¿Cuántas veces he releído la saga de Harry Potter? Hace muchos años que perdí la cuenta...

"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

I wasn't always the most ardent fantasy reader, but even since reading The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy, that quickly changed. And figured what better way to continue the journey than Harry Potter. I'm very glad I did so. Had I really known how fun and thrilling Harry Potter is, I would've read all books many times over by now. But better late than never I guess.

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."

Right off from the beginning, what stood out to me most was, how easy it is to read everything. May be it is because the author moves mainly along building characters - which are much quickly understood - instead of building a detailed fantasy world. Unlike in a Tolkien novel, where we are given every minuscule detail of the world, Harry Potter is far more character focused, and has been done amazingly. I never dreamed I'll this fascinated by a children's book.

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

Now that I'm finished with the first book, I cannot help regretting why didn't I read this before. This is far far better than watching the movie - and considering how enjoyable the movies are, that's saying a lot. Definitely going to re-visit this one, many times hopefully. Cannot wait to start reading the next one.

" 'Ah, music' he said, wiping his eyes. 'A magic beyond all we do here!' "

It´s never too late to get back to magic school, even if one is just a dirty muggle.

Quite a while ago (I was young, so young, omg, what happened, where is all the time, how could this hopeful young boy become such a demoni…), sorry, typo; I read this thing and now I thought that a reread might be an extremely interesting experience, especially regarding my obsession of vivisecting literature with the help of the almighty tvtropes. But there is a problem.

I have a massive deficit of reading all kinds of fantasy because the series take such huge amounts of time, there is a hyperinflation of YA and high fantasy and I am more into sci-fi, humor, and horror, so I can´t really compare it with other, similar kids and YA fantasy literature. But I can just cherrypick any weird thought, Frankenstein it together, mwuahahaha call it a review, post it, run, and hope that nobody notices. I should have put this to the end of the review…

It would be really interesting to know which elements were already there, maybe even in similar constellations, and which were Rowlings´ own, unique inventions. The underdog group of friends, the systems of magic, the only sure thing and constant in fantasy might be the big bad evil lurking in the background while the sockpuppet antagonistic humans prepare the final war. More comparisons could be interesting in the other direction, the future, my obsession, too because there might have been the one or other opportunistic genre swifts, series, subgenres heavily influenced by Harry that are now beginning to collide with newer hypes and trends. Quite a freaking amazing evolution.

I am not sure if a man could have written a similar piece, because there are, gosh, gender differences. Yes, I just dissed and discriminated against my own gender, sue me if you want, I´ve legal expenses insurance so good luck with that, but my perfectly politically incorrect opinion is that there are genres and readers that just perfectly fit together. Or not, and in these cases, different genders, gender identities, etc. are prone to reading and writing gender specific content. Although there may be female hard sci-fi, plot focused writers with minimalistic characterizations and male authors writing soft epic, romantic fantasy, they are exceptions and I don´t deem this diversity something negative. On the contrary, I will just shout out that a man would maybe not have been able to write such a compelling book and that Potter could have failed, or at least not have had such immense success, without the feminine touch. Now I´ll be roasted, trolled, and hunted down, but that was totally worth it. Stupid haters, get a life. I should really consider reducing the offending the audience level.

Rowling did an immensely good job in using Sandersons´laws of magic to make anything interconnected and somewhat even linking character traits to certain kinds of magic systems, and preferences while aiming at one of the biggest and fangirly/boysest audiences possible, young readers. Many of these won´t have seen similar uses in old, unknown works or still too difficult to enter high fantasy concepts and will be blown away when they first enter this amazing universe.

Faith stereotypically and predictably, far less creative and open minded than the young readers, helped in promoting Potter by talking about the danger of magic and such trivial, evil works on kids and children. Really, bigots, did you learn nothing out of 2 millennia of religious wars, witch burning, and genocides? Sigh, as already said, haters gonna hate, but at least this ridiculous attempts of demonizing one of the most pop cultural big bangs of all time helped to make it even more popular. What did they fear, that millions of boys and girls start doing black magic, break quantum dimensional time travel stuff, and unleash the flying spaghetti monster that would ruin their assets?

