vovat | Beedlemania

The three most recent books I've read:

Doctor Dolittle's Post Office, by Hugh Lofting - I believe this was the third book to be written for the series, although it actually takes place before the second one. (I think all of the ones after that do as well, for that matter.) It involves the Doctor setting up a post office in a small African kingdom, using birds to deliver the mail. I appreciate how the Doctor really only has one unusual ability, but can use it to get out of pretty much any situation.

The Atlas of Legendary Places, by James Hardur and Jennifer Westwood - A coffee table sort of book featuring both mythical locations (like Camelot and the Garden of Eden) and real places of legendary significance (the Taj Mahal, the Himalayas, King Tut's tomb, etc.). Unfortunately, the library copy that I read was missing some pages, but I found it interesting, and it had some great pictures. One of the mythical places mentioned was Avalon, which I hope to feature in one of my mythology posts in the near future.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling - Of all of the books mentioned in the Harry Potter series, I'm not sure why this is the one that Rowling would actually produce, but I liked it. The stories themselves, written in a traditional fairy tale style but with plots of particular interest to wizards, are pretty good. The real highlight, however, are the notes, written in character as Dumbledore, and explaining the morals and history behind each story. One problem with the book was, as

zaph pointed out, the stories were supposed to have been written in fifteenth-century Europe, yet had to be translated from "ancient runes." There could be an explanation for this, like a secret language used by wizards of the time, but there's certainly no indication of such a thing in this book or the main series. It seems like Rowling wasn't quite sure how old she wanted these stories to be, and so gave us contradicting references. One footnote that particularly interested me gave us a tantalizing glimpse at the history of Nearly Headless Nick, although it didn't explain why he was executed. Maybe Rowling is saving that for her encyclopedia, if she ever writes it.

Speaking of books and authors, this utility says, "http://vovat.livejournal.com has a slight similarity with the works of Edgar Allen Poe." I'm not quite sure how, and suspect it might just be random. I mean, I can't expect too much from a site that doesn't even know how to spell Poe's middle name. (It's actually "Allan.")