Magical...

I just finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell last night with a brief interruption by another fantastically popular magical book...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.


I had pre-ordered my copy of the new Harry Potter book from Amazon so I had it in my hands on the release date. It probably goes with out saying that I sat right down and devoured it! If I had not had to drive to Washington, DC on Sunday I probably would have finished it with in 24 hours. Since I did spend a good chunk of time in the car driving I read it every other spare minute and turned the last page around 11pm Monday.

Since I was adamant about not hearing spoilers I will not even come close to spilling the beans for anyone who has yet to finish their copy. I will say that I loved this book as much or more than the others. I greatly appreciate Rowling's ability to fully suck me into the story and make it nearly impossible to stop reading. Brilliant! I now want to go back and read the entire Potter series to see how all of the books work with each other.

But back to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell!!! Another fine book about magicians. This is an interesting book for many reasons. One of which is the scholarly style the book is written complete with footnotes. I love that the book is set in the 19th century and actually historical events are warped into the story. There were more than a few dragging moments in this rather long book, but just as I began to wonder if I should stop reading something intriguing would propel me forward.

I am now going to move on to Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. If I am not mistaken this book is the (imagined) tales told by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan about the cities Khan's empire. I am told there are fantastic descriptions of cities that reside in the fantasy of imagination. I look forward to starting!