Harry Potter: Great Books, or Greatest Books Ever?

[beast]

This is a place for people to talk about Harry Potter, their favorite characters, which house they think they'd belong to, and whether HP books are merely outstanding, or, in fact, the most outstanding pieces of literature in the known universe.

[supertom]

From memory I read the first 3 books in 3 days, I just couldn't put them down. The books were magic themselves.

Overall I enjoyed Hogwarts more than the voldemort plot. My favorite part is the day to day life of Hogwart's students.

Favorite book : Chamber of secrets
Least favorite : deathly hallows

Characters: While reading it was Sirius Black, I just wish he was in the series more, Dumbledore too.

When I found out the whole story it was definitely Snape.

[beast]

Originally Posted by supertom

Favorite book : Chamber of secrets
Least favorite : deathly hallows

That is really unusual, I think! But I suppose if you didn't dig the Voldemort stuff, Deathly Hallows wouldn't be for you. I loved Deathly Hallows and Half Blood Prince the most. I think Chamber of Secrets was my least favorite, but they're all excellent.

Characters: While reading it was Sirius Black, I just wish he was in the series more, Dumbledore too.

Yeah, they're both BAMFy. I wish readers (and Harry) had been given more time with Sirius.

When I found out the whole story it was definitely Snape.

Yeah isn't it incredible how you don't really know what to think of the man until he's dead? What an amazing flipping character. God these books are so good.

[beast]

I am seriously saddened by the lack of HP enthusiasm.

[supertom]

That is really unusual, I think! But I suppose if you didn't dig the Voldemort stuff, Deathly Hallows wouldn't be for you. I loved Deathly Hallows and Half Blood Prince the most. I think Chamber of Secrets was my least favorite, but they're all excellent.

I think Chamber of secrets is my favorite because i read it in the 6th grade and there was genuine fear, suspense and ancient secret of hogwarts

Yeah isn't it incredible how you don't really know what to think of the man until he's dead? What an amazing flipping character. God these books are so good.

I seriously hated him when he killed Dumbledore it felt like betrayal to the reader because I always believed him to be good. His overall story is tragic he never got a happy ending or life really even thou he was a hero (got picked on by harry's dad which made me dislike him),

I was really sad in the end (the princes tale) I realized that he loved Lily Potter and always loyal to Dumbledore. I couldnt read on, I just had to just sit with it for a while and take it in.

One thing i would like is harry telling everyone Snape's true although its assume by the reader, there should have been a scene where everyone acknowledges Snape.


(movie)
One thing I always wonder if the movies hampered Rowling's imagination, she must have been thinking "would they be able to work this into the movie" while writing the later books her writers block was when the first movie came out.

[SarahLuvzYu]

Originally Posted by beast

I am seriously saddened by the lack of HP enthusiasm.

SO AM I. Omg Harry Potter is the best. Every year I have this ritual where I read all the books in a week, then I watch all the movies then I read the best HP fan fiction I can get my hands on. This ritual usually lasts 2-3 weeks. Hehe

It's one of those books where you get completely transported to the places where it's set & there's so much detail in the Harry Potter world. Someone could probably write a Lonely Planet guide on magical London XD. Or Hogwarts ahaha!

[beast]

Originally Posted by supertom

I seriously hated him when he killed Dumbledore it felt like betrayal to the reader because I always believed him to be good. His overall story is tragic he never got a happy ending or life really even thou he was a hero (got picked on by harry's dad which made me dislike him),

I was really sad in the end (the princes tale) I realized that he loved Lily Potter and always loyal to Dumbledore. I couldnt read on, I just had to just sit with it for a while and take it in.

One thing i would like is harry telling everyone Snape's true although its assume by the reader, there should have been a scene where everyone acknowledges Snape.

Yeah, it was a powerful scene. Harry did say something, though - he told Voldemort that Snape had always been Dumbledore's man, and was never his man. It was sort of said in passing, and I also wanted a better moment for that, but it was there!

[beast]

Originally Posted by SarahLuvzYu

SO AM I.

Yay, another die-hard fan!

Which house would you guys be sorted into if you were magic?

[supertom]

Originally Posted by beast

Yay, another die-hard fan!

