Harry Potter and the Sleepless Nights

[denny]

This weeks burst of insomnia has at least meant that I had plenty of undisturbed time to read the first few Harry Potter books, which gothslut lent me last week after hearing that I still hadn't read any of them.

I'm mildly disappointed - although perfectly good books, and I wouldn't mind reading the rest if I can borrow them, I can't say that I'd bother buying them. I'm surprised because various people I know who have read them have given them such a glowing recommendation - I was expecting to be more impressed than I am.

I imagine I would have been a great deal more impressed with them when I was a kid - I think the plots and characters are just too simple to really captivate me now. Nothing wrong with them, but they've only left the kind of impression on me that a good TV show might do, rather than the deeper impression a really good book can leave on the mind...

Mind you, the third one was better than the first two, so maybe they pick up as they go on... there's certainly a fair few of them now if I remember rightly?

Comments

[mhw.livejournal.com]

Four, so far.

I agree. Really, they're just boarding-school stories with a bit of magic. However, they're accessible, and as long as you remember that they're really pitched at 8 to 11 year olds, they're not too disappointing. The shame is, really, that JKR isn't a tremendously good writer, and she wastes her characters like confetti. A whole school - and really only one viewpoint, that of the remarkably uninteresting HP. The rest of the characters get treated like supporting cast.

This has been jumbling around in my head for a while: why, given that I'm not enthralled by the books, do I so enjoy writing from the POV of George Weasley, a hardly sketched-in character? I think perhaps it may be that he is so vestigial in the books - with him, I have the chance to develop someone who might almost as well not have existed, and to give his character a decent, fleshed-out and interesting personality.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I wasn't all that impressed either - I read them roughly the same way I read magazines and trashy romance novels - as braincandy.
They're not a patch on http://www.lemonysnicket.com
and very reminiscent of books like 'The Worst Witch' and 'The Littlest Vampire' that I read as a small child.

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

See, I've now read the Lemony Snicket books as well. And I think they're bloody awful. And I adore Harry Potter.

E.
x

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

The fourth one is better. Longer, and much darker. It's at John's, so I might not have it for you on Wednesday, but I'll pick it up next time I'm there.

If you like a series of unfortunate events...

[vickster31.livejournal.com]

Their is going to be a programme broadcast on lemony snicket on 17th december on bbc4, i also adore the books...
(although i preferred harry potter).
-vixen

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

You *hadn't*?? How and why is this possible?! Elisabeth, you have done the world a service in enlightening the unenlightened.

Unless this is treading on toes, i have the fourth here i think, and if i can find it i will bring it on Wednesday. It's really damn long and has lots of glowing evil gothy Voldemort in. That's not giving away the plot in any way, shape or form, they *all* have Voldemort in.
Well they *are* children's books.

Re: If you like a series of unfortunate events...

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

really? oh wow!

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Bringing me books is always a Good Thing (tm)  :)