The extreme success of Rowlings´ excessive use of adjectives and breaking many other rules of this, so called, self proclaimed, quality newspaper writing gurus, high brow literature, „I´ll tell anyone to write just with my, only right, recipe, because this is how art has to be done and creativity has to be unleashed under controlled circumstances“ is a good reason for rofling around all day. Seriously, Nobel price, elitist high culture literature trash woman/man? How many people would read your favorite, old and cheap as dirt, garbage if schools and universities wouldn´t buy this ridiculous, bad writing (fueled by nationalism, pride about the big sons (why no sisters?), each nation on earth with its own, terrible, old big prodigies of writing weird, boring, bad concoctions because they were the only freaking, elitist people writing something centuries or decades ago) to torture helpless young people and make them hate reading for the rest of their lives. Close to nobody! And honestly, what´s wrong with you ever so sophisticated literary critics, fine arts professors, and wannabe pseudo intellectuals, looking down at literature that kids love and that´s made for them while promoting the haters troll train that bores them out, steals their time, and makes them functional illiterates? Go, Harry, transform them from the inside out into the slimy, stinky creatures they truly are. That escalated quickly.

Looking at a kind of big history picture of the socio cultural impact of one of the most successful fantasy series ever, one could ironically say, that it´s the ultimate, exaggerated interpretation of what could be behind the words, using soft sciences and magics. Maybe doing so is wrong, true, ingenious, stupid, deep, a waste of time, however, how audiences perceive and philosophy about groundbreaking works, by reflecting its impact, is maybe one of the greatest extra joys of reading.

One of the coolest magic tricks would be to reactivate the fully immersive flow and flash of reading when young, but I can at least feed on the reminiscences of already quite blurry pictures and sharpen them while rereading one of the most groundbreaking fantasy works ever that helped make hundreds of millions of kids, and the one or other adult, avid readers.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon...

It is a bewildered girl who writes this. After all, her mind reasons, isn’t this THE children’s series? The best thing to have hit the bookstores since Narnia? There must be something tragically wrong with me. Surely my mind has twisted this into something other than what’s really there. Right?

Unfortunately, I don’t think so. You see, I’ve realised something. I might only have just finished book one (yeah, I’m just a little behind the times), but I’ve realised something. Harry Potter is a Mary Sue, Gary Stu, Marty Stu, whatever you want to call him. Let me say it again.

HARRY POTTER IS A SUE.

No wonder it was boring and bothering me so much. I can hear you future readers (at present I have exactly none) demanding to know why, just why, I think he is a Sue, and how dare I? Those of you who haven’t fainted, that is.

*puts on mafia boss accent* You wanna know why? Let me count the ways. If you could just keep track on your fingers–oh, it looks like you’ll need your toes as well–that would be really helpful.

Right. Here we go.

1. He’s hated by all the nasty (some of them ridiculously evil) people.

2. And liked by all the good ones.

3. He has a cool scar, black hair, and green eyes. Like, yeah. He looks cool. This is the reason I stay away from the black hair/green eyes combo in my own writing: it’s really something that gets doled out by most authors to their specialest favouritest characters. And boy, is Harry Potter special or what?

4. He’s famous. Not only that, but everyone bows to him in the street. I think we just discovered Buddha’s successor.

5. He’s rich. Insanely rich. What are the odds?

6. He got into the best school for magic around. Without even applying.

7. He’s a Gryffindor, the most fantabulous house in the school.

8. He’s fantastic at broomsticking even though he’s never had any practice whatsoever.

9. Immediately, instead of getting punished for breaking the rules, he gets put on the Quidditch team even though it’s unheard of for someone so young to be there. And this is after the teacher sees one single display of catching a Remembrall. Ever heard of beginners’ luck? Adrenaline-fuelled ability, perhaps? Heightened senses? With all this, she still decides that Harry should be in the Quidditch team.

10. Continuing the theme of complete and utter Sueness: FREE BROOMSTICK! Not only that, it’s the latest in broomstick technology.

11. He got given his broomstick by a teacher. I will leave you to guess the phrase that applies here. Starts with ‘t’ and ends with ‘eacher’s pet’. Wow. You got it. Tell me, have you applied for Mensa yet?

12. He then impresses everybody on the Quidditch team with his special specialness to such an extent that he’s likened to the greatest Quidditch player in a hundred years (who was also definitely older than Harry when he played Quidditch).

13. Invisible cloak. He’s got all this, and then to add to it, he gets an invisible cloak.

14. He’s smart.

15. He’s brave.

16. He’s good at magic. These last three combined are a Sueness Overload in themselves.

17. And yet, even with all these qualities, he’s so generous and brave, is purported to have such good judgement, etc., that you feel as if the urge to like him is being shoved down your throat, stirred until properly combined, and left to set for three hours.

18. This is the part that made me almost throw up: Hermione, for no good reason, throws her arms around Harry and tells him how great he is, and that she’s basically not worth half of what he is. Just stuff some more Sueness down our throats, why don’t you, J?

