Harry Potter (Wizarding World Universe) Book • Page 4

Yeah we were friends from elementary school up until high school and stopped being friends for non-HP related reasons lol (when I cut her out of my life for being awful so she kinda had it coming to her tbh!!)

 

Just wanted to pop in and recommend to everyone that if they have the chance definitely try and visit the Harry Potter A History of Magic exhibition at the British Library in London. Here's their description of it:

"We unveil rare books, manuscripts and magical objects from the British Library's collection, capturing the traditions of folklore and magic which are at the heart of the Harry Potter stories. Marvel at original drafts and drawings by J.K. Rowling and illustrator Jim Kay, both on display for the first time."

I went last November with some friends and we all loved it especially J.K.'s drawings which we didn't know even existed and the display with all the different editions in other languages and covers.

 

The Stephen Fry or Jim Dale ones?

 

I did the Jim Dale versions. Really enjoyed his reading and character voices.

 

I got the illustrated editions of the first 3 books for Christmas. They are really nice and I’m really happy I got them. I’ll definitely buy the rest when they get released. My friend bought me a wand too lol I thought it was so cute. She bought it from an Etsy seller and it came in a box marked Ollivander and everything. Now I gotta figure out how to display it.

 

Agreed, I've just really been trying to find the Stephen Fry's versions cuz I think those would be great but have had no luck.

 

Finished The Order of the Phoenix last night. It's obviously a great book but re-reading it, I felt it could have been streamlined slightly to shave off a 100 or so pages. I loved reading it (and actually didn't remember as much as the first four books which was nice) but I'd say I enjoyed the first four more overall.

 

Yeah I've only read the books once and listened to Audiobooks once but i'd definitely say Order is my least favorite for sure.

 

Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince are the weakest books by an incredible margin.

 

What makes you say that? I don't see much difference between Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets in terms of plot and writing style. I've just started Half-Blood Prince so it's not very fresh in my memory yet.

 

Half-Blood Prince I still don't fully understand tbh

 

Ha, I can't remember much of it apart from the end.

 

Azkaban, Goblet and Order are my faves. I always see Order listed as the weakest but I think Half-Blood Prince was prob my least fave.

 

That’s kind of my problem with both books... it’s a lot of the same type of stuff. Obviously HBP adds a lot with the pensieve storyline and I think the ending is great. But CoS is just kind of there as a book to get through before the series starts becoming truly great with POA.

HBP always just feels like filler when they are doing all the normal school stuff. Voldemort is back and publicly known now, yet things just kind of continue as normal. Despite Draco being an utter shit head for 5 books, Ron and Hermione don’t trust Harry’s insight on what he was up to. It kind of drags on.

Obviously the world JK wrote is unbelievably deep and rich and even the far weaker books have some great character moments and adds clever new layers to the magical world. I still always enjoy reading them, but they will never be my favorite.

4,5, and 7 all make fairly big changes to the context of that year and it sets them apart as unique and more enjoyable books. 3 is one of my favorites as well due to the last 100 pages or so. Truly one of my favorite stretches of writing in the series. 1 is a classic and the original and the world she sets up is genius.

The “normalcy” and “routine” of a lot of 2 and 6 are necessary though,as I think it’s needed to enjoy the departures made in the other books. But they are kind of the baseline of enjoying HP for me. The deepest riches are in the other books.

 

POA, OOTP, and DH are always contending for the top spot for me. Then GoF. Then the SS.

 

Makes sense. It’s the best part of that book, for sure. I find all the Gaunt history interesting, but it’s not super exciting most of the time and I can understand it being foggy for some.

 

I read these books all for the first time last year. I'd never seen any of the movies or knew anything about the plot at all. That said, these are amazing and I'm likely to run through the HP movies at least once a year and I'm definitely planning on re-reading all of the books this year. They're just so readable I went through them so quickly. I love the books and can't wait to re-read. Wasn't a huge fan of the play though. I still would like to see it live though, I've heard it comes off much better.

 

I enjoyed The Cursed Child for what it was. Haven't seen the play but the script was interesting enough.

 

HBOgo added all the movies on new years day, so in the last week we have watched them all again and it definitely reinvigorated my love for this series. Definitely want to re-read them all soon. I haven't read any of them since I finished Deathly Hallows the day after it was released in 2007. I think that was the fastest I've ever read through an entire book.

 

Same.

I enjoyed it more the second time I read it, but it’s just not the same. And it’s not meant to be the same, but that makes me wonder why even do it.

 

Thanks for your insights. I think Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire are my favourites. The Order of the Phoenix felt like it had a lot of 'normalcy' and 'routine' stuff and the Umbridge element dragged on a bit too much for me. As I said, I still enjoyed it. And I agree that she adds clever new layers to the world and there are some great character moments.

 

OOTP had almost everything go wrong. It was like an official “opposite” year. It was anything but routine.

The scene with Harry/Dumbledore in his office at the end of the book during The Lost Prophecy is haunting and devastating to me. This book is constant pain for Harry and it’s brilliant.

 

I've always told myself the 3rd movie was my least favorite but I'm watching Goblet of Fire right now and god it's bad.

 

As someone who has never read the books or seen any of the movies, should I: wait and read all the books first before watching the movies or should I skip straight to the movies and ruin the surprise but go back and read the books anyway? Do I even have to read the books once I've seen the movies?

For instance, it seems a lot of people I know have never read Lord of the Rings and just went straight to the movies and have no regrets about doing it that way.

 

On my most recent re-watch I agree that 4 is my least favorite movie, followed closely by 3.