What are you reading?

[Kong Wen]

One of my favourite traditions is that I do a lot of reading by the pool in the week of vacation I take around Canada Day, so the next Harry Potter might not be enough. I'll bring Dark Tower III along with me just in case.

It wasn't enough. I started it last night in bed and finished it just now. I have The Prisoner of Azkaban here too, so I could probably plough through that tomorrow. In fact, I might as well knock that out, since I'll have to buy another King book after I finish The Dark Tower book III. This will at least delay spending.

1. 01-10 Undermajordomo Minor (2016), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
2. 01-20 The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus (French)
3. 02-28 Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road, the Story (2013), Ray Davies (British)
4. 05-12 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982), Stephen King (American)
5. 05-13 The Zone of Interest (2014), Martin Amis (British)
6. 05-16 Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), Ted Chiang (American)
7. 05-19 Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (2016), Erin Wunker (Canadian)
8. 05-23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling (British)
9. 05-27 The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
10. 06-04 The Golden Compass (1995), Philip Pullman (British)
11. 06-25 Beren and Lúthien (2017), J.R.R. Tolkien (British)
12. 07-02 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987), Stephen King (American)
13. 07-04 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling (British)

[Kreegs]

One of my favourite traditions is that I do a lot of reading by the pool in the week of vacation I take around Canada Day, so the next Harry Potter might not be enough. I'll bring Dark Tower III along with me just in case.

It wasn't enough. I started it last night in bed and finished it just now. I have The Prisoner of Azkaban here too, so I could probably plough through that tomorrow. In fact, I might as well knock that out, since I'll have to buy another King book after I finish The Dark Tower book III. This will at least delay spending.

I'd like your thoughts! The third one is good.

[Kong Wen]

One of my favourite traditions is that I do a lot of reading by the pool in the week of vacation I take around Canada Day, so the next Harry Potter might not be enough. I'll bring Dark Tower III along with me just in case.

It wasn't enough. I started it last night in bed and finished it just now. I have The Prisoner of Azkaban here too, so I could probably plough through that tomorrow. In fact, I might as well knock that out, since I'll have to buy another King book after I finish The Dark Tower book III. This will at least delay spending.

I'd like your thoughts! The third one is good.

The first book was better. In addition to being less well-structured, the characters and conflicts in Chamber of Secrets also seemed to be bogged down in caricature. It'd be one thing to have a realistic portrayal of bullying and rivalry, but it's another thing to have a character like Draco whose entire purpose is to spew venom and hate, even when he thinks he's alone with his friends—or a character like his father—or the very idea of an entire house of schoolchildren whose sole provenance is bald-faced racism and fascism being allowed to persist in open conflict with other students and with teachers. It's cheaper than dime-store hack fantasy. That part's even worse than the random and arbitrary magical devices that I thought would bother me.

The only thing it had going for it was that the central mystery and the plot structure supporting it (clues, red herrings, each set piece leading on to the next) were a bit better than in the first book.

[Kreegs]

I've mentioned it before, the writing in general seems to improve with each book. The second book is by far my least favorite though.

I agree with you about the spewing of hate from Draco. In the longer books, the pacing of the school year seems to slow down. The more pages allow more time for more ordinary interactions to occur. I like that, because it seems more like a developing plot at a school, instead of important events constantly happening, and they happen to be at a school.

[Kong Wen]

I've mentioned it before, the writing in general seems to improve with each book. The second book is by far my least favorite though.

I agree with you about the spewing of hate from Draco. In the longer books, the pacing of the school year seems to slow down. The more pages allow more time for more ordinary interactions to occur. I like that, because it seems more like a developing plot at a school, instead of important events constantly happening, and they happen to be at a school.

It's worth clarifying that it's not the writing and mechanics that concern me, it's the story and characterization. The entire existence of Slytherin house and the Malfoys is only one example of that kind of shallow tripe.

I know you said they get better as they go on, and I guess the overall good quality and pace of the first book spoiled me by setting high expectations. That said, I still continue to worry about the later books, because every time someone tries to reassure me about how they get better, they use examples that make them sound worse (e.g. I'll be very intrigued to discover how they survive the abandonment of the snappy pacing that made the first book good and was one of the few redeeming features of the second book).

[Kreegs]

I am not saying these are the best books ever written, but they are entertaining. Growing up with these was pretty special to me, as I was 11 when I read book 1.

What can I say, I just like them. They comfort me!

[Kong Wen]

Just finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban tonight. It was much better than the Chamber of Secrets, probably on par with the first novel. It feels like these first three books are introductory material setting up the actual Harry Potter story, set to begin in the next book. I doubt that was Rowling's intention from the start, but it certainly seems to be the case that book 3 begins leaving plot threads open and ripe for revisitation.

