J.K Rowling

[hansel4150]

Have to admit, I just started reading the Potter series and it is wonderful. She gives you a great story and great writing and it is truly the best form of fiction around.

[bopropadop]

Have to admit, I just started reading the Potter series and it is wonderful. She gives you a great story and great writing and it is truly the best form of fiction around.


I always resisted it thinking it was targeted completely at teenagers. While that might have been true with the first book or two, subsequent novels became very "adult" and darker. I enjoyed the series and am among those fans clamoring for another HP novel set in Harry's adulthood.

There was a thread some months ago about the HP series. If you're interested in seeing what others thought, you might want to search the threads and have a look.

[bopropadop]

Follow-up to my last post... I'm pretty sure this is the thread I was thinking of.

http://www.stephenking.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10009&highlight=harry+potter

[aptpupil]

I haven't got around to actually reading a word of JK's, even under extreme pressure from my oldest son, who's almost 19, and my partner, who is about ten years older. Both are huge fans.

I have however, watched a few of the movies, and they are reasonably entertaining. JK certainly struggled long and hard to get the whole thing up and running, and I'm happy that her success is deserved, and that her talent is substantial. :grinning:

[JRLauer]

I'm one of the few who has yet to read a single Harry Potter book. I'm not sure if I will or not, the general story idea has never appealed to me. Is it really that good?

[Drummerboy]

I was hesitant to read Harry Potter, thinking is was 'just-for-kids' not really an 'adult' series. I reluctantly read the first one, then the second one, then the third, then the fourth. I haven't read the remaining ones but I will say the first four were quite good, actually. I was surprised. I think they're worth a read. I'd advise anyone to just read the first one and see what you think. If you don't like it..cool, if you do..great, just a few more books you may want to read. Also, upon reading before about J.K. Rowling's life before she wrote HP..it's nice to see her so successful. Take care all, happy reading!!
Kennan

[bopropadop]

I'm one of the few who has yet to read a single Harry Potter book. I'm not sure if I will or not, the general story idea has never appealed to me. Is it really that good?


If you do decide to try it, don't let the first book get you down. It's not representative of JKR's writing later on. I think her writing matured as much as her characters did.

IMO it's well worth the time.

[Emdee]

I'm one of the few who has yet to read a single Harry Potter book. I'm not sure if I will or not, the general story idea has never appealed to me. Is it really that good?


They're..magic!:p

I'm a huge fan! (I was ~8 when I started to read the books, so I kind of grew up with them) I think that the first books are the best, but I love JK's characters and how she writes about something that seems to have no importance at the moment but influences the story later on..

[Cognac]

great books. crafty writing. and i admire anyone that gets people to read, especially those who usually do not.

[Srbo]

Sounds all like good stuff to me.
Should check it out, but...still didn`t read all of Steves books yet, so Miss Rowling has to wait...:smile2:

[hansel4150]

I'm one of the few who has yet to read a single Harry Potter book. I'm not sure if I will or not, the general story idea has never appealed to me. Is it really that good?

Honestly, better than anything SK has every written (except IT and The Stand). Sacrilege, I know, I know. Trust me, they are magnificent books.

[callen193]

is awsome love the books

[SKfan2006]

i can't wait to see what other books Mrs. Rowling will churn out. loved all the HP books and read the Beedle the Bard stories in the store and was fasinated by it. if she makes anymore stories in the hogwarts universe i'm getting it.

[Srbo]

Honestly, better than anything SK has every written (except IT and The Stand). Sacrilege, I know, I know. Trust me, they are magnificent books.

Dude...didn`t read nothing yet, like I said earlier, from JKR...but you just said that it`s better than anything Steve ever wrote...(except for IT and Stand )

1. Did YOU read all SK works ?
2. Do you realize that IT and The Stand are NOT everybodys favorite SK books ?

Props to JKR, but this statement of yours I do not trust, as much as you assure me that I should.
It`s not a fair statement.
To each their own, but not over the top, eh ?

Cheers..:smile2:

[AndyDufresne]

Well, they are fun stories, but Rowling's writing style is nothing to write home about (excuse the pun). And although each book was darker than the previous one, she copped out at the end of the last one. Too bad.
And she's nowhere near King's league, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on a King forum :).

[Teddy Duchamp]

Good thread! All my children were and are big fans and yet I had never read them! Four years ago I read the second one (my husband said the first was very childish and I'd seen the film anyway).

The first in my opinion was childish as the agegroup she was aiming at WERE very young at that point - however they started to grow up and I would say the last four books were "adult" in their content!

I know this is very contraversial - but I will say it anyway.

While I have the utmost admiration for JK Rowling and I love these wonderful stories (the films never do the books justice!) ...............I find some characters SOOOOO much like the characters from Lord of the Rings that it just gets to me at times........

Harry Potter - Frodo
Gandalph - Dumbledore
Dobby - Gollum
Ring Wraith - Dementor........

