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Harry Potter Books by J. K. Rowling


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I do keep forgetting that there are different versions. It never occured to me that there was another reader for the series, I stand corrected!:D Well, as I cant compare Fry with Dale, I guess I'll have to stick with Dale since he's the only one I've heard:mrgreen:

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I do keep forgetting that there are different versions. It never occured to me that there was another reader for the series, I stand corrected!:D

 

:D Don't worry, I was gobsmacked the first time I heard someone talking about Jim Dale reading the books, thinking "No, no, Stephen Fry reads these, I'm sure that's right?"!

 

Well, as I cant compare Fry with Dale, I guess I'll have to stick with Dale since he's the only one I've heard:mrgreen:

 

It is a shame you can't hear the Stephen Fry version. I've heard lots of parents say it's wonderful for the kids to listen to in the car or before bed, as although he does express the excitement and thrills of the story and characters, he's got a very soothing voice to listen to, and captivates the children keeping them captivated :D The various excerpts of Jim's reading I've heard were a bit manic and overpowering, and seemed to have completely the opposite effect that Stephen's version does.

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I would quite like the audio books, the British version, but it's probably irrational- I'm not sure I'd ever listen to them!

 

oh you would ... Stephen Fry is just fantastic at bringing all the characters to life .. I count it as one of life's great luxuries that I can listen to Stephen reading about Hogwarts.

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Stephen Fry is just fantastic at bringing all the characters to life .. I count it as one of life's great luxuries that I can listen to Stephen reading about Hogwarts.
Oh damn, more pennies I must spend! :friends0: I just have to get these now.
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Oh damn, more pennies I must spend! :friends0: I just have to get these now.

 

I'm in the middle of reading the books (the first time I have read the whole series in order). I would love to have the audio version though. This might be something else to add to my list :D

 

You won't regret it. I had them originally on tape .. but some of them got worn out and started misbehaving .. I've now got some of them on CD ... the first three and the last two .. the longer books are quite expensive on CD though (and by the time I've got them all ... they'll no doubt be available on another format) .. but I wouldn't be without them.

 

Interestingly though .. they're not available for download on Audible.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It's hard to diss Harry Potter - it's an incredible achievement that has completely changed the style and tone of much juvenile fiction - but I thought the last three books failed to live up to the promise set by the first four.

 

I think it collapsed under the weight of its own concepts a bit. By the end, JK Rowling had maybe introduced a few too many completely original ideas that seemed a bit... arbitrary? What I mean is, it's easy to feel emotionally involved if the kids go up against a troll or a giant spider cos these are familiar concepts. But once the plot got bogged down in Hallows and Horcruxes and Patronuses it felt a bit too abstract for me. Maybe that's just me.

 

The final confrontation with Voldemort was a big let down for me. I won't say more in case of spoilers.

 

But regardless of the things I would have liked JK Rowling to do differently, the whole series is, on average, brilliant. The fact that I was slightly disappointed by the last three books is more a comment on how good the first four were.

 

Also, I don't think JK Rowling is a totally fantastic writer of descriptive prose. I find her prose style a tiny bit plain. It does the job, but never made me stop and think, "Wow, what a beautiful passage." However, I think she must write world-beating dialogue or something, because all of her characters seemed so real to me. Part of the joy was just sitting back and reading while Harry, Ron and Hermione had their little rows and disagreements about the most mundane things :)

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I thought the last three books failed to live up to the promise set by the first four
I wholeheartedly agree.

 

Re: Horcruxes - I actually thought that they were a pretty good idea, however the fact that

so many had to be destroyed in so little time made the relative book slow, repetitive and downright confusing. J.K. had an inspired moment when she revealed that Tom Riddle's diary had contained a fragment of Voldemort's soul; in my opinion, she should have kept that trend up: an item vanquished per book, until towards the end of the series we understand we've been gradually killing Voldy all along. Such a structure would have allowed for the last two books to take up half the shelf space, which would in my opinion have kept them from becoming quite ludicrous at times.

 

 

A shame really, as there was much potential to the ending:

Snape... and his case is in point. I could not finish the last two books; I only know about Snape's sad story from spoiler websites.

 

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  • 1 month later...

I am quietly, and pretty much unintentionally re reading the Harry Potter series, currently on Book Four 'HP And The Goblet Of Fire'.

 

I enjoy the shifts in understanding and nuance, and the feelings of comfort reading I am getting from re visiting these book.

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I think I've re-read all HP books for say, 6 or 7 times now? I had never read them until the first film came out, then before the second one came out, I read all books, loved them. I started with reading them translated, I have them all in Dutch. Then when the last book came out I couldn't wait for the translated version (takes at least half a year for that one every time) so I started on the English one. Much better. So now I have about half the books in English too, pretty pretty hardcovers. :friends0:

 

Actually, I liked the later books more, they're just a little heavier and less children's books in my opinion. Also I love that they got bigger as the series continued, bigger books are better in my opinion.

 

But now every once in a while (generally before a new film comes out) I re-read all books except the one of which film it is. (Or else I'll be comparing all during the film, no fun).

 

But these books are great, easy to read in my opinion too, you just race right through them. They're great for when you want to relax, get back into the world of HP, which is brilliant to me. :D

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Now that's unhelpful - having enjoyed 4 HP books out of 7 very, very much, I'd count the name in her favour, not against her. I know that this is her trying to avoid being typecast and becoming the object of the disappointment of those of her fans who were expecting HP 8, but I think that the fans worth worrying about are those that will pick up her next book because she's written it, Potter or no Potter.

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Now that's unhelpful - having enjoyed 4 HP books out of 7 very, very much, I'd count the name in her favour, not against her. I know that this is her trying to avoid being typecast and becoming the object of the disappointment of those of her fans who were expecting HP 8, but I think that the fans worth worrying about are those that will pick up her next book because she's written it, Potter or no Potter.

 

Totally agree ! I would buy any book by her Harry Potter or not!

 

Lisaxx

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Thank you Lisa, my point precisely. What's the use of a huge fanbase if you're not going to make it easy for to keep up with your output? Of course Kylie is right and the truth will out eventually, still, until then we'll be scouring the bookstore, analysing blurbs and muttering to ourselves, 'does this sound Rowlingish?' :friends0: which seems daft to me.

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