I think I have no choice but to move on to book 3 of the Dark Tower now, or else I risk getting all the way through Harry Potter and having to go all the way through King's opus without anything to break it up.

1. 01-10 Undermajordomo Minor (2016), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
2. 01-20 The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus (French)
3. 02-28 Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road, the Story (2013), Ray Davies (British)
4. 05-12 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982), Stephen King (American)
5. 05-13 The Zone of Interest (2014), Martin Amis (British)
6. 05-16 Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), Ted Chiang (American)
7. 05-19 Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (2016), Erin Wunker (Canadian)
8. 05-23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling (British)
9. 05-27 The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
10. 06-04 The Golden Compass (1995), Philip Pullman (British)
11. 06-25 Beren and Lúthien (2017), J.R.R. Tolkien (British)
12. 07-02 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987), Stephen King (American)
13. 07-04 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling (British)
14. 07-05 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling (British)

[Kong Wen]

I did indeed move on to The Dark Tower III, and finished it just after midnight last night. I'm moving on to the next book in the Harry Potter series now, but I'll have to swing by Chapters sometime and pick up the next in King's series as well, so I can continue alternating.

1. 01-10 Undermajordomo Minor (2016), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
2. 01-20 The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus (French)
3. 02-28 Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road, the Story (2013), Ray Davies (British)
4. 05-12 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982), Stephen King (American)
5. 05-13 The Zone of Interest (2014), Martin Amis (British)
6. 05-16 Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), Ted Chiang (American)
7. 05-19 Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (2016), Erin Wunker (Canadian)
8. 05-23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling (British)
9. 05-27 The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
10. 06-04 The Golden Compass (1995), Philip Pullman (British)
11. 06-25 Beren and Lúthien (2017), J.R.R. Tolkien (British)
12. 07-02 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987), Stephen King (American)
13. 07-04 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling (British)
14. 07-05 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling (British)
15. 07-09 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991), Stephen King (American)

[Kong Wen]

I just finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is as they say: shit's getting real. It is also as they say: it adequately follows the formula established by the previous books, albeit on a larger scale and with a few peripheral additions. I think the first three books serve as a pretty good prologue to the overall story of the series.

Thankfully, a big order of new books showed up at my doorstep last Friday, so I'm now able to move onto Book IV of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and maintain my pattern. Drawing of the Three took me just over a week, but I was on vacation at the time, and this one is over a thousand pages long, so I may stall here for a while. We'll see.

1. 01-10 Undermajordomo Minor (2016), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
2. 01-20 The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus (French)
3. 02-28 Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road, the Story (2013), Ray Davies (British)
4. 05-12 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982), Stephen King (American)
5. 05-13 The Zone of Interest (2014), Martin Amis (British)
6. 05-16 Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), Ted Chiang (American)
7. 05-19 Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (2016), Erin Wunker (Canadian)
8. 05-23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling (British)
9. 05-27 The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
10. 06-04 The Golden Compass (1995), Philip Pullman (British)
11. 06-25 Beren and Lúthien (2017), J.R.R. Tolkien (British)
12. 07-02 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987), Stephen King (American)
13. 07-04 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling (British)
14. 07-05 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling (British)
15. 07-09 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991), Stephen King (American)
16. 07-23 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), J.K. Rowling (British)

[Kong Wen]

Even though it clocked in at over 1000 pages, I still managed to finish Dark Tower IV in just over a week. I only have 2.5 more work days before a week of vacation, so I plan to finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the weirdly-published-out-of-order but thankfully shorter Dark Tower 4.5 within the next week and a half or so.

1. 01-10 Undermajordomo Minor (2016), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
2. 01-20 The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus (French)
3. 02-28 Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road, the Story (2013), Ray Davies (British)
4. 05-12 The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982), Stephen King (American)
5. 05-13 The Zone of Interest (2014), Martin Amis (British)
6. 05-16 Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), Ted Chiang (American)
7. 05-19 Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (2016), Erin Wunker (Canadian)
8. 05-23 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J.K. Rowling (British)
9. 05-27 The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
10. 06-04 The Golden Compass (1995), Philip Pullman (British)
11. 06-25 Beren and Lúthien (2017), J.R.R. Tolkien (British)
12. 07-02 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987), Stephen King (American)
13. 07-04 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), J.K. Rowling (British)
14. 07-05 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), J.K. Rowling (British)
15. 07-09 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991), Stephen King (American)
16. 07-23 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), J.K. Rowling (British)
17. 08-01 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997), Stephen King (American)