Raven

I really like the characters in Microserfs, it became an instant favourite of mine when I read it a couple of years ago. I wasn't so struck with jPod, but I've not been put of reading more of his novels - I have Generation X and would also like to give The Bubble Gum Thief a go.

I'm guessing there were no Coldfire books in the pile! Good thread, I was thinking about starting a similar thread to this just the other day. I have a theory that the faster you read, the less you retain. I have several friends who inhale books. A novel that would take me a week or so to read will be read by them in a day, but when asked about it a few weeks later they can rarely remember the detail well enough to discuss it. I'm not as good as I used to be, but I can generally remember the plots - and quite a bit of the detail - of books long after I’ve read them (same for films and TV programs as well - useful in a pub quiz, is I!).

A jumble of different people in a world I don't truly comprehend!

Grave of the Fireflies I don't think I've ever said this about a film before, but Fireflies is utterly heartbreaking. There are several images that I think I am going to be living with for the next few days. Or, perhaps, haunted by would be a better description.

I wonder if they kept the charcoal?

You sound like a burglar!

Could I buy Winona Ryder?

If I could have anything? A DeLorean from Back to the Future

Did anyone catch Sunday night's episode? Very amusing, especially the palm reading! (and how does someone who has "make your own sausages" as part of their evening win?!).

The character Jafe becomes Rafe. I only noticed it because Jafe is mentioned several times before Rafe suddenly pops up, and I had to stop and go back to see if I'd read it right. And again, I only noticed the change in direction because south-west is mentioned twice in two consecutive paragraphs before becoming south-east in the third. Neither points are important to the overall plot (well, not yet anyway), but both pulled me out of the story. I think the mark of a good book [for me] is one where you don't look at the page numbers; I've been finding myself doing that a lot this evening. But, I'm not throwing in the towel just yet, back to the grind-stone I go . . .

Now that's a bad [though probably unintentional] pun!

I'm about 70 pages in now, and I have to say I'm struggling (it didn't help this evening when a character's name changed half-way through a chapter and an explosion in the south-west of the city suddenly moved to the south-east . . .).

Welcome! Douglas Coupland? Have you read Microserfs?

Princess Mononoke A starkly different beast [no pun intended!] from the last three Studio Ghibli films I've watched, but still very, very good. Runs huge great rings around anything I've seen from Disney.

More Studio Ghibli, Whisper of the Heart and The Cat Returns. Two good films, the animation in Whisper of the Heart is gorgeous.

It's still 100 times better than Matrix Revolutions . . .

Roast chicken, broccoli and baby sweet corn. Feels a bit odd having a roast on a Friday . . .

Just over two weeks to go to series five and the Who publicity machine is moving into high gear. The press launch for the new series took place in Wales last night, and amongst the fall out is a new trailer hitting the net. Don't click here if you want to stay spoiler free! Boy, does that look good!

I've just had a blinding though, prompted by Chrissy's recent thread. Rowling should have

The Seagull and the Duck. Pretty.

Raven's Studio Ghibli season continued this evening with Kiki's Delivery Service, yet another charming film. These guys really know their onions!

As others have pointed out, Snape was still a threat for Neville though, even after the boggart had been "Grannified" - the point is to defeat the Boggart, not conquer the underlying fear. With Harry he fears what the Dementors bring, but he finds a way to tackle them, so if a boggart becomes what you fear the most, it makes sense that Harry's boggart experience would be different after he had defeated real Dementors (and also once Voldmort got a new body, and he witnessed Diggory's death). Chrissy, re my post DH remark, that is by far the funniest death in the Potter books, it's so off-hand and in passing it's like

Between POA and The Deathly Hallows, I'd go with Voldy - remember, Voldmort didn't return proper until the Goblet of Fire, Harry probably didn't have as much reason to fear him before then. After that, I reckon it would be

My Neighbour Totoro Lovely, what a charming little film.