19. Harry just escaped major Sue-ity again because Neville Longbottom’s final points are the ones that win Gryffindor the House Cup/Trophy/thing. Still, Ron and Hermione win a generic fifty points each. Harry, of course, has to get sixty. Minor Sue-ness.

20. Yeah, he loses Gryffindor a massive 150 points, but he gets it all back, doesn’t he? Being treated like an outcast doesn’t really seem to have made an impression on him at all.

21. Instead of being punished for heading into the third-floor corridor, he is rewarded. Now, make no mistake, I do see that there are times when we should break the rules for the right reasons. But surely, to maintain order, shouldn’t the ‘perpetrators’ be punished on the surface of things? Surely Harry should be given grunt work or detention or something, right? Wrong.

22. The way he was saved from the evil Lord Voldemort is by nothing other than Pure Love. *cue sparkles*

23. Dumbledore turns out to have given Harry the cloak. Surely, having been a teacher for many years, he would recognise what mischief kids get up to, and would really NOT want a boy whose friends include the brother of Fred and George Weasley to have access to an invisible cloak. Or, if it comes to that, any kid at all. T-E-A-C-H-E-R-S-P-E-T.

I wouldn’t care if HP only displayed a couple of these characteristics, but he’s got the whole lot! The thing that really drives me up the wall is that surely this should be the ultimate guide for what not to do when writing a book, and yet… and yet… it’s a bestseller. It’s not sour grapes that keep me writing this post. It’s sheer confuzzled amazement.

The writing style is boring and forgettable. No description to speak of, no real thoughts. There are some allusions to historical figures and terms, and so on, but they aren’t presented in an interesting way. And couldn’t we have at least met Nicholas Flamel?

The morals in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone are negligible at best. It’s just me, me, me propaganda in disguise—one lying, sneaking, and even ‘immobilising’ episode after another. And that’s from the so-called ‘good’ characters.

Cliché after cliché abounds in this book. It’s there in Dumbledore’s white beard. It’s there in Harry’s surprisingly quick Quidditch triumph. It’s there in Professor Quirrel’s turban. And most of all, it’s there in Draco Malfoy, a character so flat he could’ve been made out of paper and then run over with a steamroller and his original shape would have been slightly rounder.

Added to which, the plot is so unoriginal. Can anyone say ‘Cinderella’? Orphaned child mysteriously left with a mean, boring family who doesn’t want him and treats him terribly. Discovers that he really belongs to a world beyond his wildest dreams. And that he’s very, very rich. Almost immediately, he’s at home there. Sure, he has his enemies, but who doesn’t? And they get dealt with anyway. Added to which, it turns out that his parents are super-cool.

If that’s original, then I’m Neville Longbottom’s true love. Turns out everybody who keeps calling this original is Neville's honeybunchkins.

I had to struggle to finish this book. Really struggle. I had it out from the library for nine weeks because I kept putting it down for ten days or so, then realizing I should probably finish it to see if it got better. I’d pick it up and realise that I’d forgotten what had happened before, meaning I had to go back to the beginning and start all over again. This, as you may well imagine, drove me nuts.

Eventually, with the help of SparkNotes, I managed to figure it out and I’ve just taken book 2 out of the library. I’m wondering if it gets any better. After all, J.K. Rowling’s run out of Cinderella storyline. Considering how much people love this series (to me at this point in time, they are inexplicably popular), I’m not going to end with a pessimistic “I don’t think so”. I might go with something more like this:

It’s got to, right? Right???

--------

*Disclaimer: As I am not at this point in time a Harry Potter fan, I’ve probably gotten a couple of things wrong, although I’ve checked and double-checked to the best of my ability. (If you see any errors, please comment and let me know.) However, even if a few things are a bit off, there are still about twenty points on this list. Surely that’s enough to merit consideration anyway.

We don't support transphobes in this house

i think everyone has that one book that made you fall in love with reading, one book that opened your eyes to a world beyond the one in which you live, one book that burrowed itself inside your heart and became a part of you, one book that will forever feel like coming home every time you read it.

i know im not original when i say harry potter is that one book (and series) for me, but this is what got me into reading. it gave me a childhood far more magical and imaginative than i could have ever asked for. the series taught me the value of empathy, that courage comes in many different forms, the importance of having and being a true friend, that love is the greatest power above all, and most importantly, it taught me to believe in magic. i would not be who i am today without this book and i love that stories have the power to do that, to change lives for the better.

i owe so much to this little book that became such a massive part of my life. and to think it all started with a young boy who lived under the stairs. <3

↠ 5 stars

As wonderful and magical as promised. Because I didn't remember the movie, the third act of the book was a delightful surprise to me.