Which house would you guys be sorted into if you were magic?

Ravenclaw : Purely for the high dorm rooms, I resonate with their sense of spiritual logic.


Hermione should really be in Ravenclaw.

[Weena]

House: Slitherin. Lots of bad apples there but I reckon without them it could be a great house .

Favourite character...probably Dumbledore. He's the most powerful after all, but all in kindness and fairness at the same time.

I read the 4 first tomes in French and the three last ones in English. The original version i found much more enjoyable (though to be fair it's nicely translated but changing character names just is not cool! In french they call Snape "Rogue"...what the?...)

[beast]

Originally Posted by supertom

Ravenclaw : Purely for the high dorm rooms, I resonate with their sense of spiritual logic.


Hermione should really be in Ravenclaw.

Yes and no. Hermione is wicked smart, but she's also about as brave as they come. Her problem is that she is just too excellent for any house!

[beast]

Originally Posted by Weena

House: Slitherin. Lots of bad apples there but I reckon without them it could be a great house .

Those online quizzes always place me in Ravenclaw, but everyone I know swears up and down that I'm a Slytherin at heart! So I'd be right there with you. They have a wicked common room, and my boy Snape.

I read the 4 first tomes in French and the three last ones in English. The original version i found much more enjoyable (though to be fair it's nicely translated but changing character names just is not cool! In french they call Snape "Rogue"...what the?...)

Re-read the first ones in the original! I think so much of it can't be translated. Ooooh maybe you could read them with your kids! Rogue, what!

[SimpleSky]

For me, I was introduced to HP in 3rd grade when my teacher read the 1st one out loud to the class. I am still so grateful that she did that because my brother advised me "it's really stupid don't ever read it!!!" and if it wasn't for that teacher I bet I would have listened to my brothers awful advice.

Ever since 3rd grade I was hooked. I reread all the books, some multiple times.
My fav book: Prisoner of azkaban
I loved the time traveling, sirius, hagrid
Least fav: I guess i would say Order of the Pheonix-but that's probably because I hated professor umbridge so much. Just wanted to slap her. And I still liked the book a lot so least fav doesn't mean much.

BTW I am a true Gryffindorrrr!!!!

[supertom]

No ones gonna say hufflepuff lols, poor poor hufflepuff. I would probably like my friends to be from hufflepuff. "Students belonging to this house are known to be hard-working, friendly, loyal, and non-judgemental".

[Weena]

Originally Posted by beast

Re-read the first ones in the original! I think so much of it can't be translated. Ooooh maybe you could read them with your kids! Rogue, what!

Great idea .

Other question: what did you think of the movies? I thought Harry is too "neat" looking, I reckon the book describe him much messier looking. Hermione too is way to neat looking. But my husband has a massive crush on the actress

I like the mysterious and powerful side of Slytherin house... I would just not misuse the knowledge and power that's all

[beast]

Originally Posted by Weena

Great idea .

Other question: what did you think of the movies? I thought Harry is too "neat" looking, I reckon the book describe him much messier looking. Hermione too is way to neat looking. But my husband has a massive crush on the actress

I actually liked the most recent movie a lot! But none compare to the books, of course. I think the casting was decent, though a lot of the actors don't fit the image I have. Like Snape was only supposed to be in his 30s! It's okay because Alan Rickman is a God, but the actors playing Lily and James in Harry's images are so old (so is Gary Oldman, but he's wonderful too, and I'd imagine Azkaban would make anyone look worn, so I forgive that, too). Emma Watson is way too pretty and neat to play Hermione! What could we expect, though? She's a pretty good actress.

I like the mysterious and powerful side of Slytherin house... I would just not misuse the knowledge and power that's all

I do, too. I might get sick of being around all those stuffy old pure-bloods, though!

[marinik]

Great book! I loved it but still there are greater ones!

[aelle]

One of my secret fantasies about parenthood is to have children who are finally old enough to appreciate HP and read the whole series again out loud as a family, night after night, snuggled together. Can you imagine how lucky kids are who haven't read them yet?

My favorite book is the 3rd - the last few chapters always make me bawl. I have only read the 5th volume once, so I assume it's my least favorite.

