Just Wild About Harry

I decided to re-read the various Harry Potter books (J.K. Rowling) for two reasons. One, I just finished watching the third movie (and re-watched the first two movies during my weekend shifts). A good job, overall. The change in directors (and one actor) was not obtrusive. However, they better get cracking on filming the remaining books. Those kids are starting to grow up faster than the books are being filmed!

I first read Sorcerer's Stone when it came out in 1998 (American edition). This was before the craze had gripped us. I enjoyed the book, thought it rather lightweight, but enjoyed it.

Now we've got bookstores staying up until midnight when a new volume comes out and the next installment (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) is perpetually poised at the top of Amazon.com's bestseller list...months before it gets released.

So, what do I think of the book with all this buzz and three movies? I still like it. I still think its rather lightweight, but I still enjoyed it. Rowling manages to toss all sorts of fantasy elements into the pot without regard for real consistency and manages to make it work with a page-turner of a book (even though I had read it previously and have seen the movie more than once at this point, I still raced through to see if it would all turn out right in the end!) The writing is crude compared to folks in the field that I admire (e.g., Tolkien, Leiber, Hodgell, Hughart and others), but its fun.

I'm all for these books, and encourage J.K. Rowling to keep on rolling. Anything to get kids reading these days should be encouraged, not banned, due to allegations of black magic and all that rot (allegations leveled, probably, by those who have not read the books).

One thing that amazes me is to line up the volumes (one to five) and see how they keep growing. Volumes one and two are roughly the same size. Volume three starts the growth spurt...it is maybe 25% (not even) thicker than the first two. Volume four, look out! Ditto volume five. How big will volume six be?

Two more entries in the reading list for the year, both by J.K. Rowling, both re-reads. The first was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the second was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was especially interesting to re-read these as (a) I had not read them since they first came out; and, (b) I was working from the perspective (as with the re-read of the first book) having better memories of the movies than of the books.

As most of the folks who read this blog have probably encountered the Potter marketing machine in some form or another, I won't go into much detail. Overall, I enjoyed reading the books again, having forgotten enough plot details to make many things a surprise the second time around. If I was bothered by anything, it is Rowling's tendency to make too many things "cute" (names of creatures, names of spells, etc.). Reading one of the series, it isn't bothersome. Reading two back-to-back and you get a bit irked.

One thing that I thought interesting was how much had been trimmed out of the third film when I re-read the third book. Nothing vital was really taken out, but I think that I would have liked some of the background information (e.g., the origin of the map that Fred and George Weasley pass on to Harry) in the third movie. I also think that some of the "end game" was better played out in the book than the movie.

On to the Goblet of Fire (after, probably, a break for some non-Harry Potter reading!)!

After plowing quickly through the first three volumes of the Harry Potter series, I came to the two doorstops: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Scholastic Press, 2000) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Scholastic Press, 2003).

I found Goblet, overall, to be a better book than Phoenix. We'll get to that in a moment.

Both of these are "bridge" books. Rowling has stated that the series will be seven books long, one for each of Harry's years at Hogwarts. So, like The Empire Strikes Back or The Two Towers, we've got to have a bridge between the set up and the climax. Sometimes an author (or filmmaker) succeeds, sometimes not so much.

Goblet broke some of the mold set up in the first three books. We still have a bit with Harry's "muggle" family, but Harry gets to go to the World Quidditch Cup. There a few things happen to indicate that our big nasty bad guy is on the move again. Harry returns to school where he gets thrown into the midst of a contest that he should not have been involved in. Eventually there's a big showdown with you-know-who and you-know-who returns to human form, although his ultimate triumph (getting rid of Harry) is thrawted. Overall, as a bridge book, it works. There's enough interesting new stuff to keep you moving, but no real resolution. You're nicely set up for the two book climax.

With Phoenix, things dragged a bit. Weighing in over 800 pages, there's a lot of bridge to cross here. The first 350 pages I found a bit annoying. Harry is such a git that you want to strangle him at times. It's not until he takes things into his own hands, and starts to fight back the forces of stupidity (descended upon Hogwarts from the Ministry of Magic), that things get interesting. There are a number of neat new characters (starting to appeal to a older crowd), some love interest, and even what will be (if done right) a nifty battle that will film nicely. However, even after the book picks up, Harry gets into annoying mode. I'm not sure if Rowling was trying for major character development or what, but overall, it came off making me want to race through the book instead of enjoying the book.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The latest installment in the series. One tale to go! While I enjoyed it, not much really happens here until the end of the book. Much of the tale explains the origins of Lord Valdemort. An enjoyable tale, but I wonder how it will translate to the big screen when it makes it there.

Will Rowling be able to write anything that follows on to these books?

2010 Update: Finally got The Young Lady interested in the books—she asked to see the movies, after we watched several, I started re-reading the books and she picked up the first as well. We're now "racing" through the series, discussing it. So far, I have re-read: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (Mention here.)