Short thoughts on books and music

[dr4b]

1) I'm almost done reading "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" by Tom Holt. I finished "Expecting Someone Taller" last week. (Been reading them on the bus to/from work.) Short review: Who's Afraid of Beowulf is much funnier, but it's got a sort of disjoint plotline, and waaaaaaaaay too many characters, so it's been tough to read on the bus, since I do around 30 pages a day, and have to remember what the heck was going on. Expecting Someone Taller was cute, but it kind of fell apart at the end -- other than that, it was enjoyable as a bus book, I didn't have much trouble remembering the context next time I picked it up, etc. They're both worth reading, not that I know of any other Tom Holt fans reading this journal except cellio and I'm sure she's read those both.

2) They really should have put "Ballad For You" in DDR Extreme. Not only would it get another "From IIDX" credit, and it's Thomas Howard, but... remember that Byul Maniac is one of my favorite songs in DDR to play - and I bet they could do more creative stuff with Ballad For You than they did with Byul! Yay for slow songs.

3) Harry Potter Book 5 is being announced all over the place as out on June 21st. My officemate and I were betting on how long it'll be before you can preorder it here at Amazon. I was like, "I'm betting they just need to get people to update the Harry Potter Store!" and he's like "No way, I bet they're trying to come up with a special deal for free overnight shipping like they did with the last one!" Either way, we're excited about it. And what's up with the next movie not being until June 2004? Bleh. IMDB said they cast Gary Oldman as Sirius Black though, and that's AWESOME. I've thought he's awesome ever since seeing Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead.

Comments

re the third movie

[alegria-a.livejournal.com]

From my understanding, the third movie was delayed six months so that the actors (who are all young teens, don't forget) could attend a normal school for a semester or two. They have been working on the first two films for the last two years, and as such have only had tutors for a while, and they wanted to go back to a real school. And despite their improving performances, none of them were originally actors, so it's not surprising that they've tired out somewhat. :)

And I'm waiting for the preorder for the new book to show up on Amazon too. :P

[bk1e.livejournal.com]

Have you played Be In My Paradise on DDR lately? Ballad for You would be much better, though.

The third movie will be directed by Alfonso Cuarón, so it will probably interpret the text very differently from the way Chris Columbus did in the first two movies (which was not much at all). Y tu owl también. :D

[proz.livejournal.com]

Hey, since you work at amazon, could you get me a discount on the 5th book & Battle Royale translated book due soon? I eagerly anticipate both of those books.

[zannah.livejournal.com]

Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Gary Oldman rock.

I had originally thought they were going to release a HP movie a year... *sigh* I don't want to wait!!

[redglasses.livejournal.com]

Personally, I preferred "Flying Dutch" to both of those, though it's been long enough since the last time I read any of them that I couldn't exactly say way.

[dr4b]

having finished Beowulf today, I'm entirely inclined to agree with you. Actually, Flying Dutch was the first Tom Holt book I ever read, and it got me started on reading his stuff, and it probably was the best one I read. The problem with some of these others is just that the endings are totally stupid, even if the books themselves are fun and amusing.

[cellio]

Yeah, Tom Holt seems to have trouble with endings, but there's enough fun along the way that it's ok. Though I haven't read his most recent few books, so I'm not current any more.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts re: Gary Oldman.

(Hi, I know Eli a little and I like video games. Hope you don't mind my poking around over here.)

[dr4b]

heck, if I'm not boring to you, poke away!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. Much as Kenneth Branagh was perfect as Gilderoy Lockhart, I wasn't really *excited* about him being in the movie.