Potter-mania
Two weeks to the day after its release, I finally brought home Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from the library yesterday. Needless to say, I started reading it as soon I got home and the characters brought back memories from the previous five books.
I did not read Harry Potter until the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was released. The enormous hype surrounding its release made me buy the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in paperback. I finished it in a couple of days and was blown away. I was dazzled by the magical world created by J.K.Rowlings and was in complete awe of her imagination. Inspite of the children's book tag, I found it to be quite mature and written exceptionally well. I quickly bought and read both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and was among the first few holds in the library when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released. I went a step further and bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the day it was released.
Fantasy novels(LOTR, for instance) create a fictitious world that is completely detached from the real world as we know it. The characters in those books exist in a separate world that has no link to reality. Rowlings' genius lay in the way she placed characters we could identify with in a world of fantasy. Harry Potter is a boy who is ill-treated by relatives, thinks the world of his friends, gets into trouble at school and has trouble adjusting to his popularity and magical powers. This gives the Harry Potter books a personal touch that is lacking in other fantasy novels.
Harry Potter is also proof, if it was ever needed, that movie adaptations could never hope to recreate the experience of reading a book. A book fuels your imagination and a movie, no matter how good the special effects, set design or make up, can never hope to match the images conjured up in our minds. One only has to read about Voldemort in the first Harry Potter and then see the scene where his face is shown in the movie to understand the difference between print and picture!
My favorite Harry Potter so far is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Books 4 and 5 were a tad disappointing after the exhilarating nature of Book 3. I'm hoping that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince offers me the reading experience that Book 3 did.
I did not read Harry Potter until the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, was released. The enormous hype surrounding its release made me buy the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in paperback. I finished it in a couple of days and was blown away. I was dazzled by the magical world created by J.K.Rowlings and was in complete awe of her imagination. Inspite of the children's book tag, I found it to be quite mature and written exceptionally well. I quickly bought and read both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and was among the first few holds in the library when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released. I went a step further and bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the day it was released.
Fantasy novels(LOTR, for instance) create a fictitious world that is completely detached from the real world as we know it. The characters in those books exist in a separate world that has no link to reality. Rowlings' genius lay in the way she placed characters we could identify with in a world of fantasy. Harry Potter is a boy who is ill-treated by relatives, thinks the world of his friends, gets into trouble at school and has trouble adjusting to his popularity and magical powers. This gives the Harry Potter books a personal touch that is lacking in other fantasy novels.
Harry Potter is also proof, if it was ever needed, that movie adaptations could never hope to recreate the experience of reading a book. A book fuels your imagination and a movie, no matter how good the special effects, set design or make up, can never hope to match the images conjured up in our minds. One only has to read about Voldemort in the first Harry Potter and then see the scene where his face is shown in the movie to understand the difference between print and picture!
My favorite Harry Potter so far is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Books 4 and 5 were a tad disappointing after the exhilarating nature of Book 3. I'm hoping that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince offers me the reading experience that Book 3 did.
Balaji's Thots... [Permalink]
Your Thots (5)
5 Comments:
Yes,
I absolutely agree. I am a Harry Potter freak, to the extent that I have read each book more than 10 times...and I always browse through it whenever I am close to one of the books. By far, the first book and third book were the best, and the second is alright. I have been disappointed by the last three, b/c the author just drones on. Hopefully, the last one will be as good as the third. Too bad, we are going to have to wait 3 years for it.
It's funny you say that because I never felt let down by any of the books. In fact I would rank the fifth as one of my top favourites. I found the whole atmosphere, the wizard house, etc. so captivating...
Ugh didn't realise about the 3 years... Darn!
skanda, u said it perfectly when u said 'lack of substance'. that was exactly what i felt when reading 'order of the phoenix'. lotta filler and the final revelations didn't match the buildup.
anon, me not as much a fanatic as u. but the 1st HP is one of the very few books i have read twice. i thot the wait was 2 yrs and not 3??!!
infolands, thanx for dropping in. thats a bit surprising. all HP readers i've talked to so far rank the 3rd as their fav. goes to show tastes differ quite a bit. probably depends on your expectations, taste, etc.
and lets hope that its 2 yrs and not 3 :)
BB,
HP6 may not provide you the thrill of Prisoner of Azkaban, but it will leave you longing for the next and last edition. In fact the climax will be a bit hard to digest for the die hard fans.
What a great site » »
Post a Comment
<< Home