Well, a little over two hundred pages into The Casual Vacancy, and I must say, I'm really enjoying it. The small, picture perfect quaint town of Pagford is filled with unethical and gossipy characters that surface even more so when a seat on the parish council opens up after the untimely passing of Barry Fairbrother. I haven't once thought about the "other books." Not one bit. What I can say is that readers should give JK Rowling a chance. After all, she's a creator of worlds and anyone who can successfully come up with what she came up with before should be treated fairly, instead of the initial assumption that what she did before might be all that she can do.

Passage of Note:

It was curious how often everything was back to front, the inverse of what they told you; Fats was starting to think that if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth. He wanted to journey through dark labyrinths and wrestle with the strangeness that lurked within; he wanted to crack open piety and expose hypocrisy; he wanted to break taboos and squeeze wisdom from their bloody hearts; he wanted to achieve a state of amoral grace, and be baptized backwards into ignorance and simplicity. (p.76)

I promise I'm reading other books right now. It may not seem like it because the past few posts are all about JK Rowling, but I assure you, there's more to come (of Rowling and others). Like The Secret History by Donna Tartt (which I am loving), and It by Stephen King (the audio book with Steven Weber is just amazing). See?

Quick updates on everything related to The Casual Vacancy:

• It's really annoying that people are posting one-star reviews on Amazon because they don't like the ebook price. Why not email the publisher? Why skew the rating of the author's work because you're upset about the price?
• It's easy to forget all about Harry Potter and Hogwarts so far. I mean, JK Rowling has quite a number of swear words used already by page 54, but I haven't found it jarring in the least.
• The book isn't bad at all. The characters are introduced well and the idyllic setting of a quaint British village called Pagford is beautifully depicted. I actually like it.

Passage of note thus far:

Momentarily stricken, Ruth gazed out of her kitchen window over the crisp whiteness of her frost-crusted lawn, at the abbey across the valley, stark and skeletal against the pale pink and gray sky, and the panoramic view that was the glory of Hilltop House. Pagford, which by night was no more than a cluster of twinkling lights in a dark hollow far below, was emerging into chilly sunlight. (p.12)

After months of hushed discussions and no advanced copies forwarded out to reviewers, we can finally learn if JK Rowling's Muggle-filled world with no magic is any good. Although fairly lackluster reviews of the author's first novel for adults were finally posted today by The New York Times, The Guardian, The LA Times, and the Washington Post, I just got my copy this morning. So we shall see...

Before all of the hype and the press sets in, I've decided to dive in with Literary Musings and Bookworm Meets Bookworm in their readalong for JK Rowling's first novel for adults. I'm nervous and hope that it will be a wonderful reading experience, and I have to remind myself that there is no magic in this book, that Harry Potter will not pop up in the background sitting in a diner drinking a cup of coffee. I have to really discipline myself to not expect any of that, and to not feel disappointed if it doesn't happen.

So here are the details:

1. Grab the button above.
2. Link up your post by clicking here.
3. Thursday, October 4th: First post, no spoilers. No set page length to read up to.
4. Thursday, October 11th: Final post.

It's a quick timeline to read it in, but it appears it might be a book that could be absorbed and read that fast. So why not join into the fray of reading JK Rowling's first book for adults before the hype hits and you get swayed one way or the other?