Rambler

A Month Without Entries...

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 1 Feb 12 11:00:00 UT

...is like any other month, I suppose...except for the "no journal entries" thing...

(I sorta swiped that title and opening line from my other blog - the Disney one...)

Anyway, I've missed a whole month of posting occasionally about books, about politics, about medicine/health care, or about music. This was not exactly my choice; on December 29, 2011 (the day after my last entry actually), I took a spill on my drive while taking out the garbage, and I broke my ankle. Emergency surgery, 9 pins, two screws, a plate, and a couple of cast changes later, I still am limited in mobility and can only put a little weight on it.

How did this stop me from making journal entries, you might ask? Well, I haven't really worked till last week, and I haven't really been "by myself", which is how I prefer to write these entries, till today! That's been a good thing, because I can do very little for myself with this limited mobility. But I haven't been able to get on the computer to do this stuff, and when I have been on the computer, there's been so much important things to catch up with, I just haven't gotten to blogging.

Don't know if I'll get back to it with any regularity this month. Probably not. I wasn't all that regular with entries anyway. But eventually...

So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it for now...

*****

A Tale of Two (Stephen King) Books

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 28 Dec 11 17:17:00 UT

It's been a while since I've blogged here (or anywhere, really, though I did do an entry at my Disney blog about watching Toy Story). But I couldn't let December go without a single entry so here it is.

I HAVE been doing a fair amount of reading. Among the books I got through in the past month or so were Stephen King's massive novels 11/22/63 and Under The Dome. The last several King books I've bought (in hardcover, King's always been a HC type of author for me) have sat on the shelves untouched. Still.

But the premise of the latest book concerning the Kennedy assassination grabbed me and I picked it up almost immediately. I, like many others, have had some level of fascination with the events surrounding that "watershed moment" in history, and the idea that someone as imaginative as King would tackle the subject in fiction was enough to make me start right in on it.

And it was a great read. Not, however, because of the parts about the Kennedy assassination itself. Those moments in the book were almost uninspired. The beauty of this book lay in the small Texas town where the main character meets his soulmate and develops a relationship with her. Those scenes, which were quite numerous and made up a large part of the narrative, vaulted this book into the upper echelon of King books for me.

Under The Dome, however, was a bit of a different experience. Oh, it was a good enough read. It took a while to get into, and the characters never developed as much as I wanted them to. I found myself just not caring about these folks all that much. The ones I liked the best (Rusty the physician's assistant and Joe the genius teenager) were not in it enough.

For me, this was a slow starting book. The first 200 plus pages just dragged and there were a few times when I thought I was going to set it aside and move onto something more compelling.

But at some point after those pages, something clicked and I started wanting to find out the resolution of the crisis that was affecting this small town. The last part of the book was a good, solid read. It doesn't fall into the worst of King, but it doesn't ascend into the "best of" category either. I wanted more...not necessarily more words but more...depth? Something.

Anyway, I read these two back to back and I'm glad I was able to clear a book from my King backlog out of my reading pile. And even gladder that I was able to keep from ADDING a King book to the reading piles!

*****

Superheroes in Thriller Fiction

sdb121@aol.com — Mon, 28 Nov 11 12:15:00 UT

I read three books in a row that sort of opened my eyes to the use of some sort of super human in crime/thriller fiction. The first was Greg Iles' The Devil's Punchbowl, the second was Robert Crais' The First Rule, and the third was C.J. Box's Cold Wind. Let me throw in Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series with this bunch.

It struck me that, as I read, each hero/protagonist was aided by someone with almost superhuman abilities. In the three mentioned books all of them were Special Forces types. Iles' main character is attorney Penn Cage, and I love his Natchez southern settings. In this book, however, Cage is up against really really bad guys involved with a floating casino, and he calls a guy to help out - a ex-Seal named Daniel Kelly. Kelly and his guys are so good it's scary in itself. You're certainly glad they're on your side.

In the second book, Crais steps away from Elvis Cole, his usual protagonist, to allow Cole's sidekick, Joe Pike, to move front and center. Pike is another Special Forces type, though I'm not sure about what branch. Totally confident and as tough as nails. And he's got those Special Forces skills that make him seem invincible.

