Beacham book

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 6759


> 
> btw - do you remember what the 4 errors you spotted
> were?

I know one was that Hogwarts was completely obscured by fog much of 
the time. I can't remember the others. 

I picked it up off a shelf in a bookstore, trying to keep an open 
mind, since I have big problems with people who attack a book they 
haven't actually read, and I just opened it and started reading. (I 
have to admit too that part of me was worried because the book is, in 
some sense, competition to my Lexicon website, so to be fair, I 
WANTED to find errors. Hey, I wanna win.) 

But I was amazed at how easy it was to find the errors! I get the 
sense that she doesn't know how to keep her interpretations and 
suppositions from coming through as facts. And I also suspect that 
she hasn't read the books more than once and then maybe once more for 
notes. I can tell you from experience that you CAN'T write something 
like that without knowing the books almost intuitively from repeated 
readings. I listen to the audio tapes all the time. I have read each 
book many times and still read them. I'm reading GF aloud to my son 
right now and I constantly find things that slipped past me. In order 
to understand the world you're describing, you have to immerse 
yourself in it. I know, you guys laugh at me because I'm a little 
teensy tiny bit obsessed with it all, but frankly, I can't imagine 
anyone writing a worthwhile guide who WASN'T obsessed with it. And I 
don't think she is at all. Opportunistic, yes, obsessed, no. 

And hey, I'm not the only obsessed one here. I'm SURROUNDED by 
obsessed people. Yeah, I'm talking to you...

Now I really would like to read the book at some point, just to feel 
a bit more justified in talking it down, but I can't see spending the 
money on it, money we just don't have right now, with Christmas and 
all. So I guess you can take all my comments with a hefty grain of 
salt. Or a shot of peppermint schnapps, if you're so inclined. I know 
I am...

Steve :)

The Harry Potter Lexicon
created, written, and edited by a genuinely obsessed guy
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon