My birthday present from LilZ

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Between roses from my husband the day before to the premiere of Harry Potter the first two hours of the day after, my birthday was most wonderful.

I actually put on makeup before I went shopping yesterday. I don’t even wear makeup to work, so you know I was trying to impress someone. I’m just still not sure who.

I had good luck at Gap and Banana Republic. I bought a few other things at a few other stores I’ll probably never go in again, but mostly from the two stores I’ve actually shopped at before. I went in avoiding solid color 100% cotton tops and blue jeans. That’s all that’s in my closet now. I came home with several pair of non-denim capris, several simply pretty blouses, and THREE SKIRTS. Can you believe it? I bought SKIRTS. And more shocking than the skirts? Shoes with BOWS on them. BOWS. And no one was confunding me to do so.

Speaking of confunding…

I saw the Harry Potter premiere last night. (No spoilers! I promise!) Or, early this morning, I guess. I was 110% pleased with 95% of it, if that makes sense. 5% of it, however? Eh. I was fine with most changes and manipulations in the story. I’ve come to expect, and almost look forward to those because it gives me something to be surprised by. However, there were TWO additions I was unhappy with and ONE omission that disappointed me. I think I’ll wait to see it one more time before I place my final judgment.

I will say this: Rupert Grint (Ron) is utterly adorable in this film.

Now back to the non-birthday real world. *sigh* At least I have new clothes to wear. And something about new clothes makes it much easier to deal with going to work after only 3 hours of sleep. It’s like…magic.

We have a winner! Therese won our contest and she declared Sorcerer’s Stone as her favorite as it opened up the world of Harry Potter to her. I’ll be emailing her to see what version of the audiobook she’d like. Now…my turn to respond!

I can’t! Why do you think I asked you to tell me your favorite? Because I can NOT. I agree that Sorcerer’s Stone is the one that started it all…and it therefore holds a certain special spot in my heart. However, for my favorite? I would have to choose THREE.

Goblet of Fire: The net between the dualing swords of Harry’s and Voldemort is one of my favorite of all the books. As Harry realizes that his Mom will reveal herself in the web, my heart stops every time. And Cedric requesting that Harry bring back his body? EEK. From that point to the end of the book I was just mesmerized. Something about the realization that Voldemort is back and that no one is going to believe him. I love that book.

Half-Blood Prince: For all of the reasons you all stated. Mainly because suddenly the ancillary characters like Luna and Ginny and Neville all get to shine. Especially at the end when they’re part of the battle. I love when Harry realizes that Luna and Neville had probably been checking their coins for a DA meeting all along.

Deathly Hallows: Because it was exactly what I wanted in a series end. It could have only been better if had never ended.

And for those of you trailer hunting like I am in anticipation for next week’s movie release – have you noticed the changes? I’ve started picking up on a lot of them in interviews with the cast members and in disections of trailers. And I just want to go on record saying: I’m fine with that. I try to separate the movies and the books as much as possible. Of course I’m sad when they leave out my favorite parts, but I understand that weaving these thick stories to fit a 2-hour time frame has got to be near impossible. I have enjoyed all of the movies as much as the books simply because I avoid comparing the two. I do everything I can to keep them separate so I can enjoy them both.

And also – let’s be realistic. I love these books so much that there is no way I could ever criticize anything associated with them. I’m kinda stubborn like that.

I’ve always proclaimed my adoration for Jim Dale and the Harry Potter audiobooks. I bought every one of them and have listened to them several times over the years. I don’t think I would like to listen to an audiobook if I hadn’t read the book already, it would require too much concentration. But since I had read the Harry Potter books several times each, the audiobooks required no concentration. Yet they still always revealed secrets to me I had missed while reading with my eyes.

I thought I’d test the fondness by purchasing the last two Twilight books and listening to them, since those two books are my favorite. And let me tell you: Jim Dale spoiled me. It set an unreasonably high standard. He gives all characters unique voices without seeming fake in anyway. He miraculously keeps those voices for the characters for all seven books. I never think about the fact that a boy is reading the girl lines. Yet he does. The girl that reads the Twilight books? Not that talented. It took me awhile to get used to her reading the parts of Edward and Jacob and not rolling my eyes to myself. Thinking, Yes. Adding a growl to your girly voice doesn’t not help. Nice try. And she didn’t change her “male” voice for different male characters so that go confusing, especially when males were talking to each other. Somehow that’s easier to keep up with when reading than when listening on audiobooks.

But once I got used to her and stopped comparing her to Jim Dale. I was fine. But listening to those books, I ended up being surprised that I didn’t discover something I missed while reading them. I think I just always assumed all audiobooks would do that for me – ends up spotlighting things I missed when reading myself. I assumed this was a trait of how I read, maybe often skimming over parts. The same parts even when I re-read books. But evidently? That’s not the case with the Twilight books. I enjoyed them, don’t get me wrong (once I got past Jacob sounding like a girl), but I didn’t learn anything new.

This weekend, however, I decided to re-listen to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to prepare for the movie. And I remembered all over again, how much I adore Jim Dale. And as I caught another tidbit in the description of a certain scene that I had missed one of the dozen times I had read or listened to the book, I realized there are still secrets in these books for me to discover. That’s what makes the Harry Potter books amazing, they’re filled with so much detail. Whether it’s a casual reference to an ancillary member of a scene you didn’t realize before, or a main character revealing something you missed amidst the other descriptions. In Half-Blood Prince, Harry references a smell and recognizes it from a scene before. While I have read the book and can of course attest to what the smell is, I never realized any of the several times I read it OR listened to it that he noticed that smell. This is probably the 8th time (at least) I’ve digested these words in some form, yet this time? I noticed that he noticed the smell.

So, while they’re outrageously priced, they’re totally worth it. And today? I’m going to do something special. I’m going to have a giveaway. This prize is only something those who have read the book should try to claim because I would never encourage you to read the books out of order, much less listen before reading. But – if you’re read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, then you should enter this contest. I’m giving away the audiobook Jim Dale reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’ll either ship it to you on CD from amazon or I’ll give you an iTunes card so you can get it for your iPod, whichever you choose. All you have to do is answer me this in the comments by the time I wake up tomorrow morning and close the comments:

Which book is your favorite of the Harry Potter series?

I mentioned here that I’m listening to the last Harry Potter book on CD. I read it when it came out, but I always enjoy listening to Jim Dale read them too me later. If you haven’t read it – stop reading NOW. I’m about to discuss a key element that you may not want to know about. (I’m looking at you, MrZ.)

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I’ve finally gotten around to listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on CD. I’m only about halfway through and have been surprised by how much I missed the first time around. I always catch so much more when I listen to it because Jim Dale gives such life to the words. It’s really amazing. I wouldn’t recommend listening instead of reading, but I would definitely recommend listening after you’ve read the books. I’ve listened to Jim Dale read all of them to me and it completely expands my love of the books. If that love could have possibly grown more.

He even does a good job of giving the standard characters different voices when/if they have to use the Polyjuice potion. Yet, somehow, I’m still able to know who is who. It’s amazing.

Have you listened to any of the readings? Are you as in love with Jim Dale’s interpretation as I am?