The WISIWYG Blog

Good News: I now have a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I've got it for free!!!

Bad News: I haven't read any of the previous Harry Potter books!!!

About two weeks ago, I've got my copy of the 7th Harry Potter book.  It was not a hardcopy, though. It was in doc format, and I've downloaded it through the Internet, thanks to the download link given by Spanx. I don't know him, but I'm lucky enough to get the link through a Google group where he belongs.

Anyway, that was just the good part of the story. The bad part is that I haven't read any of the past Harry Potter books yet! So what would I do with book 7 if I haven't read books 1 to 6 yet? I surely wouldn't appreciate the book well if I haven't read the past stories. So what's the best thing to do? I guess I'll have to start reading book 1, even if it may seem a bit late, especially that this addition is going to be the last book in the series.

Then, where will I get my copy of books 1 to 6? Well, I actually have them now, again in soft copies. It was not from Spanx this time, but from a website called Scribd. Searching from the documents downloaded to the site, I've found a document titled The Harry Potter Collection, which include books 1 to 5, and a separate document for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the 6th book.

Now that I have all 7 Harry Potter books, it's time to start reading from the first page of book 1 to the last page of book 7. And when do I expect to finish reading all of the 7 books. Uhmm, with the time allowed in the office for reading the books, and the time that it usually takes me to read a particular novel, maybe it would take me 7 months, provided that I read fast enough :D

* Originally posted last Saturday(07/14/07) at http://prescillian.wordpress.com 

The man-eater, the cannibal, the monster, the psychopath, the sociopath… and the list goes on.  He was hated in the films; his intellect has been admired in the novels (my opinion).  And should a person in real life have all of his characteristics, that person would surely be feared.  But whatever you may call him, or whatever your opinion about his character may be, you would agree that he is one of the most popular characters (a villain as he is) that the fiction world has created.  For my part, I have first read about him last January, and up to this moment, I am still hooked on his story.

The character’s name is Hannibal Lecter, and thanks to Thomas Harris, the world has been told of his tale.

A person who simply picks a book as long as it has an interesting title and is affordable (read: found at BookSale), the first Harris book I read was The Hannibal.  Never knew then that it was the last book in the series.  The novel relates the story of Hannibal Lecter after his escape from the jail.  And while he was the villain in the previous Harris novels, he turned out to be a semi-protagonist in this book. As to the story, it was interesting enough to convince me to read the previous Hannibal novels.  In fact, after reading The Hannibal, I thought it would be the best Harris novel that I would ever read.

Interested in reading more about Hannibal Lecter, I bought another Harris book in The Silence of the Lambs.  The protagonist is the same in the person of Clarice Starling, but Hannibal’s role in this novel has been limited to a convict who was consulted by the FBI for their investigations—until his escape on the later part of the novel.  In the first few chapters, I thought I would be bored.  For one, I already know that Starling and Lecter wouldn’t die or anything. As I progressed through the pages, however, I discovered that my interest wouldn’t be spoiled by the fact that I have already read the sequel.  The story stood on its own and by the time I’ve finished reading the book, I can surely say that it was one of the best suspense novels I have read so far.

Now, just this afternoon, I have finished reading my third Thomas Harris novel, The Red Dragon, which happened to be the first novel in the series.  If Hannibal was the main character in the The Hannibal and played a minor but important role in The Silence of the Lamb, his role in this first novel was much more limited.  Aside from being consulted by Will Graham (the story’s protagonist) for a serial murder case and his correspondence by mail to the man and to the villain, his character was rarely mentioned in the book.  Nevertheless, the storyline was still very interesting, although not enough to match the second novel.  In fact, it will make you wonder how Thomas Harris was able to make the novel that interesting when he has already revealed the name of the villain (Francis Dollarhyde) on the first few chapters of the book.

Done reading the three books, I don’t know what book is next for me.  Maybe I’ll get Harris’ latest (as of today) Hannibal novel, Hannibal Rising, as soon as I have the cash.  But cashless as I am today, maybe I’ll make good with what can be read at home.  Roda has left two books before she left for Japan.  One is by John Grisham and I think it is interesting.  I’m thinking of starting with the Harry Potter books, but the thickness of the hardbound editions has always discouraged me to start reading them.  Well, whatever comes next, I’m sure to update you as long as I’m done reading.