![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melreads(Saturday, August 15th)
Now I guess I have to go back to Babylon's Ashes, although I'm not feeling it, either. Maybe I should just give it up and finish the re-read later, and go on to something new right now. It's not like anybody is forcing me to do it!
(Sunday) I'm trying to read Crazy Rich Asians - I bought a paperback copy a while back and only got a couple of chapters in. I'm hoping it picks up. It's way too heavy on character details about way more characters than you can keep up with (or than I can keep up with, anyway).
(Later) I got more into it when it got to the Astrid part - where she figures out that her husband is cheating, that is - but overall I'm finding this kind of annoying. I'm not giving up yet but I may have to keep going one chapter at a time until I get more interested. (Note from the "future": pretty sure I never got much further than this & it's on my DNF list.)
Meanwhile, I'm re-reading Howl's Moving Castle (which is a fast read anyway).
(Monday) I forget between times how much I love Howl and Calcifer and Sophie and the dang castle. And I adore Miyazaki, but this is the one time I really disliked one of his movies because it took off and grafted his own obsessions (flying!!) onto the book, where it didn't fit at all. (I did think Miyazaki's version of Howl was terrifically hot, in a very anime kind of a way, but that wasn't enough to save the movie for me!) I did like the parts of the movie that stuck closer to Wynne Jones' original story.
(Later - back to the book rather than the movie) I forget all the ins & outs of the HMC book, too. I don't know, do other people have every bit of their favorite books memorized? Probably not - maybe a few people with exceptionally fine memories - or with fewer favorites! I don't know why I seem to feel I should. I guess I wouldn't re-read so much if I had a photographic memory and could just conjure everything up, so maybe it's a good thing. Re-reading is a pleasure I wouldn't want to forego.
(Wed.) I finished one read-through and now I'm re-reading bits of it again, with two questions: does Sophie curse herself? Or at least, does this version of herself that she's constructed influence what the Witch of the Waste does? (and also possibly how long the curse lasts?) And at what point does Howl realize what's actually going on?
I really can't see - having now read the early chapters again - how the WotW can have known what was in Sophie's head. I mean, there's no indication elsewhere that WotW is a mind-reader, right? But it does dovetail very neatly with Sophie's mindset coming into it. Maybe she was so into the concept of herself as "eldest" that that got turned into "elderly" somewhere along the way!
(Later again) Still re-reading Howl, and trying to pay attention to details - does Howl suspect Miss Angorian from the start? Sophie doesn't think so, but I'm beginning to. Howl has spent time around the Witch of the Waste - Miss Angorian's boss, after all. Apparently he's never seen her in this form, at least, but I still think he smells something fishy, here.
(Can Calcifer change shape like this? "Miss Angorian" is a much older fire demon, though.)
Also, I can't say I understand the thing about falling stars being fire demons. Is there a fire demon at the heart of every sun? (That makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.) I'm probably picking around at the details too much but I'm enjoying it, so whatever.
Now I guess I have to go back to Babylon's Ashes, although I'm not feeling it, either. Maybe I should just give it up and finish the re-read later, and go on to something new right now. It's not like anybody is forcing me to do it!
(Sunday) I'm trying to read Crazy Rich Asians - I bought a paperback copy a while back and only got a couple of chapters in. I'm hoping it picks up. It's way too heavy on character details about way more characters than you can keep up with (or than I can keep up with, anyway).
(Later) I got more into it when it got to the Astrid part - where she figures out that her husband is cheating, that is - but overall I'm finding this kind of annoying. I'm not giving up yet but I may have to keep going one chapter at a time until I get more interested. (Note from the "future": pretty sure I never got much further than this & it's on my DNF list.)
Meanwhile, I'm re-reading Howl's Moving Castle (which is a fast read anyway).
(Monday) I forget between times how much I love Howl and Calcifer and Sophie and the dang castle. And I adore Miyazaki, but this is the one time I really disliked one of his movies because it took off and grafted his own obsessions (flying!!) onto the book, where it didn't fit at all. (I did think Miyazaki's version of Howl was terrifically hot, in a very anime kind of a way, but that wasn't enough to save the movie for me!) I did like the parts of the movie that stuck closer to Wynne Jones' original story.
(Later - back to the book rather than the movie) I forget all the ins & outs of the HMC book, too. I don't know, do other people have every bit of their favorite books memorized? Probably not - maybe a few people with exceptionally fine memories - or with fewer favorites! I don't know why I seem to feel I should. I guess I wouldn't re-read so much if I had a photographic memory and could just conjure everything up, so maybe it's a good thing. Re-reading is a pleasure I wouldn't want to forego.
(Wed.) I finished one read-through and now I'm re-reading bits of it again, with two questions: does Sophie curse herself? Or at least, does this version of herself that she's constructed influence what the Witch of the Waste does? (and also possibly how long the curse lasts?) And at what point does Howl realize what's actually going on?
I really can't see - having now read the early chapters again - how the WotW can have known what was in Sophie's head. I mean, there's no indication elsewhere that WotW is a mind-reader, right? But it does dovetail very neatly with Sophie's mindset coming into it. Maybe she was so into the concept of herself as "eldest" that that got turned into "elderly" somewhere along the way!
(Later again) Still re-reading Howl, and trying to pay attention to details - does Howl suspect Miss Angorian from the start? Sophie doesn't think so, but I'm beginning to. Howl has spent time around the Witch of the Waste - Miss Angorian's boss, after all. Apparently he's never seen her in this form, at least, but I still think he smells something fishy, here.
(Can Calcifer change shape like this? "Miss Angorian" is a much older fire demon, though.)
Also, I can't say I understand the thing about falling stars being fire demons. Is there a fire demon at the heart of every sun? (That makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.) I'm probably picking around at the details too much but I'm enjoying it, so whatever.