And I'd be in Ravenclaw with all the nerds, duh.

I had a feeling Snape was on Dumbledore's side all along. For one thing, Dumbledore trusts him blindly so I thought he had some secret files on him that he wasn't just going to tell the students. For another, there's this whole theme throughout the series on how good and evil are complex, multi-layered issues, how people on the good side can still be a**holes (Harry's dad and Sirius as high school bullies, hello!) and people whom you dislike can still serve the same cause as you.

Originally Posted by Weena

I read the 4 first tomes in French and the three last ones in English. The original version i found much more enjoyable (though to be fair it's nicely translated but changing character names just is not cool! In french they call Snape "Rogue"...what the?...)

You *must* read them again in English! The translator/editor did a sucky job with the first couple volumes (because they're just children's books, who cares anyway, right?) to the point of simply deleting entire scenes. Not even kidding. The very first Ron/Harry encounter, which is such a sweet moment, is missing from the French version.

[Criseyde]

Greatest ****ing books ever.

I LOVED Deathly Hallows. A lot of people didn't, but I thought it was so perfect. Except the epilogue, which doesn't exist, in my universe. (I can do that, right?)

[Andrew Gubb]

Loved the books, I guess I'm not too fanboy about it cause... I don't know why, but I'm not, but I loved them.

[carenkh]

Originally Posted by aelle

One of my secret fantasies about parenthood is to have children who are finally old enough to appreciate HP and read the whole series again out loud as a family, night after night, snuggled together. Can you imagine how lucky kids are who haven't read them yet?

My boys and I went to the midnight sale of Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows. We were talking about how cool it was that we had the anticipation between books, and got to get them as they were released. No one else will have that experience with these books! You can just buy the set now if you want.

I love the books! I started reading Philosopher's Stone to make sure it would be OK for my son (he didn't like very scary things back then, wanted to forewarn him of any scary scenes as we read it), and I couldn't put it down 'til it was done. I started reading it to him the very next day.

When we saw the latest movie, everyone in the theater let out an "Aw!" when it ended. We didn't want it to be over! They did such a good job with it. We are waiting for July 15th!! Then we'll have to watch the whole series again.

I'm probably Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. Online quizzes usually put me in Ravenclaw, with a strong showing for Hufflepuff.

[Jon Tore]

They're great books! Certainly the books I've read the most.. ok let's face it, the only series where I've possibly read a book more than once. I'm altogether a bigger LOTR fan, but it's not so nice to compare them. But HP has certainly had a great influence on me when I was younger.. in third grade or whatever, I remember once sitting in the classroom, facing the wall and trying to make a lasting mysterious lightning-scar with my pencil on my forehead. Someone told me later that I had lots of drawing on my forehead.
I also got my dad to make a "wand" out of some wooden plank, which I kept for a long time and got so into this whole magic thing that I just couldn't help hoping and feeling that it would work. I also remember dreams where for example my mother would "go and get the old broomstick" so I could fly, and it felt freakin amazing and exciting to know that we had one for real, but waking up before I got to it. It took quite some time before I realized that it was purely a dream. SIGH!

I've read most of the books in norwegian, except the last one and maybe one more, and it'd be a pleasure to read them again if I took the time. My favorite character apart from Harry himself, was maybe Siris Black. I loved the atmosphere around that character. The stories with the invisibility cloak were really important too. Oh yeah and I made my mother find some transparent stuff/blanket-like thing that I hid under here at home and went around, often with more people under it, but it felt real as heck. Feels weird to think back at that.
Don't know what the favorite book is, as I don't even remember that much from them. Even when I was the movie I had forgotten that Dobby died. There are some "frightening" bone-shivering deaths in Harry Potter, such as when the guy Harry competed with through the maze died, and the way Dumbledore died. I just didn't feel like Voldemort's death was quite good enough. I don't know what could have made it better, but it was still very predictable the way it ended, like two beams meeting and moving towards Voldemort. Perhaps if he got killed somehow by something non-magic? I don't know. I'm tilting towards Saruman's death in the lord of the rings MOVIE (not the book), where he gets stabbed, falls off the tower and lands on a spike on a wheel that starts to rotate him under the water. Maybe not very children friendly though, but the fact that one of Ron's brothers get killed, and Dobby and all, isn't THAT children friendly either, if you look at it that way.

