Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Darrell71 »

I'm a proud HufflePuff too! But I wouldn't mind being a Gryffindor either, but only because Harry is there.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Ming »

My younger brother is a Ravenclaw and he is distraught that Ravenclaw is at the moment second on the house points and that Slytherin, despite winning two house cups, is lagging at the bottom. He tries to undermine Hufflepuff by duelling them so Slytherin can jump ahead, but of course, he doesn't realize he's actually giving Hufflepuff 5 points each time he does a spell. :lol:
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Darrell71 »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: lol! Say thanks to your bro from us hufflepuffs!
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by 7upromana01 »

I love how Hufflepuff have players that have only 50,000 points but we've got more people with 50,000
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Lenoir »

At last I can read through this thread, having finished reading the last book in the series yesterday without knowing anything about the outcome. (Note, I am giving a few things away about the last book).

I read the first book about 2000 or 01 out of curiosity. Harry Potter was big at the time. It was the first time I’d read a children’s book by a new author. I thought it was quite good but it was a few years before I read the second book, and then I gradually got going and I think I read the last 3 within the past year. I just had to find out how it all ended.
I found some of it heavy going at times, and I got a bit muddled as the plots seemed to be too complicated. But the stories and characters were always good enough to keep me going and I enjoyed the humour, even if I didn’t enjoy all the wizardry. There were many exciting bits as well.

It was interesting now to read through the old posts, and find out that quite a few people liked Snape. I kind of liked him too, and felt a bit of sympathy for him when I read how he was treated in his schooldays. I thought if Dumbledore trusted him, then he must be secretly working for him. Even when he killed Dumbledore, I thought or hoped it might be a set up somehow. But at the start of the last book it seemed I had been wrong, as he was so obviously working against Harry and co. I was therefore pleased when the truth came out, not that I guessed the rest of the details of course. It’s very rare for me to be right about something like that.
It was a tense and fitting finish to the series. I half-thought Harry might have to die towards the end - it looked that way. I do think too many people were killed, and maybe there could have been another scene where they all got together again, but on the whole it was a terrific climax.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Farwa »

I'm so glad there's a topic on Harry Potter! I absolutely love the Harry Potter series! When I read the first book, I wasn't willing to accept that this was actually as good as Enid Blyton's books, but when I was gifted the second book, I decided that the series would get in my top three most favourite books. And now, I am the biggest fan of Harry Potter!
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Fiona1986 »

I'm planning a re-read of the series soon (it will be my third time reading them).
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Katharine »

My son and I watched the films recently. Took us several weeks though, as we never had time to watch a whole one in one sitting.

I've been re-reading the books again, but it's literally taken me a couple of years this time I think. I used to read while my son had his weekly swimming lesson, but he stopped that a year ago, so I haven't read much since. I took Order of the Phoenix on holiday with me last week, but we were so busy, that I only had time to read the first chapter.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by burlingtonbertram »

I quite enjoyed each film as a one-off but usually fall asleep at some point if made to re-watch.

I got into the books fairly late (somewhere around number four). I was surprised that I took to them because I prefer reality with a dose of fantasy, whereas the HP books seem to me to be fantasy with a dose of reality. That might seem a fine distinction but it makes sense to me anyway.

I've only kept the last two because they are hard-backed first editions. I aren't really sure why because there are so many million HP first editions kicking about I don't expect they'll ever be worth much. One of them has the error in the number of qualifications that Hermione attained so I am hoping that might add a quid or so to the value in later years.

The school-story genre had really died a bit of a death in modern times. The strong tradition that, I guess, started with Tom Brown and ran right through to Enid Blyton's Malory books really had dipped. I suppose, in this more egalitarian age, fewer people want to read about public schoolchildren. JKR cleverly took out the monied element and replaced it with magic giving it a universal appeal. One of the only archetypal public schoolboys is Malfoy who is a nastly little weasel. If he was real, no doubt he would end up in David Cameron's cabinet. Malfoy reminds me very much of Michael Doyle, the 'baddy' in the BBC's Grange Hill (1978-81) whose father was a councillor. I wonder if the one character had any influence on the other?

Like Enid, JKR stuck to the well-established tradition of disposing of parents, one way or another, to give her protagonists a freer hand for their adventures.

I remember queuing at midnight to get the last book at Tesco, which was sort of exciting, being a part of a publishing phenomenon.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Moonraker »

I enjoyed reading them at the time, but have never felt the need to read them again.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Poppy »

I could never really get into the Harry Potter books (I read the first one but never really felt the need to read the rest of the series) but I did enjoy the films up until the sixth (Half-Blood Prince) one, when I began to loose track of all the complicated, advanced happenings and the characters became almost unrecognisable. I like the films best when they are based around the school, but of course the seventh one doesn't include the school at all, and the sixth one very little, in my point of view. After all it is the fact that the stories are based around a school of magic, which makes them so original and unique. Of course most readers are fascinated by the character and life of Harry Potter, but personally, I love the films because of the antics of a magic school - the bizarre lessons, the amusing games of Quidditch and the overall general life at Hogwarts. I think, of all the films, Chamber of Secrets (2) or Goblet of Fire (4) were my favourite because the storylines were interestingly complex, (but not too confusing) and entertaining. The problem with these films is that they are so long! They're all two hours +!
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

burlingtonbertram wrote:Malfoy reminds me very much of Michael Doyle, the 'baddy' in the BBC's Grange Hill (1978-81) whose father was a councillor.
I've always been struck by that resemblance too. One of Malfoy's sidekicks is called Goyle, which echoes the name "Doyle".
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by burlingtonbertram »

That's a good point about Goyle; not spotted that.

I'm inclined to agree with Poppy; I prefer the ones set in the school. The story, when outside of the school, loses some of it's charm for me.
Last edited by burlingtonbertram on 10 Aug 2014, 16:35, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The name "Goyle" also makes me think of gargoyles. One of the joys of reading the Harry Potter series is that J. K. Rowling put a great deal of thought into the names of characters and places.
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Re: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Post by burlingtonbertram »

It's quite an amusing game, spotting the source of the names. I seem to remember that I came across one or two of the more obscure ones in The Iliad. Can't remember which though, off the top of my head.
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