BookJumper

*cough* could some lovely person out there help me? As you know, I've only read the first forty pages or so of HP7 + the epilogue - I didn't like the way it was written so I couldn't proceed any further. However, reading all the spoilers in here has intrigued me at least plotwise, so I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to tell me in one big spoiler-wrapped post what the plot actually is? A brief summary of battles/deaths/allegiances/love stories is what I'm after. Thanks you.

Homemade icecream is the biz. Me and a friend from Italy used to make Amaretti icecream in her machine; it was so nice we didn't even let it set, but rather just ate it liquidised (pre-freezer stage). Mmm. What everyone should try before they die though is take a plane to Catania, Sicily, and try a granita in a croissant. A sicilian granita is like a slushie but made with real fruit rather than syrup (almond and jasmine being my favourites); it's fairly solid so stalls and bars just cut a croissant in half and stick the flavours of your choice in... like a cone, but so much better... *drool*!

... can't believe I haven't actually welcomed you yet but that was your fault being sneaky, you fitted in so well I didn't think you might be a newbie! Anyway, hello, welcome, have one of my signature peanut butter cookies. *strokes the kitten*

Not one for festivals... too many people/drink/noise. Yes, I'm a hermit. That said, ages 17 to 22 saw me dancing/singing/band befriending and managing like a maniac at Liverpool's magnificent BeatleWeek festival so I suppose I de-hermit myself for the right kind of music, in the company of a kindred audience. Sadly, just as there was no BW for me last year (stupid move/househunt), there'll be no BW for me this year (stupid dissertation). Hopefully next year - if Liverpool City Council and its counterproductive ways haven't killed/ruined it by then.

Neil Gaiman did write all the extra scenes for the "Stardust" movie so it's no wonder they're so good... I remember re-reading the book post-film and being vaguely dissappointed that the pirate captain in the book was no deNiro! However, the book does have the odd but ubercute floppy-eared creature so it's a tough call.

Only heard Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" yesterday, almost by chance... what can I say? Beautiful and heart-rending. Even the professional Fantine who sang this at Her Majesty's theatre when I went to see Les Mis was not this good. It made me so happy that she has such an amazing gift. I just wish after her performance they would have done another close up of the incredibly snotty girl in the audience whose face plainly said "Eugh, as if!" As that woman judge said, a wake-up call.

As MDR124 says: books do not exclude life (they inform it) and life does not exclude books (it gives them meaning). I feel compelled to add, however, that rarely do books lie, injure and backstab. Given a choice between life and books, I'd choose books. If that makes me sad, I'm proud of my sadness.

Am I a terrible person if I'm not particularly intrigued by any of them *hangs head in shame*? Same happened last year; I got to get a good look at what was available as I did a spot of author-minding at the Orange Prize for Fiction Reader's Day at Liverpool Bluecoat but none of the books actually interested me enough to get picked up. Then again I find it hard to relate to realistic stories (what weird things that says about me) so maybe I should have a look at the Nebula/Tolkien/Bram Stoker shortlists instead...

Agreed that if it's just to give a book a "tone" and there's nothing that distinguishes it narratively from "Chapter 1" you might as well call it that rather than "Prologue". However they sometimes are needed, if just to set a scene in a context that will not make the reader think, "gawd, nothing happens in this book" - no one expects much to happen in prologues so it's a good place for explaining things which it would break the flow of the action/dialogue/etc. once the story's properly underway. All in all, I would hope (although this thread makes me dread otherwise) that a good editor/publisher would have the sense to distinguish between a mis-named "Chapter 1" and an actual "Prologue" and act accordingly.

people who knock into you and don't have the manners to apologise, who just because they're 30 years older than me think they're "elderly" and should be given my seat when I've got a mangled leg and it kills me to stand up on the bus, who insist on playing their "music" out loud on the same bus thus giving me a headache, who before you in a huge supermarket queue will not let you through when you're only got one count it one item, bus drivers who don't know where their service stops... I could continue.

If the nice inhabitants of this thread can assure me that this book in no way resembles that horrific shambles of a film my sister dragged me to see (the only good thing about which was the uber-cute baby dragon), I might have to give this a go. I'm rediscovering my long-lost love for fantasy books, and finding that books aimed at adults have generally much lower standards than books for/by young people...

That tale is from Beedle's works and gets included in one of the original works along with a couple of other; this volume contains stories from the same fictional author that were not included in the original seven HP books.

That's quite alright, glad to be of service. I should perhaps add that not all of it is lovely, in fact I'd go so far as to say there were bits I bitterly wished hadn't happened - then again I think that is a testament to Miller's skill in creating character for me to care for so deeply. I hope it affects you as much as it did me.

For something that feels epic but is written in beautifully uncomplicated language, I'd suggest Keith Miller's "The Book of Flying". It's a shortish standalone volume, but so full of poetry and it made me a better person just to read it, I think. It's the story of a young librarian's quest for wings so that he may win the love of a winged girl, and of the people he meets and the stories he learns of his journey. Not the happiest of tales, but well worth your time and tears.

What can I say,I'm a repository of truth, me. The other books I wouldn't mind reading from the list are "A Guide to Medieval Sorcery" (because I'm oldfashioned) and "Secrets of the Darkest Art" (because I like keeping in touch with my evil side).

It being a load of pompous rubbish is precisely the reason why it would be so hysterically good...!

I have never tried reading this, my reservations being more or less along the lines of Kenneth Mitchell's. My knowledge of "Lolita", therefore, is rather restricted to the following: It's no use, he sees her, he starts to shake and cough Just like the old man in the book by Nabokov (Don't Stand so Close to Me, The Police) !

Why am I the only one to want to read Locky's Magical Me? I found him brilliant in the book and even better now that I can picture him as a particularly obnoxious Kenneth Branagh...! That I would most certainly buy, especially as an audiobook narrated by Kenny B.

Undoubtedly that's what so good about Shakespearean ethics, they're never black and white, thus forcing you to think for yourself. Having thought for myself however, I personally find the Venetians in TMV 100 more villainously despiseable - they're the baddies as far as I'm concerned.

Awww... there there. Would it be a comfort to you to be let in on the feminine secret that multitasking, more often than not, results in glasses in the fridge and books in the cupboard?

If that is true, it's so petty...! Irrespective of the quality of the fanciction, that someone took time to create and share a new adventure set in the world of their creation should fill an author's heart with pride and gratitude. What wouldn't any new writer, as yet uncurrupted by the greed of the publishing system, give for such a loving an loyal fan-base?

But reading IS creating things... it's creating worlds, adventures, lives, people, ideas and ideals in the mind! Is it not?

As a teenager I used to read a lot of Beatles fanfiction, most of which was almost hysterically bad. The good ones, however, made up for it all. My personal favourite was about a girl who went back in time to try and avoid John being killed so senselessly but ended up causing all sorts of problems in the course of history. It was one of the single saddest and most beautiful things I've ever read.

Terry's helping fix my mojo... while I was home for Easter and on every bus I've taken since I've been reading "The Truth" - in snippets, but regular snippets, which is more than can be said for my recently degenerated reading habits. Sadly however, mad & desperate essay-writing has taken over I have found a little bit of my mojo, yet I can't allow myself to employ it for the next couple of weeks... frustrating or what?!

Also (if poetry counts...?), Wordsworth's The Prelude. It's got some really good bits in there somewhere but they're left shipwrecked and alone in a sea of skin-crawlingly boring bits. I recall trying to read it for my Romantic Lit class back in Liverpool Uni and I ended up asleep with my head sandwiched between the pages of the anthology - the caf