Back after a break

Well, nothing new to say about Harry Potter or about FutureHype. I have been busy at work with trainings and I wasn't able to get much reading done in the past couple of weeks.

The only reading I have been able to do was on the new eReader app on the iPhone and iPod touch. I don't have the iPhone so I have downloaded the new software and then got the eReader app. This application is compatible with the standard .pdb format which is the old Palm format. Books can be downloaded onto your desktop computer or through a wi-fi connection directly to the iPod touch. I started reading Huckleberry Finn today.

There are around 30 free books listed on Fictionwise.com. eReader.com has a large selection of inexpensive books too. There are some other sources for free eBooks and some other format options. Next time I'll blog about that.

Also, don't miss my cross post to my education blog about Audiobook formats

Harry Potter- Effective Elements of Literature

I've been reading (rereading really, anyone who hasn't already read at least a dust jacket of Harry Potter has probably been in a coma for a about 10 years) Harry Potter and really noticing the effective use of foreshadowing. Or maybe they are just good clues in books that have won awards for being effective mysteries. I doubt I would be spoiling much but I just in case I will only refer to one good example. As I have been going through them, I have really wondered about the purpose of the apparently totally useless Divination Class that Ron and Harry are continually doing homework for without any real result. The class that J.K. Rowling spends the most time describing (aside from Defense against the Dark Arts)

The reason she spends so much time with Divination is that variously through the books Harry is the one gifted with visions of the future. The most prominent example of Divination prompting Harry's Visions is in book 4 when he falls asleep in Divination and He has visions of Voldemort which turn out to be true. Through the rest of the books you see divination and Professor Trelawney being used as counterpoint to Harry's true abilities to predict either future or far distant events. All during book 5 when Harry is plagued by awful (and true) dreams He has to make up dreams for Ron to interpret in Divination. More to come on other effective elements of literature in Harry Potter. I will also come back to FuturHype.