HARRY Potter is magic. The series starts a little slow for my liking (I came in about the same time as Prisoner of Azkaban which I saw in the cinema). I actually quite enjoyed it and sat down to read the rest of the books, which I did in one sitting (up to Order of the Phoenix which was the latest book, but not yet a movie). J.K. Rowlings tales spin an enticing, enchanting world where it's just so easy to get lost and never come out again... Harry Potter, or at least certainly Azkaban and later, is something that everyone should read... or you're missing out.

YES, yes, okay. Get it all out of your system now. Despite its quite obvious flaws (Jacob's blatant character assassination in the name of forcing Bella and Edward together), its more subtle issues (the story romanticizes having an abusive relationship) and its spectacular Fan-Dumb that just seems intent on destroying a pretty good series of books in the name of terribly written fanfiction and schoolgirlish obsessiveness, the books are actually... well, okay. I won't say that. Instead, I'll say that the books are pretty awful really but the universe Stephanie Myer's created is an pretty neat piece of work that, if you just watch the movies, is a really enjoyable setting which has spawned a million imitators. Alice steals the show every time she's on screen and that's why her picture graces the image to the right. One day I'm going to write a better Vampire/Werewolf piece and it's going to be great, but for now, I have to defer to Twilight.

A FANTASTIC mate of mine from ANU, Shane and I pretty much pushed each other through university (he doing most of the pushing, me doing most of the bludging...). All the while he was telling me all about these books he really wanted to write one day. I was interested at the time and always encouraged him to just sit down and write; turns out now he's done that. His book is called "The Tears of Keishya", and he's given me the distinct pleasure of proofreading his work-in-progress. It is epic, and it's already over twice the length of Lacuna despite me starting first(!). When it gets finished there'll be more here, but for now... watch this space.

KRISTEN Elizabeth's epic fanfiction work "If I Believe In Anything..." is a T'Pol/Trip piece which I started reading recently and haven't been able to put down. Tying into my favourite Trek couple and one of my favourite Trek series aside from Deep Space 9 I was hooked pretty much instantly; Kristen herself is a very talented writer and although her work is a work in progress I'm looking forward to reading more of it in the future.