In the third book, CJ Box's protagonist is a rather normal game warden named Joe Pickett. But Joe is friends with a guy named Nate Romanowski, who is wanted by the government. Nate is another scary-good ex-Special Forces type whose plans always seem to work out.

I threw in Bolitar's name because he has his buddy Win Lockhorn, the prissy rich guy who (along with Myron) has some sort of Special Forces training and who also always seems to know he's going to win. Fortunately for the good guys, he always has, so far.

Some of the other thriller series feature guys who are scary good at what they do, like Jack Reacher of the Lee Child series, or Lincoln Rhyme, the quadraplegic genius of Jeffrey Deaver's books.

About the only guy who is really good but isn't exactly a superhuman is Harry Bosch. But he's close.

Just some stuff that crossed my mind as I knocked out those three books. On to Stephen King's 11/22/63.

*****

Harlan Coben's YA Novel SHELTER

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 9 Nov 11 15:22:00 UT

Finished this one rather quickly on Sunday night.

I love Harlan Coben's novels; I enjoy the contrived twists and turns of his plots, the way the past echoes forward into the present, the way his characters seem to respond to the unusual challenges presented by the situations. His YA novel, Shelter, is a similar experience to his adult novels.

I thought the subject matter, which tied into Nazi concentration camp survivors and into his last Myron Bolitar novel (the main character of Shelter is Myron's nephew Mickey Bolitar), was a little deep for young readers. I don't think my kids would quite get it yet. So they won't be reading it quite yet. But for me as an adult, I really thought it was pretty neat the way everything started to shake out.

I can see sequels coming on this one from a mile away, though. But I'll be there to read them.

*****

Annetta Ribken's ATHENA'S PROMISE

sdb121@aol.com — Sat, 5 Nov 11 13:03:00 UT

Just finished this one on my Kindle.

Many of us here know Annetta from her blog, "susurration'. (Which is sadly not too active these days...) Or her blog Word Webbing. Some of us have read her short flash fiction. Perhaps some have even read her collection, Not Nice (and Other Understatement).

I personally wasn't sure how her style would translate to the novel-length work, but it translates quite well. Annetta tells a great story of a girl working at a hotel (sort of like reading her blog in the old days!) who has to deal with a locked-room mystery, one that threatens the existence of the hotel, and the staff's security. Her heroine, Pallas, takes it on herself (goaded on by her direct supervisor, Medusa) to solve this mystery and gets herself into some serious trouble along the way.

Pallas is a great heroine, and the story clips right along, at some point grabbing me and moving into "can't put it down" territory. I finished it a few minutes ago, and wanted to get my thoughts down before I start another book.

I really enjoyed it. If you're not into urban fantasy, your mileage may vary. But if the combination of mystery and fantasy appeals to you, this will be a very solid read, especially for a debut novel!

*****

Repairman Jack - last book...

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 26 Oct 11 15:32:00 UT

Author F. Paul Wilson ended his Repairman Jack series with a novel titled The Dark At The End. While it is the final book that focuses on Jack and his story, there is another book coming up in the series, titled Nightworld. This last book is the story of the ultimate battle between "good" and "evil" such as it is laid out in the Adversary and the Repairman Jack novels.

The book is due out sometime in 2012.

I burned through TDATE in about a day and a half. Couldn't stop reading it. For the most part I liked the story, but I was mildly disappointed by the ending. After reading some reviews, I'm given to believe that it had to end this way to tie into the next book, whose scene has been set. Nightworld was previously published, and will be released in a heavily revised version, but the basic story that needed to be bridged to with this final Jack book was already there.

I enjoyed this story, a fairly original take on the good/evil struggle. I found Jack to be a great character, and I found the supporting characters and settings to be compelling. I'm looking forward to the last book of the series (though it was noted in this book that there will be prequels to Jack's story).

If anyone's interested...

*****

Political frustration = apathy?

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 19 Oct 11 14:49:00 UT

I continue to see it: people supporting a movement that seems to be totally against their own best interests. I suppose that racism is at the core for at least some of those people. They can point to all these reasons to dislike the direction the black President is taking the country, but don't critically examine what they're saying simply because it seems to be a non-racial reason for not supporting someone who they dislike mainly for racial reasons. In other words, if Bill Clinton was doing exactly the same thing, would they be so opposed to the direction he was taking?

