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Sunday Night
Sep. 26th, 2010 10:54 pmWell, Sunday night is never quite as exciting as Friday, at least not during the academic year. But I've had a lovely weekend -- went out to dinner twice with different friends, posted a couple of recs for my "Flitwick" month at ![[info]](https://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
crack_broom, was pleasantly surprised to receive a lovely rec at crack_broom, AND (*cue cheering crowds*) I managed to write 3000 words of my story for snapecase. (Of course, I've also reached the stage of thinking that the premise of the fic is totally absurd and that Snape has never been written as more OOC, but I'm willing to believe that a lot of that is just ordinary WI [Writer's Insecurity] and that I'll get over it. And even if the fic is OOC and absurd, I've had fun writing it so far.)
Random Musings: Piled all over my desk for research purposes are various Harry Potter books; some are British editions, some are American. Now from an aesthetic standpoint, I have to say that the American books are more attractive. They have nice little typographic touches like small magical stars on each page, and any time a character receives a letter, it has an actual signature (Minerva, for instance, signs her name beautifully) or is completely written in a facsimile handwriting. And while the American books are probably less environmentally-sound (because they use more paper), they are easier to read: larger print and larger margins. The American version also includes a Table of Contents, which for some inexplicable reason, the British versions leave out. (Surely it wouldn't have been that much more expensive to include the contents pages, and when you're looking up bits for research, it's a pain not to be able easily to locate a given chapter.)
Still, despite the (to me) greater appeal of the American books, they just don't seem like the "real" Harry Potter books to me. And not just because of the linguistic changes (although it still pisses me off that Scholastic apparently didn't think American readers were bright enough to understand what was meant by terms like "dustbin lids" and "shan't!"). When I want to sit down and read some HP for fun, I'll always choose the American versions, for the ease of reading and also for the fact that the quality of materials seems better (already my British pages are yellowing, and the spines are not nearly as solid as the American ones). But when I want the "real" HP, I turn to the British books.
crack_broom, was pleasantly surprised to receive a lovely rec at crack_broom, AND (*cue cheering crowds*) I managed to write 3000 words of my story for snapecase. (Of course, I've also reached the stage of thinking that the premise of the fic is totally absurd and that Snape has never been written as more OOC, but I'm willing to believe that a lot of that is just ordinary WI [Writer's Insecurity] and that I'll get over it. And even if the fic is OOC and absurd, I've had fun writing it so far.)Random Musings: Piled all over my desk for research purposes are various Harry Potter books; some are British editions, some are American. Now from an aesthetic standpoint, I have to say that the American books are more attractive. They have nice little typographic touches like small magical stars on each page, and any time a character receives a letter, it has an actual signature (Minerva, for instance, signs her name beautifully) or is completely written in a facsimile handwriting. And while the American books are probably less environmentally-sound (because they use more paper), they are easier to read: larger print and larger margins. The American version also includes a Table of Contents, which for some inexplicable reason, the British versions leave out. (Surely it wouldn't have been that much more expensive to include the contents pages, and when you're looking up bits for research, it's a pain not to be able easily to locate a given chapter.)
Still, despite the (to me) greater appeal of the American books, they just don't seem like the "real" Harry Potter books to me. And not just because of the linguistic changes (although it still pisses me off that Scholastic apparently didn't think American readers were bright enough to understand what was meant by terms like "dustbin lids" and "shan't!"). When I want to sit down and read some HP for fun, I'll always choose the American versions, for the ease of reading and also for the fact that the quality of materials seems better (already my British pages are yellowing, and the spines are not nearly as solid as the American ones). But when I want the "real" HP, I turn to the British books.