Still don't know what the title means...

So I decided to read A Clockwork Orange so that I could act as if I knew more about the movie, which I haven't seen for a quite some time. It was a good read, a lot of fun. It makes you wonder if you are a special sort of person to be able to easily get a grasp of the funky future slang the narrator uses throughout the book. I do know some people who said they couldn't get through it, but I think those people read with a much more focused and demanding eye than I do. I just like to gloss- to get the feeling and the idea. To glaze over and not realize that I'm reading at all. It's as if the book is just sending me the message telepathically.

The worst is when you stumble during this kind of reading, and then start thinking about how strange it all is. It's really hard to start back up again. All of the sudden you're staring at each individual word and they don't seem to make sense because when you reach the last word you can't remember what the beginning of the sentence said. I hate when this happens. Readers block.

Anyway, about the book. It was great. The movie was a pretty true adaptation, except the movie ditches the last chapter. You should go to the library and read the last chapter- then you can tell everyone your read the book.

Boll-ing for books

So I went to the library last week and started grabbing books randomly off the shelves- sounds like it could end up badly but so far it's been great. I picked up the short novel The Train Was on Time by Heinrich Boll. No idea what it was about. But now I'm about 10 pages from the end and I LOVED it.

It's about a German's last thoughts and feelings as he rides a train to the front lines in Poland where he's convinced that he is going to die. It's kind of strange that I found this book right then, because I had just had a dream about going to Iraq, and I can still distinctly remember/feel the strange wave of emotion that washed over me (in the dream) when I realized that I was probably going to die.

Also I am inspired to write my own book. This was Boll's first. Where's mine?

Harry Potter Parking Lot

There's a film called "Harry Potter Parking Lot" made by the same people who gave you "Heavy Metal Parking Lot." If you're not familiar, the basic theme is to visit a parking lot outside of a large event and interview the most avid fans of this event. In "Harry Potter Parking Lot" the filmmakers stood in line outside some J.K. Rowlings book signings and let the kids just gush about how much they love Harry Potter. Many of them are dressed as book characters, clutching wands, reciting spells. One boy holds the book open for the camera and recites the first page perfectly.

I just don't know what it is but I'm addicted too. The sad part is, the movies only make it worse. Those kids seriously ARE Harry, Hermione, and Ron. But on top of that, I actually get to SEE them grow up. They were 12 or so when this began- they're 17 now. Someone popped in the first movie the other day and I just kept saying "look how young they are!" over and over and over.

If I were to make a movie, and the only pop-culture reference in it were Harry Potter, I don't even think it would date the movie later. I think it would be as if I referenced Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. That's how big Harry Potter is. He's epic.

I've been seriously considering how I'm going to handle giving the Harry Potter series to my children (that I might have, one day). Would I have the strength of will to give them one book each year so that their life corresponds with Harry's? Because that's one of the most 'magical' features of the series, right now. My little brother has actually grown up at the same rate as the books have been published. When he got to the end of one, he couldn't just pick up the next one and move on to the next year- he had to wait. And when he did get to the next one, he was a year older as well. Harry's social problems were changing at his rate- he started noticing girls at the same time and everything (as far as I know).

So there. I'm going to post the fifth book here because it's the one I don't own. I need it quite badly. Harry Potter has been taking over my weekends for almost a month now and I need to stop all this blubbering and be productive. RE-reading isn't productive reading, and it was a stretch to consider reading kids' books productive in the first place.