Book 7 stuff, etc.
(1) Cover art and page counts
I was caught a bit off guard to discover that the new book art is already released. All of the pictures are effective, I think, in suggesting interesting possibilities without actually giving us concrete information prematurely. On the US picture, I'm guessing that the possible absence of a scar is probably not significant (though it's worth keeping in the back of my mind as a possibility). The absence of wands has me leaning more toward significance. And who are those people watching? (Death eaters, someone has suggested? I suppose that could make sense. Whoever they are, though, the concept of spectators at The Final Smackdown seems a bit surprising, if indeed that's what's going on. Furthermore... where are they-- the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch?!?)
On the UK picture, my initial guess was (and to some extent still is) that the Trio are in some kind of treasure room associated with Voldemort. I guess this because I'm expecting that to be a Horcrux scene (note that the Hufflepuff Cup could easily be there). Some have suggested Gringotts; if so, then this would presumably be something besides an attempted Horcrux discovery. As for the House-Elf: My guess is Dobby; the Elf looks ugly but not wrinkled like Kreacher.
It will be interesting to find out how Harry ends up waiting in Privet Drive. That suggests at least a bit of a change of plans from the end of HBP, when Harry's planning to go ahead on the Horcrux Hunt, accompanied by Ron & Hermione only because they insist, and certainly not waiting for anyone's permission. Will there be an attack at King's Cross? Will Lupin or Moody or somebody talk Harry into cooperating more with the Order? I wish I knew.
What I can talk more definitely about, though, is the page counts (784 US, 608 UK). My first thought was that that seemed like an awfully big difference between the two editions. But consider the following table:
US vs. UK Page Counts & Densities
BookWordsUS PagesUK Pages
RatioUS Words/PageUK Words/Page
PS/SS769443092231.39
249345
CoS851413412561.33
250333
PoA1072534353171.37
247338
GoF1906377346361.15
260300
OotP2570348707661.14
295336
HBP1689236526071.07
259278
DH???7846081.29
??????
So the US/UK page count ratio isn't the highest here. It's only back approaching the range of the first three books, when the US books averaged about 250 words/page and the British typically about 340. In this case, if you assume a words/page density of 260 for the US edition (about the same as GoF and HBP, and slightly higher than the first three), the 1.29 ratio gives you about 335 words/page for the UK (close to all the books except GoF and HBP, for which the UK edition was, surprisingly to me, less densely printed). This further would translate into a word count of about 204,000-- about 7% longer than GoF and 21% longer than HBP, but still 21% shorter than OotP.
(So my initial guess of a 220K-word book was probably too high, and my more recent guess based on the book pricing was even more mistaken.)
(2) Also, about that Arthur Levine comment:
I do not see that "sobbing" necessarily indicates an unhappy ending; just, as Levine said, a very "emotional" book. I myself am not (as you might guess) the type to get weepy over books or movies or whatever; but the moments that do get me a bit choked up or misty-eyed (which is as far as I go down that path) are not usually moments where people die-- just what you might call "emotionally impacting plot twists." (There are several moments in Narnia that I would classify thus; most notably when Aslan revives that dying old dwarfish-looking woman, and she turns out to be Caspian's old nurse.) And in the case of HP book 7, my guess is that whatever the Big Final Revelation About Lily Evans Potter turns out to be, could easily have a similar effect, regardless of whether we lose any of the major characters we had hoped would live.
I did happen to be flipping idly through HBP last week, though (during an unsuccessful effort to get to sleep one evening), and noticed the bit where Harry notices that the Weasley Family Clock "was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets in the washing backet at the end of the table," and guesses that "its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her." This seems like it might be a reminder that the Worries of Mrs. Weasley are still important, and will come into play again before the end. I'll be surprised if we don't lose at least one Weasley. (I continue to be confident about Harry and Ginny, and also about Ron and Hermione; but I suspect that Fred and George are worth worrying about-- not to mention Molly herself. :shudder: )
Overall, though, I am becoming increasingly optimistic about the final sequence of DH surpassing even that of PoA for a rapid-fire series of slam-bang plot twists, so that the book could well displace PoA as the "consensus fan favorite." As usual, though, of course: "We'll see."
(And even in the seemingly unlikely event that Harry should die: I trust JKR to do it right.)
(3) Monthly Quiz #3: CoS Quotes
I give you below the first spoken quotation from each chapter from CoS, in order (or, if that gave too much away, the beginning of the first quote-- except for #6, where that would probably have made it impossible to the point of being uninteresting). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify the person speaking in each case. (If you need more of a challenge, you may also identify the person spoken to, and describe the context.)
1. "Third time this week!"
2. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"
3. "Ron!"
4. "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!"
5. "Not a word to Molly."
6. "Post's due any minute-- I think Gran's sending on a few things I forgot."
7. "All right, Harry?"
8. "...Don't fulfill their requirements...."
9. "What's going on here? What's going on?"
10. "Nice loud howl, Harry-- exactly--"
11. "All in order. When you've finished eating, you may leave."
12. "Bee in your bonnet, Harry Potter?"
13. "If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work."
14. "Riddle might have got the wrong person."
15. "We're taking no more chances. No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off...."
16. "All those times we were in that bathroom...."
17. "Ginny!"
