The Great HP (not the printer)

Clickity clickity clickity! Click this link and read it first, imaginary audience!

Hello there Beth! I only have about 2 and a half hours left to write this post or I will be punished. That shouldn't be too hard, the only problem is that I can't think of any ideas. Well, that's not exactly true. I have plenty of ideas of things to write about, some good and some ridiculous (thanks mom!), but I just don't feel like writing about any of them today. So I've decided to put those ideas on hold until a day I want to use them, okay? Okay. 

So what am I going to write about today, you may be wondering. Well, I think I'll just write about the first thing that comes to mind, which is also the thing that is always on my mind. Which is, of course, Harry Potter. 

Ah yes. The great Harry Potter. But what exactly about Harry Potter should I write? You know what, I think I'm going to write about my favourite Harry Potter book. By the way, I'm going to try to write this post without spoilers as my dad may read this and I don't want him to be spoiled. 

So, my favourite HP book:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! Yup, number 6 is the HP book I enjoy the most. It's an unsual choice; no one else I've met has had it as their favourite. Now why is it my favourite? There are many, many amazing parts of this book and there are some 

not quite as amazing parts too, but this is the main reason I love it. Most of the book is just Harry and his friends hanging out, going to classes, having their own little mundane teenagery problems, playing quidditch and just being regular little underage wizards at a wizarding boarding school. Sure, there are some battles and Voldemort-y things which I love too, but I really love just reading about regular (or as regular as it gets aroung Harry) life at Hogwarts. 

That's part of the problem I had with the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus Series. The action never seemed to stop! I would have enjoyed the books a lot more if we had seen more of life at Camp Half-Blood or on the Argo 2. Just all the characters interacting and having fun and getting into fights and stuff. I know there is a little bit of it, but I really think there should have been more. Anyway, back to Harry Potter. 

One thing I don't like about #6 is Harry's obsession with Draco Malfoy. It gets annoying. I can relate to Hermione and Ron about that. However, all of book 5's whiny-ness and wizard angst is mostly over with, which is good, and book 6, in my opinion, is the funniest book. Plus there's all the *spoiler*, *spoiler*, and *spoiler* drama, which I really enjoy reading about for some reason. I also love book 6 because you learn a lot more about Voldemort and his backstory which I love and find very interesting. It answers many questions while giving you new ones. 

 A reason some people tell me I shouldn't have book 6 as my favourite is because *spoiler* dies. Well, you know what people? That was a very well written, dramatic, and surprising part of the story, as well as a VERY VERY IMPORTANT PLOT POINT THAT WILL PROVE TO BE CRUCIAL AND ALSO VERY SAD!!!!!!!!!!! Of course I don't like that there was that particular death, but just because a beloved character dies does't mean the book can't be good or a favourite! 

Anyways, I am now going to begrudingly move on from Harry Potter. 

I really liked all the pictures you put at the end of your last post a lot. I really want that guys hobby too, old interesting pictures are the best.

I don't know if we've decided on a name yet. I need a bit more time to think about it. 

Question for you! If you had to pick one, what is your favourite Harry Potter book and why do you like it so much? What are its good qualities and its bad qualities? 

DFTBA!!!!!!!

Beth's blog: http://beth.120crayons.com/

*Edit* Something I just noticed after I published this post: I really love using brackets in my post titles. 

Short and Sweet

Read/look at this post before you read mine!

Hello imaginary audience, and no Beth does not get to punish me! I was at camp and forgot to let her know. No punishment for me! 

Anyways, I loved all the pictures that you took. They're amazing! My favourite one is of the sunset. You are a very good photographer!

Warning - this post is going to be very short. Like. Really short.

The most interesting thing I learned/discovered this week. Hmmmmmm...... 

I couldn't think of something for a very long time! This is what I finally came up with:

I just finished reading a book called Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which I have been wanting to read for FOREVER and I discovered that it is made of amazing incredible awesomeness and that you should read it too. It's seriously really great. It's about this guy named Jacob and his grandfather and all these weird pictures, which are actually real old pictures included in the book. There's a second one that recently came out which I am looking forward to reading. I'm sure you probably have a lot of books on your list to read, but you should definitely add this one!

