wilkes

In all seriousness, what Rowling's books lack in technical quality, they more than make up for in her epic storytelling ability. They will one day be looked upon as classics in children's literature.

Waiting for the witchcraft rant to begin...

I had not read any of the books until this last one came out. I've watched all the movies though (like the first one). I picked it up this last one, read it, and thought a whole lot of things just seemed to lay right into place. EXCEPT the whole Snape thing that one threw me for a loop. Whay too much time and detail went to the "camping out" part, reading it I was wandering if it was ever going to move on with the story. And she could have wrote a whole other book about the last chapter.
But all in all I liked it

Yes I waited in line in downtown Elkin with my 13 yr old grumbling and my 2 yr old running around waiting for midnight to strike. When I saw the book I was disapointed. Disappointed it wasn't a 2000 page book. LOL I'm 44 and all of these books are the best by far. Except of course for some Stephen King. Oh yeah and Tolkien. I didn't start reading from the beginning. I started on book 3 and I will go back and start from the 1st. I did not want the last one to end, took my time reading it and enjoyed. The movies are never like the book. It would take 2 to 3 hours a night for a month to get every detail out of the book. If not longer.

IT WAS LIKE AWESOME O WOW LIEK TOOTALLY ROCKED THE LAST MOVIE IN THEATRER WAS GREATTTTTTT

I'm with Jason on the movies; how people who haven't read the books follow the movies is beyond me.

just start with the first and read through the series, you shouldn't have any trouble finding them, I got a set of the first 5 on ebay for about $20.00 bucks last year. I only started reading them a couple of years ago myself.

I'm about sold on the Harry Potter books. It looks like I've got quite a bit of catching up to do.

aykm,

the appeal of the books, for me anyway, is that they are from Harry's viewpoint and as he grows up his viewpoint grows too. You start the first book and learn about magic and wizards just as he does, and you learn along with him the history and details of the "wizarding world". It's a great read because you feel as Harry does, a bit confused, a bit overwhelmed, but a lot excited at this new world you've stumbled into. As the books progress and Harry grows up you learn more and more details, good and bad about the world and the choices you have to make.

I see your point. Movies based on books rarely seem to go along with the book, unfortunately.

I might be the only person in the world that feels this way, but I absolutely despise the Harry Potter movies. They jump around so much that it's impossible to know what's going on.
 
There's simply no way to condense a full year of occurences into a 90 or 120 minute movie, but they try, which just creates a big mess. I think that each book should be split in to 2 or 3 movies, and then it might finally make sense.

Really? Do the movies vary from the books that much?

That's interesting. I may have to jump in on this Harry Potter mania.

Thanks for the response

Harry Potter is NOT a children's series, and never should have been billed that way. I remember when Eminem was a new rapper, a lot of parents took their kids to see his concert thinking because of that same mistake.

They are very fast paced, and very hard to put down. Each of the books span a full year (a school year for Harry), and the books got longer and more detailed (and darker) as the series continued.

I can't explain the appeal, personally. I didn't read them for a long time because, generally, I don't go for the same things that everyone else likes. But the first 3 were given to me as a gift (right after the 3rd one came out), and after I started the first one I couldn't wait to read the others.

When you start the series, read them in order: start with # 1, then move on to # 2, and so on. If you don't, you'll miss the whole point.

Also, avoid the movies at all cost. They almost turned me away from movies altogether, and they'll certainly turn you away from the books.

I have never read a Harry Potter book, but see that they are insanely popular. I saw pictures of people lined up around the block, dressed up like Harry Potter characters, etc.

My questions are,

1. What does the reader find that makes the book so appealling?
2. Are they fast paced, or does the story take it's time?
3. Are they the kind of books that are very hard to put down once you start reading them?