I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince early this evening. I cried.

I went two-for-five. Not terrible odds, if we were playing baseball. But not great for literature. But still a good read. Jo Rowling says she won’t start writing book seven until 2006, so I will have a while to come up with some new predictions for the final volume.

Y’know, it never struck me until right now, that both one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies feature wizards. How odd.

Of course, Dumbledore is a very good wizard, and the Wizard of Oz was “a bad wizard,” although bad in another way.

Heading up to Bethesda now…

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrives at midnight tomorrow night. I have just completed my re-read of the first five books and thought I’d share my thoughts in anticipation of my weekend readathon. But in deference to anyone who has not caught up on the series yet, I’ll do it on the other side of a jump. (more…)

You may have noticed that periodically my inherent lit geekiness comes through. This is one of those times.

But this fun tool can might help you decide which great classic work of literature to pick up next:

Handicapping the Great 20th Century Novels

Interestingly, the way I ultimately handicapped them all put The Sound and the Fury at the top of the list. I started reading TSatF in grad school, but ultimately ran out time to finish it. But I really liked the part of it I read and meant to get back to it. Now if too many people aren’t reading it for Oprah’s book club (and, thus, using all the library copies), maybe I’ll finally get back to it.

(Via Bookslut.)

This is when you understand why computer codes were invented — just to give you a really cool, computer-friendly map of the Manhattan of literature. Covers everything from Fitzhugh, Salinger, and Blume to Wolfe, Kerouac, and Fitzgerald. Use the outline map at the right to negotiate your way through the city.

(Via bookslut.)

I admit to being in a bit of a reading funk. I want something new, something good. I want a series of somethings that will take me through the 46 days until the new Harry Potter book comes out. And then something else to read two days later after I’ve devoured it and am impatiently waiting around for someone else to finish so I can discuss the mindblowing (or not) things that will come to pass in the penultimate book in the series.

I will re-read the HP series before the new one comes out. J.K. Rowling has said there are clues in the earlier books — and I’m trying to figure out what they are. If you have already figured them out, please don’t tell me (unless we’re actually having a conversation about the books, in which case it’s okay). Book one is already done. Only one piece of information I think might be important. It might not be, though. It’s hard to say. Well, only for 46 more days…

But if you have any suggestions of good reads I’d love to hear about them. I’m up for pretty much anything that doesn’t fall into the horror or blood-bath (this lets out war literature) categories.