I could go on but I wont! Now thats not to say that they COPY the stories becuase they dont - but I just wish the characters werent so similar.........

But as has been said - anything that gets children (and adults) to read can only be a good thing - and these books are worth reading.

[jamconsulting]

HP books among other authors works - in audio format - provide background to some trivial tasks I have to do to make a living. I think back on a task when I was younger. I drove a mower - a big tractor rig cutting hay - round and round in circles - for 2 months each year. If I could have had a stereo system on that rig I could have read the Library of Congress.

[Perse Jr.]

I've read all but the last Harry Potter book (too cheap to buy the hard cover). I really enjoyed every book, and although they are tailored for the "younger" generations, not that I'm all that old, they appealed to me on many levels. All the books offered mystery, fantasy, and lots of fun little things like chocolate frogs (that actually leap), spells, potions, mean characters....the works.

By the way, I've tried all the flavors of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor jelly beans EXCEPT booger. I refuse to eat booger flavored beans even if they are candy. Ew. The grass flavored jelly bean is actually pretty good, but vomit and earwax are disgusting (as they should be I guess)!

[alferret]

When I read the first 2 books way back when, they didnt come across as a series that would be any more than kids books.
Took my kids to see the first film which gave me the chance to re-discover JK & Hogwarts, since then i have read all the books and listened to the audio books numerous times (narrated by Fry)
All I can say now is superb, thoroughly enjoyable for all ages.

[Luis]

I read HP series and is very good; I read the books in Spanish; I have been debating now if I should start all of them but in English this time around.
All the books offered mystery, fantasy, and lots of fun little things like chocolate frogs (that actually leap), spells, potions, mean characters....the works.
That is one of the coolest think of the books and they cover the progress of HP and friends from children to grown adults.

[smooth operator]

I love the Harry Potter series. I have read them all, twice. SK also happens to be a fan of Harry Potter. As many of you have mentioned, he writing style did mature in each book. And I liked the way she ended - I found the last book very satisfying.
Taste in reading material is just that - a matter of taste. There is no explaining taste. If you can, please tell me why I like the song "Midnight at the Oasis."

[Miri]

I'm one of the few who has yet to read a single Harry Potter book. I'm not sure if I will or not, the general story idea has never appealed to me. Is it really that good?

Yes, JRLauer...it is really, really that good. I have read the entire series multiple times, though I didn't pick it up until about six months before the fifth book was released. In preparation for teaching a class of third graders, I decided that I should see what all the fuss was about - I figured I should at least know who Harry Potter was, even if I didn't get past the first book. I borrowed a copy from the school library and read it in a couple of hours, and then immediately had to go to the bookstore for the second, third and fourth. My husband read them with me, and though he didn't enjoy them as well as I did, he has read each subsequent novel upon its release!

Though some of the themes that run through the story line are the typical themes of the epic fantasy genre of books, I found JK Rowling's approach to these themes to be refreshingly creative. Someone in an earlier thread compared Harry Potter to Frodo...and yes, there are certainly parallels that can be drawn between the two characters. What this poster did not realize, however, is that what he or she was recognizing were the common characteristics of the archetypal hero - a character (real or fictional) who, in the face of danger in a position of adversity and/or weakness, displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good. This describes both Frodo and Harry Potter - as does the task that each has set to him. The Task, by the way, is another archetype involving a character or a group of characters required to do some duty of monstrous proportion, perhaps that has not been done even by men or women much greater than themselves.

While I am certain that JKR was influenced by LotR (and let's face it - there are very few if any modern fantasy writers who are *not* influenced by this work), I do not believe that she unduly "borrowed," whether intentionally or unintentionally, from the story or the characters in the creation of her work.

[JRM]

I have not yet read all the Harry Potter books, but J.K. Rowling is BRILLIANT. To be able to put together such a complex world takes more than talent.

[jchanic]

I rather resent the comments that the Harry Potter books are too juvenile for adult readers. I was in my mid-50s when the first one came out, and I found it just as, if not more, enjoyable as much more "adult" fair I've read. I read each of the books as they came out and have since reread the series more than three times and still find them very enjoyable. It's obvious, at least to me, that Rowliing had the entire plot-line worked out far in advance for them all, and it's very enlightening to go back and see how some items in the beginning turn out to be key in the later works.

John

[sena]

i read all harry potter books last year..really great books. and i sometimes open any page desultorily and re-read.. i love harry potter series.:)

[jchanic]

Sena, have you read Tales of Beedle the Bard yet? It adds some neat stuff too!

John

[michal]

I don't like Harry Potter. I was an extensive enthusiastic reader even as a child and I have to say that I think these books popularity stems from the fact kids don't really read books these days and were shocked to discover stories in hard copies are great. While this as itself is a compliment for any writer - getting kids to read that is - I think I've read hundreds of stories as a child that used similar ideas and had better stories in them.
Just an opinion of course, don't mean to put off anyone who enjoys them. I also like spinach but don't expect everyone to appreciate it.