Not the least. I pretty much have to read it, being that Children’s Literature is my chosen profession. I’m hoping that it won’t seem like work to read it, but based on my experience with the series so far, especially books four and five, I’m not anticipating that to be the case.
Harry who?
Okay, I’m back! Shortly after my last post to this thread, my computer succumbed to a virus, and I just now got back online. So as I was saying…
Harry has lamented more than once that if he wasn’t The Boy Who Lived, and if he didn’t kick @ss at Quidditch, he’d very probably be a social zero at Hogwarts. (Just among the other students, I mean.) Well, perhaps there’s a reason for that!
I mean, really, what does he do for his friends? Yes, I know he’s going to save the world eventually, but does that make him exempt from everyday kindness and thoughtfulness? We’re always told what he gets for Christmas, but not what he gives others, and there’s never any mention of Ron or Hermione’s birthdays. He never seems to go out of his way for others on a personal level.
Maybe this has to do with what Lynn said earlier, about the character being a “chosen prince”. It’s difficult to have a character, especially a kid/teen, be a savior and a well-rounded person, and perhaps Rowling’s just not up to the task.
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni]
I’ve only read the first book. Perhaps the series has improved, but I generally don’t like “chosen prince(ss)” books…and that’s what HP is. QUOTE]
I think there is a difference though, she has made it clear that it has to end with him living or dying. Yes, she loves the character but I can see him dying in a heroic way.
I agree, I enjoyed those much more. My favorites in order are probably 4,5,3,2,1. I liked that the books were more adult and harry’s attitude is changing. I am a teenager who has had really huge horrible things happen in his life like Harry and that mixed with hormones, does create this exact behavior. I think the 5th book showed she could write beyond a simple child’s book. Although, I still stand by my opinion that they are good books but there are hundreds of book’s that deserve the attention Harry Potter has gotten. Also, a lot of people have an issue with the length of the book, yes it should have been edited maybe 100 pages down but beyond that the length isn’t a problem and just improves the book. I am a fast reader and that helps but the only reason it took my more then 3 hours to read OotP was because I stopped myself, so I could enjoy it longer
I thing she finally came to the conclusion that if she writes anything else (especially fantasy or children’s literature) it will be compared to Harry Potter and be over-judged by the public. Also, she could just be throwing the public off like she enjoys doing. Did anyone else notice that she made perfectly clear the amount of years it takes to become an aurour (spelling?) in book 5? I believe it was 3 (bad memory >_<) and that seems like a nice little add on but not too large like the HP series.
Please some uber HP fan with a memory disprove her theory. I can’t recall but I know he gave presents to his friends at least once. Ron a book about his favorite Quiditch team and those binoculars (man I can’t spell). He also gave the gift of freedom to Doby.
In Stone he buys candy for Ron, in Chamber he gives Ginny a set of books, etc… Generally he buys his friends gifts whenever he has the opportunity. He never makes any homemade gifts, but between passing classes and unraveling horrendously complex plots by an evil overlord bent on world domination, where would he find the time?
Thank you! loving you for having a memory
Will I be buying book 6 the day it comes out? Of course not! I have much better things to do with my time. Of course, I will sending my sister to the store at midnight to get it for me 
Book 4 was the Empire Strikes Back of the series for me (thus far): Ends on a low point, kinda starts setting up what is really going on, good stuff.
A side note, will they be pulling in new actor/actressessses/err, ‘thespians’, to play the characters in the movies, or will they try to keep the movies a year (or year and a half or so) apart?
Not terribly looking forward to it, but I’ll certainly read it.
I went through the whole series one lazy week last summer. Enjoyed the first three, thought the fourth was kinda ‘meh,’ and hated the fifth. I didn’t like the way Rowling shoved Harry’s ‘teen-ness’ down my throat page after page after page. Early on I understood that Harry was going through some angst, but Rowling made him into an unbearable little twit. I lost absolutely all empathy for the character, and I started to hate Hermione and Ron for putting up with him.
That said, my sister and dad both love the series and I’m sure I’ll wander over and be able to borrow the book just a few week’s after it comes out.
Rowling isn’t a terribly innovative writer, but her first few books were easy, enjoyable reads and I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for no. 6.
I will definately buy the next book- and see the next movie and buy the next pc game. I won’t be able to live in the same house with the six and eight year olds if I don’t.
The kids tell me the next movie is due out this summer and the pc game will be available shortly thereafter. Is that good information?
I’ve enjoyed all the books. The movies were good and the pc games were big fun, too.
My six year old will only wear a red shirt, brown pants and a particular pair of shoes on most days because ‘that’s what Harry wears.’ He uses a special striped chop stick for his wand. He is autistic and the specialist we see says that HP is a good obsessional interest as it covers a large range of age groups (unlike, say, a 6th grader who’s interest is Thomas the Tank Engine). I have run into a couple of women who think HP is eeevil and won’t speak to us now, but I figure that’s kind of a bonus.
