dorsetgirl

Giant Book Meme
Reading meme ganked from suzie_shooter

1. Favourite childhood book?
Oddly, I have no idea. No books that I love to go back to because they were so important to me as a child, although I did used to read all the time.

2. What are you reading right now?
WaterProof by Chris Crowther; one of a series set on the Norfolk Broads, which is where I bought them. Slightly over-complicated plots, rather formulaic, but wonderful settings, decent characters, plots that are reasonably well resolved at the end. And no messages, no clever pondering upon the human condition, just stories.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
Parish Registers of North Crawley in Buckinghamshire

4. Bad book habit?
The only bad book habit imo is not reading.
( Cut for length )

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I don't often post pictures, but I was quite pleased with this one, taken this evening:






Saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, this afternoon. I loved it, totally loved it, so much so that I'm planning to go back next week. No spoilers, but despite having read the book several times and knowing exactly what happens, I cried at the revelation of Snape's back-story and basically all the way from that point through to the end. The very last scene was wonderfully well done and I adored it. Sort of full circle, hope for the future, all that. Beautiful.

Oh, and the Head Snatcher - Scabior? - was in it again. Nice bit of eye-candy there, thank you very much!

Summary: This is probably the best film-of-the-book I have ever seen.

Most films-of-the-book - indeed most films, in my limited experience - are total crap. The action is ramped up at the expense of plot and characterisation, and a Hollywood shmaltzy ending is crowbarred in regardless of whether it makes sense. The Harry Potter films, for me, are proof that it doesn’t have to be like that.

It would be nice if Hollywood would note that a strong author with - presumably - an unprecedented degree of editorial control, and a screenwriter who totally gets the book, can produce a very good film indeed.

I’ve read some pretty poor reviews of this film, and I can see why some people wouldn’t have enjoyed it - the Independent sent some idiot who doesn’t even like Harry Potter as far as I can see, and spent half the review moaning about the lack of sex. In the film, that is, although perhaps he was suffering personally too. But I think anyone who loves the book - and I do find it difficult to understand why anyone who wants to see the films wouldn’t have read the books - would find little to complain about here.

( cut for length and Spoilers )

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All in all, I liked the film a lot. I hardly ever go to the cinema because even the films I desperately want to see generally turn out to be disappointing. I am totally a book person, not a film person. But this one absolutely worked for me. I can’t think of a film-of-the-book that has ever been better than the book; I don’t think - for me at least - that’s even possible, but this one left me with one overall impression.

Simply put, this film IS Jo’s book, on the screen.

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