Good timing you posted this. Since I'm looking for more movies to rent, I was just going to ask if the Potter stuff is really that wonderful. I've never read a bit of this stuff and really have no interest in it, but I'm always looking for a good movie.

PS I have a tendency to stay away from anything with such mass appeal. The more hype, the faster I run away.

Kevin

Usually I'm the same way, I've never even been on MySpace! But I actually started reading the first Potter book before it got so famous, and they really are good. The movies are excellent, they stick so close to the books. Even my sister, who is a big snob about reading books then criticizing the movie version, thinks the movies are fantastic, and she hated the Lord of the Rings series because they changed so much!

Definitely rent the first 4 movies, then go see #5 at an Imax theatre. The last 25 minutes are in 3d!

My other half loves the books and reads them religiously. I only see the movies. (Sorry..Lord of the Rings fan here.)

Read it through in less than a week...am reading it again...always find something that I've missed, or had forgotten the second time around!
Loved the books, love the movies...want to read the whole series again...after all, it has been six years since the first one came out! :D

I read the last one in 2.5 days. Sadly, the last few chapters were read after 2am...so I was a little muddled about the details. I'll definitely have to read it again.

I think the first two movies are just about identical to the books, so I would just watch them, and then pick up the books with #3. It really starts to get good with book three, and they get exponentially better from there. However, while the movies have been really good, they have had to cut out a LOT from each one. The current movie, i estimate they cut out pretty much every other chapter. Still a great movie.

This is blasphemy, I admit, but i actually said to some fellow Pott-heads, that the Potter series may actually be BETTER than LOTR. Yea, Clint, I said it. And i've read the trilogy at least nine times, so i'm a true believer. Potter really is THAT good. You get totally swept away in the characters, the world, and the plot. The overall plot is truly remarkable. It doesn't have quite the sense of 'true' history and depth that LOTR has, but the creativity is astounding and in many ways Potter packs a much bigger emotional punch. It is great, and I used to be a nay-sayer. :)
-MB

Here, Here Breezy! I concur!
Patty

I'm tempted to agree with mrbreeze too. Having read LOTR numerous times as well as the Silmarillion, some Unfinished Tales, etc. I appreciate the world and history he created. But there are times when I'm reading and I'm thinking "OK, do we really need so many pages describing walking down a path and what side the trees are on and what hill they see in the distance and then the path goes up and the trees change and the air is cooler but then they round a hill and start down again and bla bla bla bla."

I was afraid to look at this thread as I had to wait a week to start HP7 after I got it and thought there might be some spoilers let slip here. I am now almost 1/2 way done. I don't think it will ruin it for anyone who has not read it all yet to say I'm repeatedly suprised how she is still bringing in people/things/events that were almost throwaway mentions in passing as far back as the first book that turn out to have some significance. Clearly a lot of complex outlining was done before she started writing.

Just finished.

Wow.

Did Harry get laid? Is that the big mystery?

:p Kevin

Let's just say that 'expelliarmus' is not the only spell Harry knows with his ...wand.

Ginny Weasley may not speak parceltongue...but she's still a 'snake charmer'.

There is a rumor that Harry found a new use for the room of requirement.

ok...i'm stopping there. :)
-MB

I haven't read that yet (mostly because there are too many people nagging me to read it. I have two copies at home so it's not for lack of materials.)

The Golden Compass is my new favourite guilty pleasure. It's too good.

Ooooooo! Golden Compassssssss.....

I'm curious to see how they can make a movie out of that series. I don't know anybody local who would go see it with me. Maybe if I point out its freethought basis and tell them it's got the fundies' undies in a bundle I could interest some friends.

Exactly. I wish I knew some children i could recommend this to; it's such a good story, and the vocabulary is quite astonishing.
I'm telling everyone at work to read it, and it's working not too badly.

That's funny I'm probably going to go see it with about six other people!

My niece talked me into reading one and now I'm hooked. Have read them all and am still on the library waiting list for the newest - 200 still ahead of me! I have even gone so far as to check out the audio books from the library. The reader is awesome. Very entertaining.

Hehehehehe.....

Sorry, can't help it (we are on the 'dark side' after all), I bloody hate Harry bleedin' Potter. I have friends whom I consider to be intelligent and well-read who carry on endlessly, (one is reading them in Italian), and the communal theme is how the subsequent books mature and get darker and yadda yadda....

I just don't understand how they got beyond the first book, or why they bothered; and become increasingly mystified at how they were compelled by the second one to read the third. Perhaps the later books are better (I'll never read them-lost interest immediately-maybe if I were 12 again), perhaps the author should have started from the later bits....

But then she's richer than rich, so who am I to judge, other than my own particular tastes?

The Golden Compass series, on the other hand, I'm eager to pursue (read the first one, loved it, why haven't I read the others?).

I will say the Daniel Radcliff (or whatever his name is) Equis (sp?) photos were pleasant to look at.

-O-

well? have you read the rest yet? it's been 4 days.
get on 'em!
They're the best books I've read in ages. A good book really should stand on it's own and not be relegated to an age group.

I too have lost interest in the harry potter phenomenon.
I just don't care anymore.

I'm actually going to see philip pullman speak at the end of the month. i can't wait.

Nope, I've been reading a Bill Bryson book on the English language in the US (excellent but so much info to digest that it's taking me longer than usual-don't like to plough through something like this).

I need to get to the giant used book store. I'm blocks away from the main downtown library branch, but it's appallingly limited in the fiction dept, and I hate ordering and waiting.

-O-

I'd like it if Pullman were speaking near here. Can't find a schedule online anywhere. I was just reading that apparently the film has been watered down to keep from offending the catholic church. *sigh*

*Counting down* six days to philip pullman. I haven't seen an author speak in ages so it should be good fun.

It should be good blustery october weather for it an all.

That's too bad about what they're doing with the movie. I always hope they won't, but you know who'll win that little fight.
It makes me sigh.

Well, the report is in: Pullman. Was. Awesome.

Cool! What did he talk about?

Pullman hasn't offended every religious person. Actually before I'd ever heard of him I'd thought of Unitarian Universalism (and some other liberal denominations, too, in a way) as principled mutiny against an imposter god. I had a minister who talked about the coming commonwealth of God; beat the heck out of a kingdom, and prefigured a republic into the bargain.

"Having read LOTR numerous times as well as the Silmarillion, some Unfinished Tales, etc. I appreciate the world and history he created."

Go Tolkien! Go Lord of the Rings! Go silmarillion!

I also love the Golden Compass. Great story. Harry Potter isn't bad ether.

"she hated the Lord of the Rings series because they changed so much."

They are still tree hours long each! They had to cut a lot so that non LOTR fanatics would watch it. If you watch the extended edition everything is word for word!:)

Sorry guys, but Harry Potter fizzled for me by the 3rd book...I find it so contrived and mentally unstimulating, it's actually a little patronizing!

Loved the Golden Compass....the movie, a little unfortunate. I feel like this discussion has arisen here before, but when the polar bear asks her: "You wish to RIDE me?" I think the theatre cracked up for like 5 minutes.

LOTR - never understood the hype, but after reading it, it is very beautiful writing. It's a pleasure to read, really.

"If you watch the extended edition everything is word for word!:)"

But still no Tom Bombadil! :) He annoyed the snot out of me when I first read the book 30 years ago. Now, on the re-reads, I find him an absolutely fascinating mystery.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Still cant figure out why they would leave him out!