Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Finally. It feels like the HP series is getting good once it steps away from all the kiddy stuff and treads into darker territory. Also the movie is the best one out of the first three I’ve seen so far.

Swallows and Amazons

‘What’re you reading?” an older man on the SkyTrain asked me one day. I held the book out to him.

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about this group of kids who sail to an island and live there.”

“Oh, so like Lord of the Flies?”

“Uh, not really. It’s a lot more innocent than Lord of the Flies. A lot.”

And I suppose it should be, given that it’s a children’s book. There are no big struggles with each other or with the island. Food is always a boat ride away. It’s a simple, pleasant book that I think a lot of people would remember fondly if it was read to them as a kid (I am not one of those people).

I picked this book to read next to fulfill my quota for children’s books because it’s on the list of the 100 books you should read compiled by the BBC many years ago, a list I haven’t managed to cross off because I’ve been too busy reading other books on my other lists. This one brings up my total to 39. A decent number, but one that I hope to increase before the end of the year.