An Eclectic Mind

I’m done.

I’ll admit it: I’m a Harry Potter fan. I think the books are well-written and entertaining. And I think the movies are extremely well done, faithful to the books in such a way to satisfactorily bring the author’s scenes to life.

I’ll admit this, too: I ordered the final Harry Potter book three months ago. I ordered it from Amazon.com with another item, chose free shipping, and waited. I wasn’t in a rush. I just wanted my collection complete. Amazon shipped the other item immediately and put my HP order on hold until it was time to ship it.

Last week, Amazon sent me an e-mail suggesting that I upgrade shipping so I’d get the book on its publication date. I wasn’t in a hurry to get the book so I ignored the e-mail.

Meanwhile, I was listening to the Slate Political Gabfast podcast. One of the staff mentioned that the audio books for Harry Potter were excellent. Since I didn’t remember much of the sixth Harry Potter book, I figured I’d try it as an audio book. I ordered it from Amazon.com. They gave me a free trial to Amazon Prime. Free 2-day shipping for a month (when I’ll cancel to avoid the outrageous $79 annual fee). I figured the audio book would arrive before the printed book. I could listen to book 6 and read book 7.

I got an e-mail from Amazon.com on Thursday to let me know that my HP book had shipped. I could expect it by July 26. Fine. I was in no hurry.

So imagine my surprise when I opened my mailbox yesterday — two days after being told the book had shipped — and the book was in there. On the publication date. With free shipping. And the darn thing had cost me less than $20 — about half the retail price. Not bad.

So now I faced a dilemma.: read the book right away or wait until after listening to the Book 6 audio, which still hadn’t arrived.

Yesterday afternoon, after a pleasant day Jeeping on dirt roads and an even more pleasant shower, I cracked open the 700+ page final book of the Harry Potter series. The reason I didn’t wait: I was afraid that someone would spoil it for me by telling me the end.

I was 1/3 finished when I went to bed at about 10 PM last night. This morning, I got right back into it with my breakfast. By 12:30 PM, I was finished.

I won’t tell the ending. In my opinion, anyone who does is a major-league asshole. That includes the people who ripped off copies before they were released and published them on the Web. It also includes the reviewers for the New York Times who released plot points in a review the day before the book was released.

I will say that the ending works. That’s it.

I think J.K. Rowling has done a fine job on this series. Although a lot of the books were a bit longer than they needed to be, I think that gave readers — especially those who can’t crank through a 700+ page book in 8 hours — more for their money. It helped them stay in the fantasy world of Harry Potter and his friends for just a little bit longer.

Is the whole Harry Potter thing worth the ridiculous hype? In my opinion, no.

But then again, in today’s world, people seem anxious to grab on to any hype they can. It’s better to latch on to Harry Potter’s struggle against evil than Paris Hilton’s short prison stay — or to stand in line for an iPhone.

Isn’t it?

As for that Book 6 Audio…I look forward to hearing it. If it’s half as good as the Slate podcaster claims, I’ll enjoy it immensely.

In the movies.

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the latest Harry Potter movie on a full-sized screen at Wickenburg’s historic Saguaro Theater.

Our Saguaro Theater

First, a few words about the theater. It was originally built in the 1920s (I believe) and, like all theaters from that era, only has one big screen. The theater was never cut into pieces by greedy theater owners, anxious to max out their profits on available real estate. (Unlike the old Closter and Tenafly theaters I went to in New Jersey as a child.) The seats, which are replaced every 10 or so years, are always replaced with another theater’s cast-offs, so they’re never quite new. But they’re comfortable and the current seats not only recline but have cup holders. The place is clean, too.

The theater owner, Brian, owns two theaters in Arizona. The other one is in Payson, where I believe he lives. He’s a great guy. Although he could stick us with older movies that have been around for weeks or months, he manages to get us a good bunch of first run movies every year. When we get a first run — like Harry Potter this week — we keep it for two weeks.

The theater is open every night for one showing and has three showings on Saturdays and Sundays. There’s a refreshment stand with the usual popcorn and candy. Everyone who works there is extremely friendly and pleasant. I get a discount because I run advertising slides in the theater and they actually recognize me when I come in and give me my discount without asking. Regular ticket prices are $8 per adult and $5 per child or senior. (I pay the child/senior price.)

The Saguaro theater is the only theater in Wickenburg. In fact, it’s the only theater within about 40 miles. So if you want to watch a movie and you don’t want to spend a lot of time driving, this is is.

Harry Potter

Now I know a lot of people don’t like the Harry Potter phenomena, but I’m not one of them. Sure, I think there’s entirely too much hype about it — but isn’t there too much hype about everything these days? (Think iPhone and Paris Hilton.) The truth — at least the way I see it — is that the books are pretty well written and tell great stories that appeal to young people and adults looking for a fantasy escape. While the hype has pushed book sales far beyond what’s normal for books of this genre, I think most readers come away satisfied, if not pleased, about their reading experience.

