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[oyceter]

So my day has mostly consisted of spending lots of money. I reserved a copy of Harry Potter from a bookstore around here... it's amazing how international the HP thing is! Which is, of course, to my advantage. I can't believe all the Taiwan bookstores have basically already sold out of OotP, even though they're only stocking the English copy right now! I guess it's kind of like me wanting to learn Japanese so I could read manga as soon as they came out. So hopefully I will have a copy by the 26th, in the nice Bloombury edition, which I like much better anyhow. I don't quite get why the American publishers felt as though they had to change certain Britishisms -- I read stuff like Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Five Children and It, and etc, etc, as a kid, and while the British words sometimes confused me, they never really put me off reading a book. Well, with the exception of the rendition of Martha's accent in The Secret Garden. But then, I read Little Princess and decided to pick up the Secret Garden again anyway.

Speaking of which, I wonder why so much of the good kid lit out there seems to be British? L.M Montgomery, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frances Hodgson Burnett, tons and tons more... or maybe I was only given mostly British stuff?

Anyhow, I want to post a picture of me and my new straightened hair in my funny, girly, very Taiwan-like clothes, except I can't use my university webspace anymore. Sigh.

I also did much avoiding of the fact that I have to get a job. Mostly, it just reminds me of all the things I can't do.

Comments

[hecatehatesthat.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I wonder why so much of the good kid lit out there seems to be British?

I've noticed this too. I guess it could be that i was given British stuff too, but as I recall I've been picking out my own reading material since just this side of forever, and I've still come up all Brits in the favorites pile.

I've always loved the Britishisms, too -- they get into my head and the way I think, and sometimes they come out when I speak and people look at me funny. Not that I particularly care.

I started reading OotP the other day after putting the kids I was babysitting to bed -- it was their copy, I haven't actually bought one, I'm going to steal my step-brother's when he's done -- and I actually noticed more british phrases than I recall seeing in the other four books. It could just be that I didn't notice them before because they're not strange to me, but I really can't remember anybody using even the word "bloke," which is why I noticed it when Harry said it. Or I could just have been tired. ;)

[oyceter]

I've wondered about that ever since reading a Salon.com article comparing the Wizard of Oz to Narnia, and by proxy comparing American kid lit to British kid lit.

Oooo, you got your hands on it! I'm quite jealous. I'm wondering if the publishers have started to let more Britishisms in the books now that the audience for them is pretty much secure and will very likely not be alienated by strange vocabulary. But this is why I still like getting the British editions in Taiwan. Gotta love globalization!