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July 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling   «recommended»

Finally, the last Harry Potter book. It was everything and more I wanted. The character development, as always, was awesome. Some parts of it may have been a little slow, but all in all it was very good. Except the epilogue. The epilogue was incredibly cheesy. When I was finished with the book, I felt like my childhood had officially ended. That was pretty sad, but I still loved the book.
Started: July 21, 2007
Finished: July 24, 2007
Summary: The last Harry Potter book. Do I really need to put a summary here?
Quotes: "Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love." (p 722)
"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry. But why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (p 723)
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (p 325)

«absolutely necessary»   House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

One of the most fucked up books I've ever read. It was awesome. A little bit of paranoid ramblings by Johnny Truant, a little bit of an essay by a fake author about a fake documentary about a fake house explored by fake people. And by the way, the house is bigger on the inside than on the outside.
Started: June 23, 2007
Finished: July 17, 2007
Summary: Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, part of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth--musicians, tattoo artist, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies--the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children. (from amazon.com)
Quotes: "All too often major discoveries are the unintended outcome of experiments or explorations aimed at achieving entirely different results." (p 8)
"I mean we'd all be so lucky to wind up a punching bag and still find our crates full of Birds of Paradise." (p 16)
"...but you see, it's so hard to argue with all those whirls of melted flesh." (p 20)
"I've come to believe errors, especially written errors, are often the only markers left by a solitary life: to sacrifice them is to lose the angles of personality, the riddle of a soul." (p 81)
"Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of 'not knowing'. Of course not knowing hardly prevents the approaching chaos." (p 34)
"But I saw a strange glimmer everywhere, confined to the sharp oscillations of yellow & blue, as if my retinal view suddenly included along with the reflective blessings of light, an unearthly collusion with scent & sound, registering all possibilities of harm, every threat, every move, even with all that grinning and meeting and din. / A thousand and one possible claws." (p 49)
"People always demand experts, though sometimes they are fortunate enough to find a beginner." (p 392)
"there's no second ive lived you can't call your own." (p 393)
"Quick note here: if this crush-slash-swooning stuff is hard for you to stomach, if you've never had a similar experience, then you should come to grips with the fact that you've got a TV dinner for a heart and might want to consider climbing inside a microwave and turning it on high for at least an hour, which if you do consider only goes to show what kind of idiot you truly are because microwaves are way too small for anyone, let alone you, to climb into."