Something Wicked...

"I knew by every record we have of witches, every tale that has ever come down to us, that she would change as soon as I married her into something lovelier than the folk of the other world know, something only known of in ballad. I knew all this; I knew it well. And yet somehow those tawdry ornaments, dull houses and trite ways, of the world of every day had got hold of my heart-strings. It was at the turn of the tide with me; and I was veering back, in my folly, to ordinary people, ordinary events and ordinary things. Yes, I made my choice; I said No to her." (Excerpt from "The Witch in the Willows" by...you guessed it...Lord Dunsany)

Argh, I love this man.

On another note, just finished watching "Prisoner of Azkaban". I never really got into Harry Potter much. I stopped reading after the fourth book and have watched most of the movies only once.

None of the books really gripped me, you see. And none of the stories really moved me. I read the first through fourth books back in middle school, and I really didn't give a care about them.

Except PoA. Except this marvelous, marvelous story. (I speak mostly of the book, though the movie is pretty good, too.)

This is a whole other blog post, but there is an interesting love/hate relationship between JK Rowling and I (one of which she is...of course...unaware). In short: I like that she tells good stories, but I've never liked her writing style.

Except PoA.

Prisoner of Azkaban is, in my humble opinion, worth the price of admission for the whole darn series. It is fascinating, gripping, scary, funny, and has just enough complexity to keep you guessing. It is a tightly-written, marvelous story. It's just plain good reading.

And time travel. Um, hello? Awesome.

What's that you say? What does this have to do with gutsiness? Oh...right...well...I'm gutsy enough to stand toe-to-toe with anyone and argue that PoA is the best Harry Potter book out of all seven. And this coming from someone who doesn't care.

That's gutsy enough, right?

Yeah, I know. Not really. Tomorrow is a new day...

-The GLS