I wish I'd had this book when I was a kid, because the idea that someone could be special without knowing it, and then get to visit a special world where the things that made him different were the same things that made him awesome would have been really inspiring to me.

Anne's finishing this, too, and I have to wait for her before I start in on the second book ... HURRY UP ANNE!

Can 35 Million Book Buyers Be Wrong? Yes.

Taking arms against Harry Potter, at this moment, is to emulate Hamlet taking arms against a sea of troubles. By opposing the sea, you won't end it. The Harry Potter epiphenomenon will go on, doubtless for some time, as J. R. R. Tolkien did, and then wane.

The official newspaper of our dominant counter-culture, The New York Times, has been startled by the Potter books into establishing a new policy for its not very literate book review. Rather than crowd out the Grishams, Clancys, Crichtons, Kings, and other vastly popular prose fictions on its fiction bestseller list, the Potter volumes will now lead a separate children's list. J. K. Rowling, the chronicler of Harry Potter, thus has an unusual distinction: She has changed the policy of the policy-maker.

Imaginative Vision

I read new children's literature, when I can find some of any value, but had not tried Rowling until now. I have just concluded the 300 pages of the first book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," purportedly the best of the lot. Though the book is not well written, that is not in itself a crucial liability. It is much better to see the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," than to read the book upon which it was based, but even the book possessed an authentic imaginative vision. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" does not, so that one needs to look elsewhere for the book's (and its sequels') remarkable success. Such speculation should follow an account of how and why Harry Potter asks to be read.

The ultimate model for Harry Potter is "Tom Brown's School Days" by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. The book depicts the Rugby School presided over by the formidable Thomas Arnold, remembered now primarily as the father of Matthew Arnold, the Victorian critic-poet. But Hughes' book, still quite readable, was realism, not fantasy. Rowling has taken "Tom Brown's School Days" and re-seen it in the magical mirror of Tolkein. The resultant blend of a schoolboy ethos with a liberation from the constraints of reality-testing may read oddly to me, but is exactly what millions of children and their parents desire and welcome at this time.

In what follows, I may at times indicate some of the inadequacies of "Harry Potter." But I will keep in mind that a host are reading it who simply will not read superior fare, such as Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" or the "Alice" books of Lewis Carroll. Is it better that they read Rowling than not read at all? Will they advance from Rowling to more difficult pleasures?

Rowling presents two Englands, mundane and magical, divided not by social classes, but by the distinction between the "perfectly normal" (mean and selfish) and the adherents of sorcery. The sorcerers indeed seem as middle-class as the Muggles, the name the witches and wizards give to the common sort, since those addicted to magic send their sons and daughters off to Hogwarts, a Rugby school where only witchcraft and wizardry are taught. Hogwarts is presided over by Albus Dumbeldore as Headmaster, he being Rowling's version of Tolkein's Gandalf. The young future sorcerers are just like any other budding Britons, only more so, sports and food being primary preoccupations. (Sex barely enters into Rowling's cosmos, at least in the first volume.)

----------------------------

The first half of a little piece I wrote from the Journal in July 2000. Rest is available at [http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/courses/205...].

These Are The Stories Before We Had SmartPhones

Many years ago, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when it was first published in the US, before the movie, before all of the fame and merchandising opportunities. Initially, when I read it, I devoured it in two days. Now that I am old, well as old as Megan Fox, I wanted to hate on the author but couldn't.

JK Rowling makes writing look easy. Her prose is easy to read out loud, very smooth. Although the world that she has created is magical, it isn't confusing or that difficult to imagine unlike LOTR or Dune. The book is also incredibly fast paced. Many of the fantasy books that I have read have at least 100 pages to warm up. So how does the author make us want to root or cheer for Harry? How do we become invested in him? He is an orphan and an abused orphan at that. On the one hand, this formula definitely works, but isn't it a little over done? JK Rowling also sets up some beautiful scenes like when Harry is receiving his invitation to Hogwarts. How many people actually try that hard? When Ron and Harry discover that Hermione is in danger, they both go to assist her. However, most people these days would go, "Oh well." Sorry my INFJ is showing.

