I am re-reading Book 6 (The Half Blood Prince) currently, and got to thinking about which, in the series of books, I have re-read the MOST times…I think Goblet of Fire is my personal winner (3 re-reads after the original reading), although it is not my personal favorite (Order of the Phoenix is my fave, by far!)
I keep reading in Potter threads that many of you have re-read much or all of the series, and some read the book which corresponds to the next movie release in “preparation” for that event, etc. Guess I am not completely alone in my need for an occasional Potter re-fix, thankfully.
So which one have YOU re-read the most times, and out of curiosity, why? Which is your favorite?
I inhaled GOF the first time through, and then savored it the second. I attacked it with relish the 3rd time for the sheer joy of anticipation of Book 5, sometime before OOP was released, then of course had to re-read it for the movie release last year. I’ve only read OOP 3 times so far, but will surely read it again before the movie comes out. This is my second time thru HBP. Of the first three novels, I have read only Prisoner of Azkaban twice—the other two interested me the least, and I have never re-read them at all.
The first one. I just looooove to read the beginning–finding out he’s a wizard, shopping in Diagon Alley, and arriving at Hogwarts. I usually stop reading it after that, actually.
I’ve definitely read The Sorcerer’s Stone the most often–because I’ve had it the longest, and I can tear through it in a couple hours, useful if I have to go to the DMV or sit anywhere waiting. Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the books thus far (probably because of Harry’s sudden explosion into teen angst), and Prisoner of Azkaban my favorite of the movies (because I felt it most accurately captured the feeling of the book).
The first. Partly because I reread the series before each new one comes out, partly because I have stumbled through major chunks of it in other languages (not well: Latin, Italian, Vietnamese; okay: Spanish), partly because I like to think about the worldbuilding aspects of the series and see how Jo introduces them.
Goblet of Fire. Mostly because it’s the only one of the series I owned myself, the rest were library copies or borrowed from friends. I’ve probably read it 8 times or so.
I never read one without rereading the whole series. Same with most series books – if I’m going to reread, I reread them all.
There are a few exceptions – once I lose interest in a series, I don’t usually reread the books from after the series turned for the worse. When I reread the Anita Blake books, for instance, I stop at Obsidian Butterfly. And there’ll occasionally be a book in a series that I dislike and skip when I’m rereading the series. I hated Dolphins of Pern, for instance, and never reread it even when I reread all the other Pern books.
Yep, same here. Every six months or so, I start reading the series all over again. To me, it’s really just one BIG book, broken up into separate sections.
Prisoner of Azkaban is my most read of the Potter books. Probably because Prof. Snape gets a lot of face time in that one (For some reason I loved Snape right out of the gate and then Alan Rickman for the movies just sealed the Snape loving deal).
My favorite is a problematic question. Until Half Blood Prince came out it was far and away PoA. Now I can’t decide which of the two is my #1.
Not that you asked, but, Chamber of Secrets is my least favorite. I couldn’t tell you exactly why.
Not to hijack, but did anyone else find Goblet of Fire to be a hard read? It’s not that it isn’t interesting, but I feel like I have to drag my way through parts of that one (and Order of the Phoenix to an extent). I’ve read it three or four times and it’s the same for me every time. It’s worth the dragging as it’s a good book, but is it just me?
The first. I also do the read them all over from #1 just before the next book comes out thing.
I agree about the dragging. GoF and OotP were great the first time around because they were new and it was so exciting to read the next book. But subsequent readings definitely reveals parts that I had to wade through to get to the goods.
For me it is the first one and GOF that I’ve read the most. I somehow could never get into OOtP - I’ve read it once and I have no inclination of going back to it…
However, since I’ve recently discovered the new and exciting world of Harry Potter slash I think I should go back and reread the last books again, I seem to have missed some details that are referenced quite often.
No, no, you just have to squint a bit and hit your head on the wall next to platform 9 3/4 and there it is! And it smells like lemon and Christmas and a bit peppery (These people know everything to an unhealthy degree - I once read a disclaimer that the author had gotten Draco’s birthday wrong. Who knows all this?)
No, but seriously, it’s not the details I am worried about: I shamefully have to admit that my eyes apparently seem to have glazed over every time I read “Umbridge” in OOtP, I have only a vague idea who she is.
I think I’ve re-read Order of the Phoenix most, then The Philosopher’s Stone. I think, but another re-reading will have to happen first, that Half-Blood Prince is my favourite.
I’m currently reading a book surrounding the Harry Potter Universe. Sort of an encyclopedia.
Like Sattua, I enjoy reading the first half or so of Book One–particularly the parts after Hagrid finds him and he begins to learn about the wizarding world. The only part of that book I don’t care for much on reread is the end–pretty much everything after they go through Fluffy’s trap door. I often stop watching the movie at that point as well–as I do in Chamber of Secrets when they finally enter the Chamber. The “young wizards at school” part of the series interests me far more than the “big climaxes” parts, at least usually.
I have all six books on audio CD, and I’ve had them on continuous rotation for about the past year or so. I listen to them in my car, and when I finish one, I just load up the next one. Doing this, I’m now on my second listen-through of the entire series. I pick up more things I’d missed that way, since I tend to be a “skim” reader and sometimes gloss over descriptive passages to get to the dialog. You can’t do that in an audiobook.
The earlier books do seem to have an innocence about them that disappears as Harry grows up, which is as it should be. I picked up Prisoner of Azkaban last night and glanced thru the first few chapters…definitely the 13-year-old Harry is a lot less jaded than the one we know in HBP. I had forgotten how much I like the part of POA where Harry gets two weeks Dursley-free to hang out in Diagon Alley before Ron and Hermione show up—he’s eating sundaes, shopping, looking with great longing at the new Firebolt broom, and basically wandering around with loads of cash (although being far more responsible about his spending than most 13-year-olds left to their own devices would be), plus he has a suite at the hotel/bar to stay in, and gets plenty to eat…what a perfect fantasy “vacation” for a kid! Or even for a grown-up like me.
GOF just seems pivotal to me because it is the full return of Voldy, even if we meander thru a huge amount of “stuff” to get to that point. Plus, Sirius is so cool as Harry’s godfather, and they get to develop their relationship a bit (never enough, I don’t think, in books 4 and 5.) before it is disrupted. Maybe I am crazy, but I really like Gary Oldman, and now I always picture him as Sirius when re-reading those two books…Movie #4 didn’t show much of him (tho he was in hiding for pretty much all of GOF, so what could they have done?), sadly, but I am hoping that OOP The Movie will more than make up for that!
(These people know everything to an unhealthy degree - I once read a disclaimer that the author had gotten Draco’s birthday wrong. Who knows all this?)