Anyway, I liked the Snape plot twist

[beast]

Originally Posted by Criseyde

Greatest ****ing books ever.

I LOVED Deathly Hallows. A lot of people didn't, but I thought it was so perfect. Except the epilogue, which doesn't exist, in my universe. (I can do that, right?)

I agree with eeeeeeverything you are saying. Every single word.

I like that JK Rowling gives us little peaks into Harry's world online - I wish she had released the epilogue as a little mini-story posted online, like the HP Prequel about James and Sirius. I think that would have been absolutely perfect. In the actual book, it ruined the flow, and I wish she had nixed it.

[beast]

Originally Posted by aelle

One of my secret fantasies about parenthood is to have children who are finally old enough to appreciate HP and read the whole series again out loud as a family, night after night, snuggled together. Can you imagine how lucky kids are who haven't read them yet?

I think about that all the time, I want my kids to grow up with the books. I think if we start when they're maybe 7 or so, they will be. I wish so much that somebody could cast an obliviate charm on me so I could read them all over again for the first time.

I had a feeling Snape was on Dumbledore's side all along. For one thing, Dumbledore trusts him blindly so I thought he had some secret files on him that he wasn't just going to tell the students. For another, there's this whole theme throughout the series on how good and evil are complex, multi-layered issues, how people on the good side can still be a**holes (Harry's dad and Sirius as high school bullies, hello!) and people whom you dislike can still serve the same cause as you.

Yeah, I had faith too, but it was mostly completely shot when Snape killed Dumbledore. I couldn't really think of an explanation for it, much as I had wanted to (I know he made the unbreakable vow, but still! It was such a sad moment for me).

[nienie]

I have always held a special place in my heart for the HP series since I first read The Philosopher's Stone.
My grandmother bought me the first four books in Hardback because her book club was having a sale and I left them on my shelves for a long time. When I finally decided to read them I realised what I had been missing, I remember reading the books in a matter of a few days.

I attended the midnight book sales of Order of the Pheonix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, bought and had gifted to me a lot of merchandise and watched the films avidly.

When I was about 14 I became really interested in fanfiction and started reading Harry Potter fanfiction every day, even writing some of my own short stories. I occassionally read some fanfiction even now.

When I was in my 3rd year of Secondary School my English teacher had us do a project for the year entirely devoted to the Harry Potter series. I remember producing a 40/50 page book containing a lot of drawings and ideas that I had put together about the series along with excerpts from the books themselves.

As for my favourite book from the series, I personally enjoyed Order of the Pheonix the most because it has suspense, death, and a very broody Harry. I disliked Half-Blood Prince because it seemed too focused upon romantic elements and in particular the chemistry between Hermione and Ron, a pairing I personally dislike.

My favourite character from the series has been Snape because I always knew he was not a bad man and that he was underappreciated. I also liked Hermione in the earlier books because she seemed so uncaring about the superficial ideas of beauty, appearance and she held her own despite being a muggle-born.

[SarahLuvzYu]

Originally Posted by beast

Yay, another die-hard fan!

Which house would you guys be sorted into if you were magic?

Probably Gryffindor because I've been ridiculously brave & courageous in the past.

Who's your fave character? Mine are Snape, Luna Lovegood & Hermione ^_^

[Helesinine]

Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite. It was the first HP book I read because I got it for my birthday. After this one I acquired all of them one by one. I liked Deathly Hallows too.

What I liked the most about the third book was fighting dementors and my favorite spell was Expecto Patronum. I used to read the part of the book where Harry learned that spell over and over again.
I also liked time traveling and Sirius.

Chamber of Secrets was one of my least favorites.

My two nephews were also big Harry Potter fans. We used to run around with broomsticks, use pencils as magic wands, cast spells at each other and fight about who gets to read which book next. Funny! Rowling sure did a great job at raising kids' interest in reading.

[Cochonette]

The best parts of Harry Potter are Emma Watson and Richard Harris. The rest, take it or leave it. The second actor who plays Dumbledore is extremely annoying. He just completely ruins the character.

I couldn't get into the books.