People certainly weren't so upset when Ronald Reagan did the same sorts of things back in the 80's, to pull the US out of a recession then. The difference: The level of the debt at the beginning of their term and the cost of things today versus then. I believe the percentage of debt increase was greater for Reagan, and for Bush II, than it is for Obama, but I could be wrong on that. The point is that the same sorts of actions, the same direction was taken back then.

What is it about the fact that wealth is becoming more and more concentrated in the top 1% of people in this country that people can't latch onto? I mean, this trend is indicative of the real problem with managing our debt and our deficit. The problem isn't with that small percentage of money that is going to help poor and hungry folks. The problem might actually be related to the cost of medicare and medicaid, but the only attempt at addressing the rising cost of medical care in this country (Obamacare) is berated and ripped, even though it was so watered down that it wasn't anything like what the President actually wanted. Once the bought-and-paid-for Congresspeople and their owners in the insurance industry got done with it, it does look more like a boondoggle for the insurance and pharmaceutical industries than it does a real reform. However, there are good things in there - things that will help the little people. The idea that a company cannot continue with this "pre-existing conditions" stuff is an excellent start in my opinion. There are other very good things in the bill.

Anyway, the problem boils down to the fact that the country is spending money on things like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, not to mention the elephant in the room (DEFENSE!), and revenues continue to plunge. Yet banks and businesses are reporting solid profits, record profits in some cases. Where is that money going? Not into hiring American workers, apparently. Maybe it's going into the pockets of those business owners (shareholders and board members and such) and further concentrating the wealth.

Trickle down? Not a chance!!!

So what's the solution? Get mad at Washington and demand that we, through our government, quit paying for the social safety net, forget roads and infrastructure improvements that would benefit everyone, don't pay those lazy unemployed people benefits so they can maybe keep making house payments and put some sort of food on the table, cut back on spending money on education (because someone said that we shouldn't like the stuff those teachers are teaching the kids anyway...science and math and language skills and such), and let everyone keep more of the money that they "earn".

Especially the really really rich people. They "create jobs" (cough cough) so they need to get richer.

Taxes are evil.

To me, taxes are the fees I pay for living in the United States, for having my kids get a first rate public education, for having my mother get a little help for all the years she and my dad worked (SS and Medicare) and for having roads and fire and police and yes, national security, and some regulations so my money in banks can't be squandered and my food isn't tainted and my drugs live up to rigorous testing standards before they are served up to me.

(Shrug) Seems like not THAT bad of a trade off.

But it seems like people are determined to get what they've been told they "want" or "need". So why should I continue to care about it?

*****

Steve Jobs: The Walt Disney of Technology

sdb121@aol.com — Thu, 6 Oct 11 12:05:00 UT

(cross posted from my Disney Fan Ramblings blog...)

As everyone probably knows, Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, October 5th, 2011, at the age of 56. He's been battling cancer for at least 10 years, and though I haven't seen anything yet about the exact cause of his death (not because it isn't out there, I just haven't had time to look that much), I'd assume it was cancer-related.

I have read commentaries and seen news reports suggesting that Jobs is the Einstein of his generation. I don't know. There are different types of genius. Einstein was a genius with physics. He could see through the equations to the extension of our reality that we call "special relativity" today. But I don't really think he was a genius in terms of people skills.

A more apt comparison is probably to the 'raison d'etre' for my "Disney Fan Ramblings" and many other blogs, Walt Disney himself. Walt was a genius, not because of his great artistic skills, not because of his intellect in academics, but because of his feel for what people wanted. Walt gave people animated feature films when the prevailing wisdom held that no one would ever go sit through a cartoon of that length. Then he built these things called "theme parks" that the experts felt would never succeed. They did succeed, beyond anyone's wildest expectations, because of Walt's special genius - a gift for knowing what people liked and wanted.

Steve Jobs had this same type of genius. He didn't invent the first Apple computer; according to what I've heard, Steve Wozniak was the one who built it. He didn't invent mp3 players, or cell phones, or tablet computers. But his genius was in recognizing the potential of these devices, and how they would relate to what people actually wanted and needed. He led in shaping the direction of these implements, and others have followed, but Steve Jobs' genius has placed Apple firmly at the forefront of their development, a step ahead of their competitors.