There were a few things that I didn't like:
*Why does JK Rowling hate cats? Mr Dursley sees something odd, a cat reading a map. My cats play chess, play the piano, watch TV, and once even typed "hi" on my computer. I don't find reading a map to be a bit strange at all. Maybe my house is just brimming with magic and as a muggle I just don't know about it? Mrs. Figg also made Harry look at photographs of all of the cats that she has ever owned. As if that is some sort of punishment!
*How Hermione is treated. When Ron and Harry are in trouble, Ron screams at her, "Have you gone mad? Are you a witch or not?" Um Ron, if you treat me like, you can save yourself. At the end of the book, Hermione is never fully rewarded for her portion in saving Ron and Harry, just figuring out the riddle. Even after she was a better person than I.
*Quidditch and chess - not really my thing although this opened up a brilliant line of merchandising for the author.
*Some things didn't make sense to me. Why was there a sip of the potions left? Why exactly was Dudley so popular at school?

Now, I think a trip to Orlando is in order to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango

5 Golden Stars

98%

this book is the Magical gate to the Wizarding World.
introducing this amazing unique world to us.

(all my HP reviews were written after many times read, not first, first was back in early 2000s)

This book,
All these books,
This world,
Always has a special place in my heart.❤


this review is mostly about my memories/feelings, I just wanted to have them somewhere.
"Swish & Flick!"

Many of us dreamed of receiving our letter, going to Hogwarts, learning magic. we bought our wands. we were ready to experience magic.

but you know...
We actually received our letter
We found platform 9¾
We attended Hogwarts
We were sorted into Houses
We were there together
all along
with Harry Potter

because...

★ We
Are
★ Potterheads

as Stephen King said:
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”

& Martin said:

“A reader lives a thousand of lives.”


so don't be sad potterheads, we were there!




actually HP1 was the first 'novel' of my life. the one that made me a Fantasy lover & a BookDragon! the one that introduced the world of bigger books & magic. I was 9, summer 2001 & it was my (very) belated birthday gift (& I'm grateful for that); long ago, before there was a hype, 1st movie was about to come out. so I just read this one book I had again & again & again... (I guess I bought 2nd soon after, & re-read them together :D)
I remember my feelings at the first read; like I was thrilled because I thought that 'H' on the seal was because of Harry's initial.


Take me back to my childhood, when everything seemed simpler...
I've grown up with this series & loved every minutes of it.
this book & this series never gets old. still as excellent as my first read, even though I know all the details & even many of the sentences.


fun great beginning
Cute story, magical, brilliant, unique with many lovable characters in a magnificent castle & wonderful world.

n  "Hogwarts will always be there to Welcome you Home"n

every chapters; amazing. interesting. intriguing!
Wonderful!
Epic!
Wow!!!
Quidditch!
Friendship!

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”

I love this quote!

I enjoy these stories happening in this world, the real world.
also the ones you can be sorted in the story & feel you are really there.

cute courageous & (yeah I'm gonna say it, because he is in the great matters of life) wise Harry
loyal daring Ron
& smart book lover Hermione
hilarious twins!
Lee Jordan's commentating!
Professor McGonagall!
Wood!
oh Hagrid! XD

the learning magic was lovely & the plot twists kept me open-mouthed!

After this many times re-read (which is not accurate, but I know I read them a lot! so I estimated each year that I read, before new books coming out, every summer at least for the first couple of years, & here I am, 20 re-read for the first book.) I actually knew most of the sentences & of course I know what would happen next, but it is still as interesting & cute as the first time, even if the element of surprise is long gone for me; but I can completely remember which parts I stare at the book with an open mouth. :D
Every time I missed them & start to re-read them, nostalgic & delighted, I am that 9 yo little girl who loved this world, which crafted my childhood & teenage years, majority of my life & memory, teaching me many things.

14th re-read: June 2018 was my first time that I tried HP in English (after so many times reading; 11 times for book 1 & 2 to 5-6 times for book 6 & 7) & I can say it was even more AMAZING. <3
Audiobook is like reading in the dark, isn't it?; you don't need light to stay up all night reading. XD
-
World building: ★★★★★/5
Plot: ★★★★/5
Characters: ★★★★★/5
/ Characters development: ★★★★★/5
Written style: ★★★★(★)/5
/ Fun: ★★★★/5
/ Feelz (mostly Joy, like when "yer a wizard Harry" but first chapter made me cry too (I loved James & he was dead from the beginning of story (I loved him since my first read, before knowing him as a marauder. & I know that's kind of weird... also... James & Lily were only 21)

it's absolutely fun and great read , but everyone knows that it's a fun book about friendship, adventures, hard work, and destiny.There's nothing.I can say that everyone  else has said before me

We had this edition but it went missing. So we bought this as replacement. Very pleased with it!