Yep. That's a British edition of the first book. One of the new ones too. I can't remember how long those covers have been around now, but they're not the original British cover. What I can tell you, is it's even pretty in person, and the feel of it is amazing. I'm honestly in love with it, and I think you have to see it in person to fully appreciate the cover.
She said she was going to buy my a Swedish version, but interestingly, this was the only edition she could find in the store. (I have no idea what bookstore she in or if it was a chain or indie or anything like that.)
I'm really excited though. It's the first copy of Harry Potter I own that isn't one of my original American hardcovers from the first time I bought each of the books. (I want all the newer American editions, but none of that has happened yet.) I can't wait to be able to say I've read Philosopher's Stone as well as Sorcerer's Stone, but since I'm about halfway through the second book on my re-read, it may be a while before that actually happens.
After practically growing up with the Internet, I think the most important thing I've learned is to not assume something is true unless you've got other sources that back it up. In fact, I've really honed my Googling skills over the year, and I use them. If something feels off or like it needs double checking, I jump on it.
Sure, there are still times where I don't bother to look into something or am falsely convinced by something, but usually, I wind up working out the truth eventually. Overall, I'd say I'm pretty good at knowing when something isn't a good source or someone's saying something that's wrong. And for any big claims I see, I definitely need to go find another source that helps confirm it, just in case.
It blows my mind that there are still people out there who never seem to check things. I don't know how they've never learned that that's a smart idea. But you see fake facts being spread around over and over again, and it really gets on my nerves, especially when I see the same false information for the tenth time. I can't help but ask myself, "Why is this still going around? Haven't enough people looked into it and confirmed that it's false?"
But I can't be the Internet police who jumps in and informs someone every single time they spread false information. Besides being obnoxious, I don't want to put in the time and effort of that. Still, it drives me crazy. It's one of my biggest pet peeves, and the Internet makes sure to provide me with more than enough examples of it.
While holidays are nice for various reasons, especially seeing family, I have to say that I'm glad the Fourth of July is over. The way the past week played out (i.e. me getting hardly any sleep for the second half of the week) didn't help prepare me for a holiday yesterday. I was exhausted.
And I'm still a little exhausted today, although I got far more sleep last night than I'd been getting during previous nights. Today's been a calm day though, and I'm thankful for that. I'm hoping the entire week will be because I think I need it after the past several days.
I haven't had time to do all that much since I posted my last one of these yesterday, but I did post on my writing blog just before this. I talked about Harry Potter and what it is that draws people back to it.
Now, I'm going to go back to reading because that sounds like a nice way to spend the rest of my Sunday.
Happy Fourth of July to all of the Americans reading this. I hope you're having a nice holiday. I did for the most part. My family has a cookout every summer, but while it's technically a Fourth of July cookout, it rarely actually falls on the fourth. This year it did, and it was fun.
My mom's side of the family is huge, and this is the biggest get together that we manage each year usually. (Although in recent years another aunt and uncle have started having the family together for Thanksgiving as well.) Even so, the entire family is never there. We're too big and spread out, and we only seem to get more spread out over the world each year. (Primarily because a good few family members are military and get stationed in different places.) But it's still nice to see the ones that manage to come.
Plus, this year the weather was particularly nice. It was the coolest I can remember it being for years, and there was a pretty nice breeze the majority of the time.
The only downside is that I'm not feeling my best today, and long story short, I wound up coming home early. So I'm going to miss the fireworks, which have yet to happen. I debated going back out there just for the fireworks, but I don't think I'm up for it. There's too much stuff to deal with at the moment.
It was fun getting to spend time out there though, and I'm happy I got to see so much of my family. And also get caught up on family news, like that one of my cousins officially has another kid. She was born a couple of days ago, so that's exciting.
I didn't think all that much had happened since my last life post, but then I went to right this and realized there kind of has been. I think the fact that I've been exhausted the past couple of days makes it feel like it's been a longer period of time. A lot of what I've been doing is the same exact stuff I've said in past life posts this summer.
Last Friday though, my family went to Mammoth Cave. For people who haven't heard of Mammoth Cave, it's the longest known cave system in the world. They have a bunch of different tours and the one we went on was called the Domes and Dripstones tour. It was really, really cool, especially the "dripstones" part where we got to see all of the really cool formations. We also got to walk through a part where all of the rocks are broken up in pieces and are only staying up because they form this natural arc. I can't really explain it because I don't fully understand how it works, but basically, they all look like they're going to tumble down on you at any second. It's seriously like piles of rock on the sites and are all slid together like a puzzle, and they're like that even over your head. According to the tour guide though, they're fit together in a way that keeps them from falling. It's really neat.
Despite not living all that far away, it was actually my first time going to Mammoth Cave, and it was just awesome. I took a million pictures at the end because it looked so cool. And I only hit my head on a rock once. I loved it.
The other thing that's probably the most note-worthy was that we had to drive to Louisville on Wednesday to pick my sister up from the airport. She'd been in Sweden for a month, and her plane back arrived around eleven at night. Plus, then we had to wait around forever for her luggage. I ended up going to bed at two that night, and while that's not all that much later than I typically go to bed, I wound up getting up early the next day. So I spent all of yesterday feeling half asleep. Luckily, today I feel much better.
Regina brought me several things from Sweden that are awesome, including a One Direction tour shirt from the Europe leg of the tour, but what I'm most excited about it a Bloomsbury edition of the first Harry Potter book. It's so pretty, and it's actually the first time I've owned a Harry Potter book that isn't one of my original hardback American editions. I'm absolutely obsessed. And now I can read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone instead of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It's kind of funny though because I just started book two on my Harry Potter re-read, so it may be a bit before I go back and read this copy.
Other than that, my days have still been filled with a lot of writing, but a bit less reading. I'm slipping behind on my reading challenge again. I'm about ready to just throw my hands in the air and give up. Maybe I set the goal too high this year even though it's only slightly higher than last years (which I finished really early).
Writing wise, I've started working on the sequel to my Twilight fanfiction. I'm pretty excited with how it's coming along and where this one's going to go. I've also updated my writing blog several times. I talked about being a fan of something before knowing how it ends, and I also wrote about why I chose to name the characters Ledia and Huritt in the story I've been working on called The Society. Over on Youtube, I talked about my ten OTPs and also did my monthly wrap-up and TBR.
