I thought that Tom Hanks movie was based on a true story, but here’s another one about a man who has lived in an airport for 15 years.

Transmissions from Camp Trans: The story of the alternative protest camp (Camp Trans) that happens on the outskirts of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival in the wilds of Michigan each August. MWMF prohibits trans women from attending, and this is the story of one summer fighting the good fight.

Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good: The Madcap Business Adventure by the Truly Oddest Couple by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner

A delightful and witty tale of the adventures of Newman and Hotchner in starting and running Newman’s Own. At least, purportedly so.

You never know about autobiographies… how much of this is spin or exaggeration? By the accounts I’ve heard, Mr. Newman is a down-home, grounded sort of guy with a good sense of humor. I want to believe they furnished their offices with pool furniture, and that later, when it looked like the business was going to make it through the first year, they bought new pool furniture for the Newman house.

At any rate, this is an entertaining and interesting story, and the letters from purchasers of their product and recipients of the proceeds are funny and poignant. You can’t help but get a little teared up at times.

I feel like travellight recommended this one many moons ago… if so, thanks. If not… uh… then you should read it, travellight.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Thanks to galbinus_caeli for reminding me of Project Gutenberg, which has made a number of improvements since last I had a Palm, making it much easier to transfer those books to a ebook format.

I really enjoyed the first 4/5 of this book. It’s got a Harry Potter/Oliver Twist sort of beginning, and the language is very enjoyable¹. The last fifth dragged a bit, and I sped read the last few pages.

I picked it up because I’ve been reading the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series, which began with The Eyre Affair. There was much plot of that book based upon the changing of the plot in Jane Eyre, none of which I understood. So now it all makes sense.

¹ It should be noted that I find Jane Austen’s writing enjoyable as well. So… there’s your reference point.

All the Myriad Ways by Larry Niven

If you ever recommend me a book, and I say I’ll check into it, rest assured that though it may take upwards of 8 years, I will get around to it.

Way back in the days before Internet Messenger, I had an email conversation with a friend about the Back to the Future trilogy and time travel movies in general. In that conversation, he referenced an essay from All the Myriad Ways about time travel.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when I was pondering my excessive number of credits on paperbackswap.com, and I remembered that book. Someone had it, and it arrived in time for my latest trip to Juarez.

It’s a mixture of sci-fi short stories and essays, and includes one of the more famous and wittier essays in sci-fi history, Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, a frank and logical discussion of Superman’s potential sex life. One imagines that the writers of Superman II had read this essay.

Ironically, the weakest essay of the bunch was the one on the various (fictional) theories of time travel. It was good to be sure, but missed some of the things we discussed in emails in 1999. Of course, the book was written sometime before 1971, but neither of the 1999 writers were purporting to be career science fiction writers describing an overview of all time travel theories.

The short stories were also well written and engaging, which almost makes up for the later Ringworld books.