So, my question for you is this. What is the last book you read and what did you think of it? Also, if you want extra credit, what are some books you would like to read soon? 

DFTBA! 

Beth's blog: http://beth.120crayons.com/

Books vs. Movies (spoilers: books undoubtably win)

Imaginary Audience: If you don't want to be horribly confused while reading this post I would suggest clicking here first. 

Hello once again Beth! 

And THANK YOU for existing! You are made of pure genius, awesomeness, and hilarity. All of that definitely showed in your last post for sure. It was brilliant!

You also gave me quite a lot of thoughts that were very confusing, but I loved having them there. You are very good at explaining these types of thoughts. It's becoming hard for me to decide what from your post to focus on. I don't know if I can match your greatness!

I think I will start with your brilliant musings on forgetting, the difficulty of doing so, and why maybe we shouldn't try to forget. 

SO. Something you said that really stuck with me, and made me think a lot, was this: 

"It is, after all, much easier to deal with things if you don’t know they exist. But would we really want to? This led me to thinking about the Doctor, and how he forgot how many children were on Gallifrey when he burned it, and watching him admit it, you know it’s a terrible thing. But why is it a terrible thing?"

I really want to try to answer that question, however my thoughts are not working together properly. I've been thinking about it a lot, so eventually I will give it a go. I tried already, but gave up halfway through. I just wanted to acknowledge you being all fantastic and thought-provoking and stuff. 

Also. Thanks for RUINING MY LIFE with the David Tennant crisis. Seriously. Unbelievable. 

I loved all your other examples too. Ships sink when other ships have a cannon, huh? Who would've thought. (That is really so amazing though)

Thank you for comparing me to John Green! I am thrilled you think that much of me, however John is unarguably much much better with words than I am. Not even comparable, really. I mean, have you seen his Thoughts From Places videos? 

Title idea: 
The Thing: Adventures in Being Imaginary 

Now I'm going to try to answer your real question. This post has been a little weird and all over the place. I'm not really in a good head space to write right now, so sorry if this next bit sucks. 

Why do I like books better than movies? I do think that the personal quality of a book is definitely something that contributes. The narrative of a book, whether it is in first, second, or third person, to me always seems more personal. There's something about reading a book that is making you cry and laugh and get angry and feel joy while you're lying on your bed clutching the pages in your hands that makes you feel more connected to the characters and the story. When you watch a movie, to me it feels like it's their story, but when I read a book It feels like I am a part of the story. As well, there are some amazing things you can do with imagery, but you can do some incredible things with words that you can't do with pictures. 
Take this quote from The Book Thief that explains some of my thoughts much more eloquently than I: 

“I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing--that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They're the best moments in a day of writing -- when an image appears that you didn't know would be there when you started work in the morning.” 

The Book Thief has many examples of this. Here are 2 examples that makes me shiver with awesomeness: 

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.....I am haunted by humans.”

“A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH
I do not carry a sickle or scythe.
I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold.And I don't have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance. You want to know what I truly look like? I'll help you out. Find yourself a mirror while I continue.”  


There are many more examples, of course, in The Book Thief and other amazing books. Words on a page, for some reason, make me see more than words or images in a movie. 

Now that I've hopefully answered your question for me, it's time for me to ask you something. 
I recently discovered this realy cool youtube channel and this guy named Tommy Edison. Tommy has been blind since birth, and he does these videos where he answers questions people often have for blind people and explains stuff. He's really interesting and funny, and I strongly suggest you check out some of his stuff. It made me have a whole new batch of existential crises becauses of all the things I had never thought of before. He has these really great videos about colour and intangible concepts for him, so my question is, how would you explain colours to a blind person, and what about stuff like the sky or space or the sun? 

DFTBA!

Beth's Blog: http://beth.120crayons.com/