Placeholder Post

I've been reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to my 8-year old for the past couple of months. Tonight we got to the part where I had to send him to bed or we would have been up all night finishing the thing. As it stands, I've been spending the last hour or so reading ahead to find out what happens. Plus, I've been starting to put together the outline of the Carnival of Recipes, getting it ready for this Friday. Keep the recipes coming to recipe.carnival(at)gmail(dot)com!

So this is it for original content tonight.

Minor Spoiler Alert -- If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, you may want to skip the following.

(More in the extended entry).

This book is great. I still have major issues with Rowling's writing style, struggling to get through layers of wordy dependent clauses, hanging endlessly one after another, wondering how long it will take to get to the end of the sentence, but nevertheless enjoying the plot and broader underlying themes.

I can see why some felt this book had a libertarian subtext. In fact, the scene we left off with tonight, where Dumbledore is cornered by the Ministry of Magic in his office and escapes, reminded me of the scene in Atlas Shrugged in which Dagny and Francisco rescue John Galt from the government. Just as Galt had refused to give the sanction of the victim to his torturers, Dumbledore had refused to give the Ministry of Magic the "sanction of the victim."

Highly recommended, and good stuff for kids to be reading.