I will probably go out and buy it the first day. I admit that book 5 had some serious problems (see below) but it did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for the series as a whole. Mostly I want my own brain’s rampant speculations about plot points to be confirmed or denied. I think those of us who are reading more because we’re hooked by the plot and the world rather than by ‘literary quality’ are probably more forgiving of any flaws we do see.
My big problems with Book 5:
I don’t care how ‘cool’ you thought Thestrals were (and as an aside I agree that they were cool), you (JKR) directly contradicted the ending of the previous book (which you wrote but apparently didn’t READ) in order to include them. And not in an easily correctable way like with the “wand order” fiasco in Book 4. If you’re a good writer you either 1) don’t find yourself with this problem because you planned ahead or 2) find some way to work around it and provide what the Thestrals provide for the plot of OotP without contradicting yourself. This really cheesed me off. That’s an amateur mistake.
I know this one bugs lots of other people too. I don’t care if Harry’s an angry teenager, give him some amount of intelligence and awareness: when he saw the mirror from Sirius he shouldn’t just have been mad that Sirius didn’t answer him, he should have been devastated, miserable and angry WITH HIMSELF because if he had just opened the present when he got it, Sirius would be alive and he never would even have gone to the Dept of Mysteries, etc. I don’t care if Dumbldore had already said it was his fault for not being forthright with Harry, this overrides that. And those readers who like Harry, and think he’s basically an alright kid, are justifiably bothered that this never ocurrs to him. But I will admit that maybe it will hit him at the beginning of Book 6 or something. That could be a nice moment, at the Dursley’s after the shock wears off…
In closing, I will just note that when I reread book 4, I noticed lots of anger and shouting in that book too, coming from Harry and Ron and Hermione. So it’s not like he just discovered anger overnight, the ‘teenager-ness’ had been building in the previous book. Like when Harry and Ron aren’t talking, or Ron and Hermione get in the fight about the dance.
The part about the next movie is. By all accounts, the replacement of the horrendously mediocre Chris Columbus by Alfonso Cuarón (director of Y Tu Mama Tambien) has worked wonders on what has been, up until now, a series of extremely dull adaptations, with none of the humor or life that characterizes the books. The trailers for Prisoner of Azkaban bear this out- there is noticeably more color, more interesting camera work, and better acting from all involved. I have no doubt that it will be a far better film than the first two combined.
Plus, Gary Oldman plays Sirius Black. 
Stand in line? Hah! I will be ordering the book in advance and it will be delivered to my door on the same day that the other Potter-heads are lying asleep, exhausted after their all-night vigil.
Of course it won’t do me much good, because I’ll insist on re-reading the whole series before tackling Book 6, and won’t get around to starting until a couple of days before the release date. So Book 6 will sit on my shelf gathering dust for a few weeks.
Then, of course, I have to cut off all contact with my fellow Potter-head friends, who will be dying to tease me with little tidbits. Just like last time.
4 is my favorite, because of the whole Quidditch World Cup mileau and the start of the mixups between the Muggles and the Wizard worlds.
I must say, though, that the fact that The Big Death was Sirius in 5 was sorta anticlimatic to me. The whole thing was that Sirius was always courting or cheating death, and frankly I was amazed he lived as long as he did.
I also liked Umbridge as the villian, a lot, because a younger kid just really wouldn’t have understood how frustratingly evil she was.
Looking forward to 6, although I still don’t quite understand how Voldemort and Harry are tied together.
Buy number six? You betcha!
I’ll order it through Amazon and get it the same day as everyone else without having to elbow a 12 year old in the face to get a copy.
Five had some good moments, and it had some bogged down in crap moments. It is not an easy book to pick up and re-read again.
I’ve re-read 1, 2,3,4 at least 3 or 4 times and have listened to the books on CD. ( Jim Dale is outstanding as the narrator.)
Five is a skimming book. It’s a skimming audio book, too.
I personally cannot wait until #3 is out in the theaters this summer. I’m almost spaztic with anticipation.
To be mentally 12 again…YAY! oooh, look! PONIES!
Shirley Ujest, may I take a moment to say that yours is the best sig line I’ve seen in ages? I love it.
I’ve only recently become a Harry Potter fan. I’m on book 2. I’ve got so much work to do I’m reading it pretty slowly. That, and the fact I spend too much time here. So as far as I’m concearned, book 6 can take its time because it will be ages before I get to reading it. 
I admit that I am looking forward to book six even though I agree that book five could have used a bit of judicious editing. I kind of got the impression that book five was a bridge from kid-Harry to have-to-be-more-grown-up-Harry. I also think that Umbridge was a great villian. I hated her. I even yelled at her, which astonishingly did absolutely no good whatsoever.