Harry Potter

[SteveDallas]

I was a bit surprised that in almost a week since the Harry Potter book came out nobody has mentioned it, either to praise the book, diss it, or just to complain about all the hype and hoopla. So what's the deal?

[elSicomoro]

File me under "Who gives a fuck?"

I'm sure it's a great book...maybe I'll read the set one of these days.

Lemme guess...you were at B&N at midnight last Friday.

[elSicomoro]

For that matter, there are several issues we haven't discussed this week, like the various SC decisions.

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by sycamore
Lemme guess...you were at B&N at midnight last Friday.

I wasn't... tho what I did do may or may not qualify as more fanatical depending on your point of view! I'm ancient, you know, I can't stay up till midnight any more.

Anyhoo, I got kind of irked when the first book came out and they changed the title for the American market because they thought we couldn't deal with the "Philosopher's Stone". So I ordered it from Amazon UK instead of buying it here. I continued the tradition with the other books, and the latest one ought to be here next week sometime.

[wolf]

Mine was preordered from amazon.com. It arrived on Saturday, while I was at Plastic Forks. (A neighbor kindly brought it in out of the rain for me, so I wasn't reading a soggy copy. )

I started reading it on Monday, and finished yesterday.

I can't say that it's my favorite of the series (I think any of the critics who are calling it the "best yet" have received large giftbaskets full of fruit and booze from the publisher) but it's definitely good.

The books are definitely fun ... I'm also watching my friend's son enjoy the series. He's not a particularly great reader, although he's vastly improving, partly with the help of Harry and friends. His love of the story is transferring quite nicely to an enjoyment of reading in general.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bought it at Pathmark on Saturday morning along with the horseradish chedder for Forks. Haven't gotten around to it yet. I started the series on the recomendation of a school teacher friend. I was and am increasingly put off by the hoopla but she assured me they were just fun to read and she was right. I'm not concerned with literary merit or social chic so I find as the hoopla increases the less I mention it to people.

[headsplice]

Since I also read the sci-fi equivalent of romance novels, I have to say that I enjoy the Harry Potter series. In now way can it be considered great literature, at the same time, at least kids are reading something rather than just completely vegging in front of the stupid-machine. All things considered, which would you rather have? A twelve-year-old that's into Harry Potter, or one that's into Britney Spears and 'N Sync?

[SteveDallas]

What do you mean by "the sci-fi equivalent of romance novels"? Probably my favorite writer of the moment is Lois McMaster Bujold, and I understand she has something of a cross-over audience in romance readers.

[wolf]

Originally posted by headsplice
Since I also read the sci-fi equivalent of romance novels,

You read Darkover and Pern too, eh?

(I'm also interested in finding out which authors you mean here ...)

[headsplice]

I'm referring to space operas, like the Lensman series, Deathstalker, Star Wars, that kind of thing. Heavy on action, poor writing, brain fluff type stuff. I read weighty stuff too, but these take my mind away from reality.
And they have fewer calories than Warsteiner.

[warch]

Last Saturday, a 11 year old neighbor kid, comes running down the sidewalk to show me her copy of the new book. This kid has lots of challenges, only some are academic, but she's more than a year behind in her reading. She was so motivated. She'd made a special bookmark in anticipation, and it rested between the first few pages. I asked her if she was going to read all 700 or so. Yep! (even though she's heard there may be more scarey parts), then went off to get reading. Kids loving, wanting to read, lost in imagination- so great.

Ive read the books so far, (I wait for the library) and have enjoyed them all, just like a kid.

[russotto]

I bought Harry Potter 5 first day it was out. Wasn't planning on it but I went into the grocery store and there it was, staring at me. Finished it. It was good, but fairly predictable and had some plot holes you could drive a truck through.

As for SF Romance, someone on another forum who reads both claims that "A Civil Campaign" actually follow the Regency formula. Also I have the latest in the Skolia series (Asaro) sitting at home waiting to be read (though unfortunately that series has declined since "Radiant Seas")

[Elspode]

Okay...I and my family were at B&N at midnight, but we weren't smart enough to have reserved a copy in advance, so all we could do was watch the amazing parade of pop-culture obsessed humanity (ourselves included).

To make a long story short, we don't buy the books, we buy the audio books on tape, and I obtained a copy of that a couple of days later. We're on Chapter 4, and all I can say so far is this:

1) We have a much edgier Harry on our hands.
2) I'm almost certain that JK Rowling did not write all of this book.

[vsp]

I haven't read any of them yet. I may pick up the first one at some point, just to see what all the fuss is about. I saw about twenty seconds of the first movie on a display in K-Mart the other night.

I think the main reason I've avoided the series to date is that I'm highly allergic to hype and obsessive fandom. I'm weird that way. I have not watched any of the Star Wars movies beyond the first, and avoid post-Wrath of Khan Star Trek byproducts with a passion. I greatly enjoy Tolkien's books (the Silmarillion is on my dresser as I speak), yet I've avoided the movies; I already have a mental picture of how the story went, thenkyew. I loathed much of the Matrix, and couldn't grasp what everyone else saw in it. I haven't watched a minute of Survivor, Buffy or American Idol, except for the last few minutes of the first Survivor's climactic episode to see if the fat naked guy I'd heard about would win (and that only because my father had it on, and I walked into the room).

Oddly, I don't get quite the same "CA$H COW" vibe out of Potter that I do from many of the above, though it's obviously being milked for maximum marketing appeal. I don't know why, but I sense that there's something of substance tucked behind the buybuybuy mania.

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by russotto

As for SF Romance, someone on another forum who reads both claims that "A Civil Campaign" actually follow the Regency formula.

Color me clueless.. what's the Regency formula?