Watch the Trailers

The movies are well done. They’re true to the books, while cutting out a lot of the extra stuff that J.K. Rowling seems to have added to the later titles in the series. It’s a real pleasure to see the scenes from the books come to life on the screen. Casting is very good, special effects are incredible. What else could a reader want in a movie based on a book?

What I’m also enjoying as I watch each movie seeing the young cast members grow up. They were kids at the beginning of all this; now they’re becoming young men and women. The current movie features many flashbacks of Harry’s life and the footage is there to show him at every age. The characters are supposed to be 15 in this story and although they’re older in real life, they can pass as 15-year-olds. (The character that plays Malfoy does look considerably older than the others, though.) I’m hoping the production folks can keep up the pace and deliver the last two movies with the same actors.

As you might imagine, I highly recommend the movie to anyone who has been reading the Harry Potter books. It’s meant to be seen on a big screen (or as big a screen as is available to you) rather than on a television screen. We’ll probably see it again before it leaves town, perhaps from a seat near the back of the theater for a different view.

Did you see the movie? What did you think? Use the Comments link or form below to share your thoughts with the rest of us.

And in case you’re wondering, I do have the last Harry Potter book on order at Amazon.com. I didn’t spring for the overnight shipping — I’m not a complete fangirl! — but I do look forward to reading it when it arives sometime next week.

by Lucy Kellaway.

While on the plane from Phoenix to Newark the other day, I read Who Moved My Blackberry? by Lucy Kellaway. It was a quick read, primarily because the entire book was written as a series of e-mail messages, most of which were from the main character, Martin Lukes.

It was a great example of the writer’s principle of “show, don’t tell.” By reading Martin’s outgoing messages and a handful of incoming messages he received from others, I got an excellent idea of what Martin was like. He’s full of himself, a chauvinist, not too bright, overweight, a bit lazy, somewhat manipulative, and not very honest to the people around him — or himself. After the first 25 or so pages, was used to the writing style or e-mail as a storytelling device. As amazing as it may seem, the e-mail messages moved a definite story forward, with multiple plot lines. What’s even funnier, however, is that by reading Martin’s answers to e-mail messages he received that weren’t in the book, I knew what other people were thinking about him and got a pretty good idea of what they’d written.

The book is also a look at the corporate culture. Although the book takes place primarily in Martin’s workplace at a multinational corporation, it’s impossible to know what the company does or sells. Martin, a marketing executive, is mostly concerned with corporate branding and public relations. But even though the reader never learns what his company does all over the world, it doesn’t matter. And I think that says a lot for today’s corporations. A lot of the employees are just glorified paper-shufflers that could be working for any company selling any product or service.

The book was very good and I highly recommend it. I left it at my brother’s house for my sister-in-law, who works in Human Resources, to read. I think she’ll be able to identify with what goes on between the lines of all those e-mail messages.

Looking for a fun read? Give Who Moved My Blackberry? a try.

Futuristic social commentary by P.D. James.

I just finished The Children of Men by P.D. James. James, who normally writes mysteries featuring her series detective, Adam Dalgliesh, wrote instead of a futuristic world 25 years after the birth of the last-born child. In the world of this book, there are no children, no babies, and no hope for new human life.

James paints a sad picture of that world. Schools are converted into housing for the elderly, colleges now teach courses of interest to adults who don’t have their time occupied by their offspring. Playgrounds are gone. The government is trying to centralize the population in big cities so it’s easier to provide services as the population dwindles and only a handful of elderly people are left.

[This might sound weird, but it reminded me a bit of the retirement town I live in. Of course, there are some children and young people here, but the majority of residents and voters are retired so there isn't much emphasis on things that would benefit young people. The local school board, for example, was unable to pass a school bond in the most recent vote -- people don't want to foot the bill for education when they don't have kids in the system. The local Center for the Arts released its 2007/2008 schedule last month, and for the first time since opening about 5 years ago, there isn't a single family-oriented program on the schedule. Are they giving up on children here in Wickenburg?]

The book has a hero: 50-year-old Theo. Theo is first cousin of the Warden of England, Xan, a self-made dictator first elected as Prime Minister years ago. Xan makes extreme decisions that benefit the apathetic public, by enhancing safety and reducing the cost and bother of supporting the aging population. But a handful of people aren’t happy with his decisions and want to stop him. They go to Theo, hoping he can convince Xan to change things. To say much more would be a spoiler, but I will mention that there appears to be hope for the world when a woman becomes pregnant.

I enjoyed the book’s fast pace after its initially slow start. A lot of background information was presented in the form of Theo’s personal diary before a third person narrator stepped in and picked up the story. It wasn’t a long book — I read it over a weekend — and the pages turned quickly. Now I’m waiting for the movie based on the book to appear in a Netflix envelope in my mailbox. I have a feeling that the movie will be a lot more exciting than the book, focusing on the events that occur after the pregnancy is discovered, Hollywoodized for maximum visual impact.

