The Book Tower

Very slowly, I’m getting ready for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s taking me a while to get enthusiastic, but I’m sure I’ll be jumping around in my wizard’s hat in time for July 21st.

I saw something in the paper this weekend about William Hill’s odds for the book’s grand finale. It’s no secret that Harry meets his maker in Rowling’s final instalment of the series. I can’t find the paper now; I’ve either put it with the recycling or my wife has it by the bed upstairs. I daren’t wake her by rustling around up there. But I’m interested, do many people really bother betting on a Harry Potter book? After much frantic searching I’ve found what I believe to be the odds on who kills Harry:

• 2/1 Lord Voldemort
• 5/2 Professor Snape
• 6/1 Draco Malfroy
• 6/1 Ron Weasley
• 6/1 Harry Potter

And the less likely:

• 12/1 Neville Longbottom
• 14/1 Lucius Malfroy
• 14/1 Hermione Granger
• 20/1 Proffessor Slughorn
• 25/1 Hagrid
• 25/1 Cornelius Fudge
• 33/1 Arthur Weasley
• 33/1 Dawlish
• 40/1 Professor McGonagall
• 50/1 Lupin
• 50/1 Mr Filch
• 50/1 Dobby
• 100/1 Ginny Weasley
• 100/1 Tonks
• 100/1 Fred/George Weasly
• 100/1 Uncle Vernon
• Other On Request

The desperate:

If Harry Potter survives all bets will be void and stake money will be returned -You cannot lose!
Other Potty Potter Punts Hills Have Accepted:

• Ron and Hermione To Marry with Harry As Best Man-8/1
• Ron and Hermione to have a child 16/1 ….called Harry 25/1
• Ron to cause the demise of Draco Malfroy in a duel-20/1
• Harry Potter to catch the snitch in a Quidditch world cup-33/1

Has the world gone crazy? Why not just make up the most far fetched scenario you can think of? There’s no mention of Dumbledore or Sirius Black coming back from the dead although, as my two favourite characters from the series, I’d love to see them again.

Interesting that William Hill will return your money if Harry survives, which – in a way – is a sort of tribute to Rowling. The fact that he will die, and it’s such a certainty that William Hill are betting on it, isn’t what’s exciting or interesting. It’s how.

To be perfectly honest, I am a big fan. I always find one or two fantastic sequences in a Harry Potter book. At least. In the last instalment, I remember Harry and Dumbledore’s journeys back into the early days of Voldemort particularly effective. And that other journey across the lake…

Talking about it though, I’m getting excited again. Where’s my cape and wand..?

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Today is the last day of the From the Stacks reading challenge. I’ve only managed to finish three of the five books, realising how undisciplined I am. Although, in my defence, I have read a pile of alternative titles from my shelves. As for the Winter Classics challenge, which has another month to go, I have read only two of the five books. Oh well. I was never any good with deadlines, although I do still intend to read all of the books before the year is out!

Now onto memes. Jack Pickard has recently taken the baton for the Things Beginning With… meme. He mentions in his responses that he’s been flirting with the idea of posting his own fiction on his blog. This got me thinking as, although some people might argue that some of my posts veer off into pure fiction anyway, I’ve thought about doing something similar from time to time.

So what do people think? Are you a frustrated writer or do you already post your fiction on your blog? Do you like fiction blogs? To be honest, I haven’t found that many. I’ve subscribed to a few, but find they sit uncomfortably next to the blogs I read for information, reviews, web stuff and memes. Plus what everyone else is reading, of course. But what type of fiction best suits the web, short stories or longer fiction in instalments?

Still talking of memes, I was recently asked to explain what one was. The Wikipedia explanation is long winded to say the least, so how would you best describe a meme in 20 words or less?

Farewell then, January. Coming in February: The Book Thief, Iain M.Banks and more Mervyn Peake.

Comments [2]

Although I’m keen to read the rest of the Gormenghast trilogy, I’m conscious of this becoming too much of a Titus Blog. So I think it’s time to read a couple of other books before I return to Mervyn Peake.

I highly recommend Titus Groan, however, even though the novel is a touch overlong at 500 pages. What works best in the book is Peake’s skill at conveying a sense of space, not only in the vastness of the castle but in each character’s own sense of perspective. In a memorable chapter, Steerpike stands on the castle roof and surveys all around him in great detail. He can see for miles around and takes time to digest as much as he can of his surroundings. And this is what makes Steerpike such a success; he can see exactly what’s going on, whereas most of the other characters in Titus Groan are blinkered, eccentric or, most chillingly, mad.

Other residents of Gormenghast can only struggle to see what’s happening or predict what is going to happen – Peake always conveys the dependence on natural light and the inevitable gloom and shadows that envelop the castle each day. In another memorable scene, the servant Flay spies, by chance, his enemy the drunken chef Swelter as he rehearses an act of murder. As he secretly peers through the gloomy half light he suddenly realises that the murder is his own.

But enough – I’m saving a full review until I’ve eventually read the whole series. Titus Groan was written in 1946, and Peake followed it in 1950 with the equally lengthy Gormenghast. The last book was published in 1959, the comparitively slim Titus Alone. I’ll hopefully be through them all quite quickly, to provide more half glimpsed visions of murder and madness.

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