Some Words

J.K. Rowling gets stopped at the airport with Potter 7. At the end of the article she talks about naming it. Now, Boing Boing has a little quip about that, and yes I know I’ve been leaning on them a lot for links. Anyhow, how about Harry Potter and the Inevitable Let Down? It won’t live up to the fan’s dreams. Endings never do. I’m not a huge fan, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t even want to read it, because I know there will be something left open, or handled in a way the annoys me. Sometimes it might just be better to leave things open ended. But we never let ourselves do that. We need to try for an ending, even when we know we can’t write the one it needs. The rarest writers are the ones who end stories well.

Also, as long a I’m linking stuff that’s already on Boing Boing, there are new covers for Penguin Classics. I’ve got mixed feelings about that too. Now, I like the cover, linked from Doctorow’s site, but what it really makes me want is an actual Chris Ware version of Candide, so in a way the covers are just a cruel taunt. Am I going to run out and buy the whole line? No, though there are a few with covers I really love. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the cloth cover Everyman’s Library, somehow they’re just everything I think a book should look like. They even smell right.