Monday, December 6, 2010

What are you reading?

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through A World of Books. 


 What am I reading? Not much! In between last minute plans for my trip to Japan, work, applying for honours next year and now searching for a new house as my landlord is selling I haven't really had a chance to sit down and enjoy the pile of books sitting beside my bed.

At least every summer holiday (if not 2 or 3 or 9 times a year) I succumb to the desire to read through the Harry Potter series once more, and while I love this series more than anything else I've ever had the pleasure of reading I always feel kind of guilty spending time re-reading it when I have a bucket load of books in my shelf just waiting to be read. Thanks to a friend I added Harry Potter (audio style) to my Ipod a few months ago but until a week ago I had completely forgotten about its existence on my Ipod. Because of the latest HP movie at the cinema that I'd been plagued by that itching desire to once again read my way through Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures, but as mentioned above I haven't really got a lot of excessive time.

Enter audio books. Read by the marvelous Stephen Fry I've had this playing in my car on the way to work, on the way home from work, on my lunch break, as I use the inter-webs and before I fall asleep. In other words every-freaking-where. I've never really been one for audio books, mainly because they take so much longer than I would if I was actually reading it and I tend to find the reader's voices either monotonous or a little too over the top when it comes to the voices of the characters. Stephen Fry however is fantastic. Apart from being my favourite Brit, his speech is so controlled and well paced and free from distracting accentuation and he makes a real effort to differentiate each character's voice without going over the top and taking away from the text. It's quite a joy to listen to actually.

There isn't much point in me discussing Harry Potter, it has been analysed from every possible angle so instead I'll waffle on about the wonderfulness of Stephen Fry for a little longer! He may not have made it into the films but as well as the narrator for all seven books on audiotape Fry has voiced the narrator in at least three of the Harry Potter video-games, so one way or another he is well and truly a part of the Harry Potter saga!  Personally it was always a disappointment that Fry was never added to the cast of British actors who make up the wonderful film world of Harry Potter. I always thought he'd be a wonderful addition to the cast. I can't really align him to any of the main character roles but perhaps a ghost (Hufflepuff's Friar maybe) or an eccentric professor or salesman in Diagon Alley, either way it is only too easy to imagine Fry in velvet or brocade wizard's robes, with a strange little wizarding hat jauntily plopped on his head.

Hopefully once my honours application is in and all the Japan details are organised I'll be able to get reading for real, but until then I'm going to keep my headphones in and get through as much HP as I can. So now you know what I'm reading this Monday, what have you been reading or are planning to get stuck into?

2 comments:

  1. I am wanting to reread the HP series. I read them as they came out and have not read them since. Maybe this year. Hope once things settle down you will be able to read again.

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  2. I'm so jealous that you're going to Japan. I have wanted to go to Japan since I was three. I hope you have a great time and I can't wait to read about your adventures.

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