Did I like the book? Yes, I did. It made me think. And in today’s world of eye candy entertainment, that’s saying a lot.

I try some software to add formatted hypertext documents to my Treo.

I’m one of these people who can’t spend more than a few minutes without some kind of mental stimulation. I have puzzle books under the seat in my helicopter, so if I’m stuck on the ground waiting for a passenger, I can do a few crosswords. I use my Treo to send Twitter tweets and tumblelog photos. I carry a tiny notebook and small digital camera with me to make notes or take photos. And my iPod is always full of podcasts, in case I get stuck taking a long drive or long flight by myself.

My Treo offers an entire new range of possibilities for me — beyond texting to Twitter and e-mailing my tumblelog. I can convert texts that I’d like to read into eBooks, load them onto my Treo, and take them with me.

Enter ManyBooks.net

I started exploring the world of tiny-format eBooks on the ManyBooks.net Web site. I learned about the site only a few days ago in an article on Miraz Jordan’s Web site, TiKouka.

ManyBooks offers over 17,000 free eBooks. Because most books are created based on out-of-copyright works that are now in the public domain, don’t look for today’s latest bestseller here. Instead, you’ll find works by classic authors such as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and one of my favorites, Mark Twain.

The Books are offered in a wide variety of formats. Not sure what format my Treo would support, I downloaded the eReader format of Mark Twain’s book, The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories. It arrived as a .pdb file. Double-clicking the file opened the Missing Sync (which I use to sync my Mac and Treo) and loaded the file into it for installation. Pressing the button on my tether cable (with the Treo plugged in, of course), loaded the book. I could then open the book with the eReader application on my Treo.

The resulting document was perfectly legible on my Treo, but a bit disappointing none the less. The problem centered around the eReader software’s Contents feature, which hadn’t been set up properly in the downloaded file. Instead of having a Contents entry for each story, there were a handful of entries for chapters that appeared in some of the stories. The book resulting book was awkward to navigate.

The Gutenberg Project

One thing I noticed about the ManyBooks.net book I’d downloaded was the source of the text: The Gutenberg Project.

Project Gutenberg, which was founded by eBook inventor Michael Hart in 1971, is a volunteer organization that is transcribing all out-of-copyright books and other works to electronic format, making them available as plain and formatted text in a variety of formats — including, more recently, audio formats. The goal is to build a free library of the world’s greatest works.

Project Gutenberg texts are, by definition, public domain. That means that they can be downloaded, read, and otherwise used by others. ManyBooks.net has obviously drawn upon this vast library of more than 20,000 works in English and other languages to distribute books in additional formats.

I saw ManyBooks as a middleman. I decided to get the texts I wanted directly from Project Gutenberg and format them myself as eBooks.

But how?

Enter eBook Studio

I went back to my Treo. The software I was using to read the ebooks was something called eReader. I Googled eReader and came up with the eReader.com Web site. The site appeared to be a source of books — both current and non-current — in eReader format.

But what caught my eye was a link to eBook Studio. I followed it and found what I was looking for: a Mac OS application that would enable me to create my own, custom-formatted eBooks. (Yes, a Windows version is also available for download from the site.) I downloaded the demo, tried it, liked what I saw, and paid $29.95 for the full version.

A while later, I was dumping the raw text of Twain’s book, downloaded from the Project Gutenberg Web site, into eBook Studio. The software displays a long, narrow window that clearly shows how text will wrap horizontally on a smartphone’s pages. I could specify headings as chapters, insert page breaks, make text bold, and create anchors and links within the document. I could even insert an image of the book’s cover (or any other small image) in the document.

Once finished, I used the Make Book command to convert the document into a .pdb file. I then installed it on my Treo and was able to read it on the device.

My first attempt was good, but not perfect, so I tried it again, fine-tuning my formatting. Because I could save the source file, it only took a few minutes to tweak the formatting and spit out another book. This one was up to my standards. Download it and see for yourself: The $30,000 Bequest by Mark Twain in eReader ebook format. I subsequently did the same thing for Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven.

I should mention here that if you know the Palm markup language (or don’t mind learning it), you can create an eBook without this $30 piece of software. Instead, you’d use the markup language to add formatting to your plain text document and use the free DropBook and MakeBook utilities to convert it into a .pdb file. The way I see it, I already know more markup languages than I want to know. Adding more to my stuffed-with-junk brain will only confuse me. (Like trying to learn German and Spanish at the same time did in college.)

More than Just Existing Books

Now that I know how to create these books, I can make more of them based not just on existing texts that come my way but on my own material that I might want to store for reference on my Treo. Although there are quicker and easier ways to put notes on my Treo — none of which I’ve explored yet — I like the idea of formatted documents with links and chapters for navigation. That’s the beauty of this particular eBook format — and why I’m likely to depend on it for all my personal portable documents.