Worst book of the series. By far. To a casual fan such as Hiphopguy23, the books in the series really got worse and worse. And by worse, Hiphopguy23 means more labyrinthine and self-referential. Reading Harry Potter 7, Hiphopguy23 felt like he needed a reference guide or a wiki page open at all times to fill in the gaps that J.K. Rowling was glossing over. Hiphopguy23 had many unanswered questions that only the Harry Potter zealots would be able to answer on the spot, such as:

• Why did Dumbledore drink that goblet full of poison again?
• Whatever happened to that evil teacher who caused Harry to write on his hand?
• Who the heck is Mundungus Fletcher?
• How many freaking Horcruxes are there, and how many has Harry identified?

Hiphopguy23 realizes the "true" fans loved this book because it answered all these unanswered questions and, "Oh look, J.K Rowling mentioned a purple-belly HackleSnork on Page 145 of Book 1 and now she talks in detail about it in this book!" Meanwhile, Hiphopguy23 is trying to figure out what in blazes a purple-belly HackleSnork is and why it is more dangerous than a yellow-tailed DingleBerry.

Nonetheless, like a trooper, Hiphopguy23 stayed all the way until the end…well, mostly the end. The last chapter / epilogue was pure sap and utter trash. Hiphopguy23 read three paragraphs of the epilogue and then found something more productive to do, like trying to see how long he could hold his breath. But the reason Hiphopguy23 (mostly) finished was because he wanted these questions answered:

1. Will the special magic truant officer be after Harry for skipping school for a year?
   
2. Does Harry Potter die at the end?
   
3. Does Harry Potter die at the end and then come back to life completely unexplained?
   
4. Why did Snape kill Dumbledore?
   
5. Is Dumbledore really dead?
   
6. No, seriously, is Dumbledore really dead?
   
7. Will Harry continue getting out of impossible situations by his foolproof magic spell — Deus Ex Machina?
   
8. Was this book really worth the $34.99 cover price and did anybody actually pay that much?
   

J.K Rowling answers some of these questions, but not all. Hiphopguy23 gives this book a generous thumbs down.

It amazes me that everyday users of the Internet have still not caught on to the phenomenon of lolcats. Though having only emerged this past January, they have since spread across the Internet, most popularly found on the site I Can Has Cheezburger? and even being featured in the July 2007 issue of Time magazine. As succinctly stated in Wikipedia, "Lolcats are images combining photographs of a cat with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption." Lolcat captions generally employ phonetic spellings and poor grammar, suggesting the low mental capacity of the featured felines (and perhaps of today's cell phone text messagers).

Though I'm personally a fan of these images, I do think they've gone a bit far, as it's apparently not enough for cats to be cute and funny; they need to be spiritual, too. A full-scale effort is underway to translate to this pidgin English that most popular of texts: the Holy Bible. Observe the Annunciation as the Angel Gabriel proclaims Mary to be the mother of God:

Ceiling Cat sended Gabriel, a hovr d00d, to Nazareth (dat is a citi in Galilee) to a virgn naemd Mary. She wuz engajded to a d00d naemd Joseph. Gabriel wuz liek "O hai Mary, u iz realli nice. Ceiling Cat iz wif u." Mary wuz kiend of worrid about dat. But teh hovr d00d wuz all "Doant be afraid. Ceiling Cat iz happi wif u. U iz gonna hav a kittn. Naem him Jesus. He wil be graet. He wil be teh kittn of Ceiling Cat an his daddi will give him David's chaer. He wil r00l Jacob's house forevr."

… If that just doesn't leave you speechless, I don't know what will. I'm by no means religiously opposed to this project, but it does beg the questions: Why? Who has the time to adapt this material? And can I have some of that time? Certainly my day doesn't have enough hours for my own writing…

(Hat tip to Angela Gunn)

Various news wires are reporting that J. K. Rowling has outed the Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore as gay.

My response: So what? What's the purpose in her revelation at this point in the franchise's life? Dumbledore has been dead for more than two years, and his sexual preference never proved to be a factor in the role he played at Hogwart's, in Harry's life, or in the fight against Voldemort — all of which are now closed chapters. Is this just Ms. Rowling's attempt at generating more controversy and thus inciting sales now that the summer months of The Deathly Hallows ' release are past? Granted, she's already released other details that were not in the books, but those were substantive. Anything else is immaterial.

Over on her blog, Tech_Space, Angela Gunn is doing a phenomenal job defending intellectual freedom as she celebrates Banned Book Week. It's an important occasion that needs to be observed, as the younger generations don't seem to be doing so. CNN reported a few years ago that students lack enough civic knowledge and common sense to recognize the First Amendment for the unassailable foundation of this country that it should be: "… when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes 'too far' in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories."

I once had a high school teacher who told us, "Tom Sawyer used to be one of the most dangerous books in the country." When a parent unthinkingly took this statement literally without recognizing what wasn't being spelled out — that the book used to be considered dangerous — he called for the teacher's resignation. If you don't know who to praise more — the teacher for including such a book in the curriculum, or the parent for his zero tolerance against censorship — I'll give you a hint: it's the one who showed more thought. That's what freedom from censorship is all about: freedom to think. And if you haven't learned that from a book, go watch Dead Poets Society or Mr. Holland's Opus. Then come back here and read Angela's rightful rants:

• Day 1: And Tango Makes Three
• Day 2: Kurt Vonnegut
• Day 3: Alice in Wonderland and more
• Day 4: Federal Bureau of Prisons' Standardized Chapel Library Project

Madeleine L'Engle, an author whose childhood fables, religious meditations and fanciful science fiction transcended both genre and generation, most memorably in her children’s classic A Wrinkle in Time, died on Thursday in Litchfield, Conn. She was 88. [Story continues]

Though Ms. L'Engle's book was read to me when I was ten, I never read it myself, nor saw the various film adaptations (which I'm told were not very good). Can someone chime in with a more recent recollection of this novel that might suggests the force behind its staying power? Any book that's been banned must be worth reading.

Review, ruminations, and plenty of spoilers after the jump.

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Just as an anthology of Star Trek: TOS stories was released this past September to commemorate the show's 40th anniversary, this fall will see the 20th anniversary of The Next Generation celebrated with a similar collection. Look for The Sky's the Limit (the closing line of the series finale) on October 16th. Cover art is available at Amazon.com, and the table of contents at Keith R. A. DeCandido's blog.