h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been thinking about this for awhile, truthfully more than I probably should... I mean, it's only a book, after all.

But she has given us a very intriguing puzzle, Ms Rowling has. Of course, we'll know the official verdict in a couple short days (about 54 hours to be exact, but who's counting?), but I thought I'd put my ideas here for the record.

Aside from a small niggling doubt, I'm pretty sure Snape is rotten. I know his character has taken six books to make a good case for either side, but sometimes a spade really is a spade.

I know it's so easy to trust Dumbledore, and I want to... I think the key is that he's never really said *why* Snape has his unwavering faith. Meanwhile, I've just come across this very telling passage in Half Blood Prince:

Dumbledore says, "...as I have already proven to you, I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being - forgive me - rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger."

So, I'm on the record: Snape = baddie.

Are you re-reading HBP then? I was planning to do so before The Deathly Hallows arrives but I've been far too busy. As for Snape, I'd rather like him to turn out to be on the side of good - he's just such a great character - but, like you, I reckon he's just as bad as he's painted (if not worse). On the other hand I'd very much like Draco Malfoy to come to a gruesome end but I suspect he's going to be redeemed.

Parrfers!

Yes, I'm not quite halfway through HBP. I was trying to read all of them in the run up to the new release, but originally I was thinking there was two weeks between the film and the book release. When I realised had a week less I had to skip GoF.

I finished OotP the day before I went to see the movie, and had mixed feelings on what they did with the film. It's a shame Ron didn't get to play Quidditch, though.

I don't think I've read HBP since it came out so I'm glad I took the time, there's all sorts of things in there I'd forgotten.

How've you been?

Will be interesting to see which side Snape belongs to. Does look as if he's the bad guy, though, so I'd be really surprised if he wasn't bad after all. It's been too long that I've read all the other books, so I have only vague recollections, but it doesn't deter me.
I ahven't watched the latest movie yet, and only watched the Prisoner of Askaban movie when I was at my sister's last week. I quite like the movies, I guess it's an advantage if you watch them and don't remember the books in detail.

And there I was thinking there'd been a murder or some such nastiness at the Maltings when I saw this conversation in my postings list

I'm guessing then that you haven't formed an opinion?

Bel, there are some things I wouldn't have liked about the movie even if I hadn't just read the book. But there were some things I liked, too. Before it came out I was trying to guess what elements of the book would be left out... I didn't get many of them right.

38 hours to go!

Will be interesting to see whether I'll get my book on 21st or later. I ordered it online, I guess they'll be pretty busy sending all those books out. Would be worse if it was the German edition, though.

I've only ever pre-ordered two books, both last year. One book arrived on the release date. The other I still hadn't received a week after the release date, despite several calls to their call center, and in the end I went and bought the book at the competition and returned the copy I ordered when it finally arrived. I haven't been back to that company's store since.

There is an online retailer promising release date delivery, but I think you had to order it by yesterday, and I'm not sure if they make the same promises over there.

They do for the German edition, I didn't look whether they did for the English edition. To be honest, it doesn't really matter to me whether or not it arrives on the release day. I conveniently was in London when the last HP was released, bought it at Tescoe's for not too much money (I think it was short of 8.00 pounds).

That's probably around what mine will cost... I'm expecting around $16-17.

12 hours to go...

I've been fine, thanks broe! I've just finished the book after a marathon reading session, but of course I can't say anything about it yet...

I stayed offline entirely until I finished it. I didn't even check email - didn't want to find a Spam titled "Harry Bites It" or something. There weren't any when I finally checked, but I thought it was best not to take chances.


I was so sure I was right.... right up until he died.

I think one of my favourite lines though was "Your grandfather will never forgive you if you marry a pureblood."

It took me longer than I liked to read, I finally finished it Tuesday night. Now I'm listening to the audiobook in the car. Since no one else in the family has read the 5th or 6th books, we're taking the 5th audiobook on our trip next week.

>>Are you re-reading HBP then?

That would be 'Harry Bloody Potter'? Oh...no...I see.

Smart strategy to avoid e-mail, too. I didn't think about that, but I didn't get any of that nasty spoiler spam, either.

Nobody here has read it anyway, so I didn't need to worry about collleagues spoiling it for me. The only emails I usually get are forum emails, so there weren't any spoilers.

I didn't expect there to be, but I wasn't going to take any chances.