He also exhibited his genius when he saw Pixar for what it could be. George Lucas HAD Pixar in his pocket, but didn't recognize the potential there. Jobs did. Jobs let those boys work in the direction they wanted to go, recognizing the quality of what they were doing, and gave them enough time to succeed beyond their wildest expectations - eventually being bought by Disney and making Steve Jobs one of Disney's largest (if not THE largest) shareholders.

To Steve Jobs, the Walt Disney of Technology and one of those rare folks who are legitimately known as a genius, rest in peace.

*****

Spec Weekend II

sdb121@aol.com — Thu, 29 Sep 11 11:19:00 UT

So, besides book covers, how was Spec Weekend?

Well, it was fun.

Songs were played. Especially Beatles songs. And many original ExitSpecialist songs were attempted.

Food was eaten. Especially eggs. Eggs were the staple of breakfasts. Eggs mixed with peppers, with cheese, with mushrooms and onions, with leftover potatoes and leftover bratwurst. Eggs with okra. Eggs were a good start to each day!

A&W Root Beer was drunk, mostly by me. A case was purchased, and 6 cans were left. I probably drank a 12 pack of Root Beer over the weekend (Wed to Sun).

Actual beer was drunk, also. Not so much by me. Leinenkugel, Sierra Nevada, Bells, New Glarus Spotted Cow, and some Becks Light were supplemented with Hamms and Blatz. Blatz is bad. Hamms is better, but not by a whole lot.

More songs were played. There is an app for the iPad called "UltimateGuitarTabs" or something like that, which allows one to call up lyrics and chords for tons of songs. We were unable to stump the app by finding a song that it didn't have. So we hit all sorts of odd tunes. Even Smoke On The Water. Even Won't Get Fooled Again.

Logs were split, and fires were burned. Nice fires, fueled with cedar from downed trees (downed by storms last summer). Fires were built by the grill and by the beach which is on Green Bay.

Scooters and an ATV were ridden. (But not by me.)

Finally, more songs were played.

Somewhere in there, we all got a little sleep. I got some reading done. (I finished ENGLISH LESSONS while there.) Some DVD's of the Beatles were watched. But otherwise the TV was not on.

A good time was had by all. (Five of us, all tolled...)

*****

Spec weekend 2011

sdb121@aol.com — Mon, 26 Sep 11 10:05:00 UT

If you've checked in at this blog for a while, you might know that I am an amateur musician. You might also know that last year I attended something called "Spec Weekend" in September. "Spec Weekend" is a gathering of musician friends who have a studio project called "The ExitSpecialists". I call it a "studio project" because they've never really played live in any professional sense - they've only recorded CD's - three of them to date.

Well, this past weekend was "Spec Weekend", again in Door County, Wisconsin. (I think last year's post might have been titled "Door County".) So off I went, keyboard and guitar and assorted peripheral items, to meet my friends and ride up to Door County to a vacation home owned by one of them.

I may get to the music later. (I may even post links to their music on iTunes or at Amazon if such links will post.)

But I wanted to tell a coincidental story - one of the guys is a graphic designer and advertising director at Fender Guitars in Scottsdale, AZ. Now I've been thinking about possibly tossing up my short stories and my novel on Kindle, self publishing them. As such, I need to develop covers for them. So I asked Rich (the graphic designer) if he'd ever done any book covers.

Rich smiled and reached into his bag. He pulled out a book, handed it to me, and said, "I brought this one for you - I know you're a big reader. Check out the cover."

It was a mystery, from Poisoned Pen Press, and the guy on the cover looked familiar. I guess he should, since the picture was taken the year before at our 'Spec Weekend' 2010. You can't see the guy's face, but it was our buddy (who was absent this year).

Obviously, Rich designed the cover. It's right there on the back of the book!

The book, by the way, was titled ENGLISH LESSONS, by J.M. Hayes, and I plowed through it in my down time in Door County. Good story, actually two stories - one unfolding in rural Kansas, and the second happening in or around Tucson, Arizona. Both stories use some current issues as their backdrop, the Obama election and the fears of (mostly white) Americans that he was going to turn the country into some sort of socialist/fascist/Marxist society, and the fears of illegal immigration and the links to the drug trade. The stories are linked by the relationships between the main characters in each locale.

I thought it was a funny coincidence that here I was asking if he'd ever done it, and it turns out that he has designed many covers for Poisoned Pen mysteries.

