Shopping With Coupon Chief.

With the festive season round the corner, it is the time of the year to shop for presents for my family. Unlike previous years, where much time was wasted hunting for the best bargains at brick-and-mortar stores, i am going to do my shopping this year with online retailers and what better way to do it than with CouponChief.com, an industry-leading provider of online coupons and discount codes to major internet retailers.

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J.K.Rowling Under Attack.

Harry Potter author J.K.Rowling has come under attack by Christian evangelicals in the United States ever since she outed master wizard Albus Dumbledore as gay. Apparently this happened after she had told a New York audience recently that Potter's head teacher was in love with rival wizard Gelert Grindelwald.

Matters seem to have heated up with talk shows in the US Bible belt in the south and websites condemning and reviling her. Newspaper letter columns have also been filled with complaints. Roberta Combs, president of Christian Coalition of America, said :"It is disappointing that the author have to make one of the characters gay. It's not a good example for our children, who really like the books and the movies. I think it encourages homosexuality."

Calling for a ban on her books, Jack M. Roper on TV evangelist Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, said : "Harry Potter is one hero who has captured the innocent hearts of many children. When such a hero uses evil as a problem-solving tool, we need to be warned. Over time, the child can be adapted to the dark world of witchcraft and not even know that it is dangerous."

Even those who supported this "outing" have not been spared. Melissa Anelli, of The Leaky Cauldron website, said : "My inbox is full of people who wish to let me know that I'm scum for supporting this outing, that J.K. Rowling should go back to the devil who spawned her, etc. It's really disgusting. We're trying to simply ignore it."

There are now fears that the backlash may affect profits at Warner Bros, which has two new Potter movies to make and a DVD on sale this Christmas.

The controversy reminded me of what author Anne Rice went through with her novel - "Memnoch The Devil" but it does leaves me wondering why Rowling would out Dumbledore as a gay, now that the series is truly over? More hype for her series? I very much doubt so as she definitely does not needs it.

I found the manner of the "outing" troubling though, as it is apparently an answer to a young fan question about Dumbledore's love life at a reading of her last book. Besides it being totally unnecessary, stating that Dumbledore is gay hardly seems an appropriate answer to a young child and with the series central themes of love, bravery, courage and loyalty, there really wasn't a need to muddy the waters with issues of sexual orientation, especially with it's popularity with children worldwide.

*Related posts :
- Turmoil In The Kingdom of The Golden Compass
- Tales of Beedle The Bard
- What Is J.K. Rowling Working On Next?
- Life After Harry Potter

Organizing My Garage With CarGuyGarage.com

With the festive season round the corner, it is the time of the year to carry out spring cleaning of my house. While i will probably have no problems with the rest of the house, i have a massive headache when i saw the state of my garage. Overflowing with my kids' discarded toys, gardening equipment, tools, old comics and books from my youth, i could hardly squeeze into the room and it makes me determined to get one of those garage cabinets available at CarGuyGarage.com.

With the extensive range of garage storage cabinets at CarGuyGarage.com, from the stylish Ultimate series, aluminum, stainless steel to heavy duty diamond plated cabinets, it will be great to have a storage solution for organizing my old and untidy garage and together with their attractive garage flooring tiles, transform it into a stylish and functional room for my family and friends.

The Next Harry Potter.

A Review By My Den.
For those who are still suffering from withdrawal symptoms, now that the saga of the boy wizard is truly over, take a dose of Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams.

First published in Britain in March 2005 as The Highfield Mole, about a young boy, Will Burrows, who discovers a secret underground world while searching for his missing father, the book was a result of the laying off of Roderick Gordon, an investment banker, in 2001. Instead of hunting for a new job, Gordon decided to write, first a screenplay and then a children's book, with his artist and actor friend, Brian Williams.

Unable to find a publisher, Gordon financed the self-publication of their book by selling his country cottage. The gamble paid off. Not only was the original print run of 2,500 copies quickly snapped up, the book also caught the eye of Barry Cunningham, the founder of publishing house - Chicken House. Cunningham was the man who, 10 years earlier, took a chance on an unknown writer named J.K. Rowling, the wildly successful author of the Harry Potter series.

Renaming the book Tunnels, the publisher re-released it in July this year. Heavily hyped as the next Harry Potter, the book sold more than 50,000 copies in Britain alone within the first month and is set to be translated into 27 languages for a worldwide release.

With the film rights to the planned five- or six-book series snapped up by Relativity Media, the duo have already completed the sequel, to be published next year and are currently working on the third book. Hmm...seems like some gambles do paid off in life.

*Related post :
- Life After Harry Potter.
- What is J.k.Rowling Working On Next?

Winner Of Man Booker Prize 2007.

A Review By My Den.
Irish author Anne Enright was declared the winner of this year's Man Booker Prize. The Booker Prize, now known as Man Booker Prize since it's sponsorship by investment company Man Group in 2002, is a prestigious literary award started in 1969. It is awarded to the best novel of the year by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and is judged by a five-person panel of critics, writers and academics.

Out of a group of six shortlisted contenders, the 45-year old author pipped hot favorites like British writer Ian McEwan, New Zealander Lloyd Jones and my personal choice , Indian writer Indra Sinha, to clinch the award. Her 272-page tome, The Gathering, which chronicles the disintegration of an Irish family, netted her $52,500 pounds.

Besides the prize money, winning a prestigious literary award usually translates into increase worldwide sales for the award-winning novel with the attendant effect of readers and libraries looking into the author's previous works. According to Enright's publisher, winning the Man Booker Prize may quadruple sales, currently at 35,000 copies, of her award winning novel. Even being shortlisted for the award has an impact on book sales with Pakistani author, Mohsin Hamid, reportedly saying that rights to his novel have been sold in 20 countries as a result of his novel - The Reluctant Fundamentalist being among the contenders for the award.

Like some things in life, however, winning a prestigious literary award does not always guarantee continuing literary success. One example will be Briton P.H. Newby, the inaugural Booker Prize winner in 1969 with Something To Answer. He is now largely forgotten and his winning novel is out of print. Another would be Cologne-born writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who is better known for her award-winning work on screenplays for Merchant Ivory Productions than her 1975 win for Heat And Dust.

While the Man Booker Prize has it's fair share of controversy, it can also lead to increase exposure for lesser-known authors and allow readers to explore works that are under-appreciated and this is a definite plus for both writers and readers. The rise in profiles, in recent years, of writers from the post-colonial world - India, Africa and Australia in particular, is another benefit of the Man Booker Prize. Prominent post-colonial authors like Salman Rushdie and V.S. Naipaul have helped to wrest the stranglehold on what makes good English writing away from the British and their literary focus can be decidely non-Western.

There are also indications that the organisers of the Man Booker Prize plan to make its shortlisted novels available online for free so as to shake off its stodgy image and reach out to a wider global audience.

*Related post : Man Booker Prize Contenders 2007.