Finis (Harry Potter, no spoilers)

Well, I've finished The Book. I have to say that once it got going (which didn't happen for me until about 250 pages in) I couldn't put it down. Ultimately, it was satisfying. I also have to say, though, that I thought this one was probably the second worst of the series (after #5) and my opinion that JK Rowling is one of the worst writers ever is pretty much confirmed. She has at least given up SHOUTING (mostly, not entirely), but there is so much that is fundamentally bad about this book, and all her books, that I could get very grumpy.

I'm also thinking about the whole phenomenon of Book As Blockbuster. I thought on Saturday that I doubt we'll ever see anything like this again; now, I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind betting you that we WILL see its like again. The media industry won't be able to resist it. And yes, I know that the initial success and popularity of HP came entirely through word of mouth and all those library copies of the first printing in the UK, which I think is wonderful. But the success of the 5th, 6th and 7th? I need to think about this and post something more coherent later.

Meanwhile

Looking at the poster for the new Beowulf movie on Neil Gaiman's Blog, and thinking how it inexplicably looked like Lara Croft, then viewed the trailer and discovered that Angelina Jolie is in it, and seems, in fact, to be playing Grendel's mother (!!!) who somehow becomes, from what I can gather from the trailer snippet, responsible for giving Beowulf his power (!!!!!). Don't worry, I'm not going to rant. I find it vastly amusing. And I believe in some ways that it's actually okay for people to muck about with Beowulf. After all, it comes from an oral tradition, and got mucked about with by the Christians in the first place, so why not put the comely Angelina in it? You've got my vote :)