*****

About those 6 books...

sdb121@aol.com — Mon, 19 Sep 11 11:16:00 UT

Back in May I made an entry listing 6 books I wanted to get through this summer.

Well, I did actually read three of them. I think the six I listed were:

Duma Key or Under The Dome by Stephen King

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

61 Hours by Lee Child

The Throne Of Fire by Rick Riorday

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card

I did read something by Charles Stross, and a couple books by Derek J. Canyon, as well as a book by Sean Hayden, one by Kevin Helmond, one by J.R. Turner, and one by Sam Morton. I know there were a handful of other books I read, but I did not read any King, Connelly, or Child.

I got through three of the books on my list: The Throne of Fire, The Desert Spear, and The Crystal City.

Not a great reading summer, but not terrible either.

*****

Peter V. Brett's THE DESERT SPEAR

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 14 Sep 11 16:42:00 UT

I don't intend this as a full review (not that I do very good reviews anyway), but I wanted to make a quick post saying how much I enjoyed this (rather long) novel, which is the sequel to The Warded Man.

While that first book dealt with the people of the North in general, and main characters Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, The Desert Spear deals largely with Jardir, the "deliverer" from the demons who comes from the desert regions, and whose people have adopted an almost Islamic way of life in order to deal with the threat of the demons.

The story spills into the north, and we catch up with Leesha, Arlen, Renna and Rojer, and watch how their stories end up intersecting with the story of Jardir and the followers of "Everam".

It was a long read but it got to be one of those that I didn't want to stop reading as I got further into the story. I can't wait for the third (and final?) installment.

*****

Fantasy Books

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 7 Sep 11 12:01:00 UT

I was never a huge fan of fantasy books. Oh, I went through a phase many years ago where I was reading the genre a bit. Of course, LORD OF THE RINGS was something I really enjoyed. I followed it up with THE BELGARIAD (Eddings) and some of the SHANNARA books (Brooks). But I burned out on the stuff pretty quick and have not gotten into Eddings' other works or the many Shannara books beyond the first 4 or 5 or so.

Stephen King's DARK TOWER series was fantasy of a sort, but something about it grabbed me more than a lot of stuff I'd read up until that time - it seemed, oh, I don't know...maybe more original? No elves and dwarves and knights and archers and dark lords? There was something about trying to link the Tower series to King's other works, and to our every day world that really drew me in.

Of course, the HARRY POTTER series sucked me into what was, for me at least, another "different" sort of fantasy. There are a ton of copycats out now, but the whole wizarding thing was really pretty inspired, even if it draws its own inspiration from the Arthurian legends and such.

I've always been fascinated by mythologies, and as such, Rick Riordan's works with Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods has pulled me in as well. These young adult novels are well written, I think, and are really well told stories. Plus, my kids LOVE them. (Riordan's a pretty creative guy - I think he's also the force behind the 39 CLUES books.)

Lately a fantasy series has grabbed me. A few years ago, maybe, I picked up a paperback book by an author named Kelly McCullough, titled Webmage. I enjoyed the book, which had the premise that magic could be done better and quicker by using computers. Sorcerers become sort of like super hackers. Then McCullough introduced an entire Greek gods theme to it, making his main character Ravirn a descendant of the House of Atropos (I think it was), who was one of the Fates, along with Clotho and Lachesis.

I went into the closing Borders to see if they had any good titles for 50% off, and found another paperback by McCullough, titled Cybermancy. Another strong entry into Ravirn's saga. Using the above ideas, McCullough constructs a tale where he has to go to Hades to rescue an AI who is linked to the love of his life, Cerise (a descendant of the House of Clotho and a crack coder). The AI, named Shara, perished in the last book, and Ravirn swears a blood oath to bring her back. So off he goes to Hades, with his own webgoblin, Melchior, to find her. In the process he encounters Persephone, and she helps him to send Shara back to the land of the living. But it goes too easily, and of course, there are other serious problems that become evident as the story unfolds...

I really enjoyed these books, especially this latest entry. It's been a while since I read a book that "called" to me when I wasn't reading it, but this one did. I kept wanting to get back to it, and finally I was able to dedicate some reading time to it yesterday and finish it. Very good read, if you like this sort of thing. Which I guess I do, after all. (No elves, dwarves or dragons!!!)