18. "Ginny!"
I was caught a bit off guard to discover that the new book art is already released. All of the pictures are effective, I think, in suggesting interesting possibilities without actually giving us concrete information prematurely. On the US picture, I'm guessing that the possible absence of a scar is probably not significant (though it's worth keeping in the back of my mind as a possibility). The absence of wands has me leaning more toward significance. And who are those people watching? (Death eaters, someone has suggested? I suppose that could make sense. Whoever they are, though, the concept of spectators at The Final Smackdown seems a bit surprising, if indeed that's what's going on. Furthermore... where are they-- the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch?!?)
On the UK picture, my initial guess was (and to some extent still is) that the Trio are in some kind of treasure room associated with Voldemort. I guess this because I'm expecting that to be a Horcrux scene (note that the Hufflepuff Cup could easily be there). Some have suggested Gringotts; if so, then this would presumably be something besides an attempted Horcrux discovery. As for the House-Elf: My guess is Dobby; the Elf looks ugly but not wrinkled like Kreacher.
It will be interesting to find out how Harry ends up waiting in Privet Drive. That suggests at least a bit of a change of plans from the end of HBP, when Harry's planning to go ahead on the Horcrux Hunt, accompanied by Ron & Hermione only because they insist, and certainly not waiting for anyone's permission. Will there be an attack at King's Cross? Will Lupin or Moody or somebody talk Harry into cooperating more with the Order? I wish I knew.
What I can talk more definitely about, though, is the page counts (784 US, 608 UK). My first thought was that that seemed like an awfully big difference between the two editions. But consider the following table:
US vs. UK Page Counts & Densities
BookWordsUS PagesUK Pages
RatioUS Words/PageUK Words/Page
PS/SS769443092231.39
249345
CoS851413412561.33
250333
PoA1072534353171.37
247338
GoF1906377346361.15
260300
OotP2570348707661.14
295336
HBP1689236526071.07
259278
DH???7846081.29
??????
So the US/UK page count ratio isn't the highest here. It's only back approaching the range of the first three books, when the US books averaged about 250 words/page and the British typically about 340. In this case, if you assume a words/page density of 260 for the US edition (about the same as GoF and HBP, and slightly higher than the first three), the 1.29 ratio gives you about 335 words/page for the UK (close to all the books except GoF and HBP, for which the UK edition was, surprisingly to me, less densely printed). This further would translate into a word count of about 204,000-- about 7% longer than GoF and 21% longer than HBP, but still 21% shorter than OotP.
(So my initial guess of a 220K-word book was probably too high, and my more recent guess based on the book pricing was even more mistaken.)
(2) Also, about that Arthur Levine comment:
I do not see that "sobbing" necessarily indicates an unhappy ending; just, as Levine said, a very "emotional" book. I myself am not (as you might guess) the type to get weepy over books or movies or whatever; but the moments that do get me a bit choked up or misty-eyed (which is as far as I go down that path) are not usually moments where people die-- just what you might call "emotionally impacting plot twists." (There are several moments in Narnia that I would classify thus; most notably when Aslan revives that dying old dwarfish-looking woman, and she turns out to be Caspian's old nurse.) And in the case of HP book 7, my guess is that whatever the Big Final Revelation About Lily Evans Potter turns out to be, could easily have a similar effect, regardless of whether we lose any of the major characters we had hoped would live.
I did happen to be flipping idly through HBP last week, though (during an unsuccessful effort to get to sleep one evening), and noticed the bit where Harry notices that the Weasley Family Clock "was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets in the washing backet at the end of the table," and guesses that "its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her." This seems like it might be a reminder that the Worries of Mrs. Weasley are still important, and will come into play again before the end. I'll be surprised if we don't lose at least one Weasley. (I continue to be confident about Harry and Ginny, and also about Ron and Hermione; but I suspect that Fred and George are worth worrying about-- not to mention Molly herself. :shudder: )
Overall, though, I am becoming increasingly optimistic about the final sequence of DH surpassing even that of PoA for a rapid-fire series of slam-bang plot twists, so that the book could well displace PoA as the "consensus fan favorite." As usual, though, of course: "We'll see."
(And even in the seemingly unlikely event that Harry should die: I trust JKR to do it right.)
(3) Monthly Quiz #3: CoS Quotes
I give you below the first spoken quotation from each chapter from CoS, in order (or, if that gave too much away, the beginning of the first quote-- except for #6, where that would probably have made it impossible to the point of being uninteresting). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify the person speaking in each case. (If you need more of a challenge, you may also identify the person spoken to, and describe the context.)
1. "Third time this week!"
2. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"
3. "Ron!"
4. "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!"
5. "Not a word to Molly."
6. "Post's due any minute-- I think Gran's sending on a few things I forgot."
7. "All right, Harry?"
8. "...Don't fulfill their requirements...."
9. "What's going on here? What's going on?"
10. "Nice loud howl, Harry-- exactly--"
11. "All in order. When you've finished eating, you may leave."
12. "Bee in your bonnet, Harry Potter?"
13. "If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work."
14. "Riddle might have got the wrong person."
15. "We're taking no more chances. No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off...."
16. "All those times we were in that bathroom...."
17. "Ginny!"
18. "Ginny!"