Currently I'm reading Peter Brett's The Desert Spear. It's different than I was expecting, but so far so good.

*****

Music from my buddies...

sdb121@aol.com — Thu, 25 Aug 11 10:39:00 UT

Hey, I almost made it through the entire month of August with no posts! I'm not sure, from my readers' perspective, if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Anyway, I got a call from a friend of mine about a month ago, and he asked me if I'd give a listen to his latest pop music project, titled Five By The Janglemen. It's a five song CD of catchy pop music. Here's the link: Five By The Janglemen. This one brings you to Amazon, but I think it's also available on CD Baby.

It's good, if you like this sort of pop music, and I do.

In other news, I got to see Sir Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field in Chicago. My wife got a couple tickets during the presale on Macca's website, and they were pretty good seats. The show was great. As you might know if you have read this blog for any length of time, I'm a huge Beatles fan, but I came by that fandom from being a fan of McCartney first. The first song I remember loving as a kid was Uncle Albert Admiral Halsey off his Ram LP. And it went from there.

He did the usual fan favorite Beatles tunes (stuff like Let It Be and Hey Jude) and the fan fave Wings and solo stuff (Live and Let Die, Band On The Run, Maybe I'm Amazed) but also did a few more obscure Beatles cuts (I've Got A Feeling, The Night Before) and Wings songs (Junior's Farm, Mrs. Vanderbilt, 1985). He never left the stage for 2 1/2 hours, then did three encores, basically playing for about 3 hours. The sound was pretty good for an outdoor venue, but the weather was obscenely hot. The average age of the crowd was probably right around my age (51), and it was only that low because there were a lot of people who brought their kids or grandkids to see the musical legend. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. It's the ultimate Beatles Tribute Band, as well as being a venue to perform his own songs. The backing band (three Americans and British keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Paul "Wix" Wickens) are incredibly talented musicians and vocalists themselves.

If you want to know if he did a particular song, ask in the comments. I still remember most of them, even though almost a month has passed.

*****

HP and LOTR Film vs Book

sdb121@aol.com — Wed, 27 Jul 11 11:20:00 UT

We went to see the final episode of the Harry Potter film series in the theater yesterday. I splurged a bit and we saw the 3D Imax version. I'm not sure it's worth paying extra to see it in that format. The film was bigger and the sound was outstanding, but I didn't notice any 3D effects making things THAT much clearer.

But the point of this post wasn't about 3D vs 2D, not really. I was thinking about how much I enjoyed the film. It's the only of the series that we have seen in the theater; the rest we have on DVD or BluRay, and that's how we've watched them.

Whether it had anything to do with the Imax or the 3D, I found watching this film to be a way better experience than watching at home. It had a lot of impact. The story was great, and the acting was top notch (especially Alan Rickman). The effects were outstanding, and the quality of the visual aspects of this movie were very high. Dare I say I liked it better than the book?

There is another film series that I liked better than the books, and that is the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films. I saw all of them in the theater, and was bowled over by all of them. (My favorite was "The Two Towers".) There are similarities between the two: both are fantasies involving magic and wizards, both have a strong villainous presence, and both are set in worlds that are unfamiliar to us Muggles. Also, both are written by British authors.

I think there is something to this. The visualization by the directors and the creative digital artists who create the world we see on the screen IS a match for my own imagination. In fact, in both cases, it has surpassed the visualization I had in my own mind from reading the books. It may have something to do with the rather dry, "British" tone to the writing, but I never imagined the worlds as thoroughly as the films do.

There is also something to be said for the larger-than-life style of presentation of the characters on a big screen. I never had this reaction to any of the Harry Potter movies I've seen on my TV, either on DVD or BluRay. This movie made me want to go back and reread the book, with those images in mind. The LOTR films did the same thing, but I never was able to get too far in The Fellowship of the Ring. It seemed that again, my visualization (even after seeing the films) during reading was leaving something to be desired. I put that book down.

I wonder how the last book of the Harry Potter series will hold up to a reread, now that I have the movie in my head. I'll let you know.

One parting thought: I am rarely one who prefers the movie to the book. In general, with most mysteries and dramas, I've preferred to read the book. These two series (well, one series and one film) are the exceptions. Not sure if I NEED to figure out why, but if I do, beyond what I've already written above, I guess I have material for another blog entry!

*****