Harry Potter (Wizarding World Universe) Book • Page 7

Been rewatching all the films so I can finally see the two Fantastic Beasts. Just watched Deathly Hallows Part 1. Probably my favorite of the series so far. (I’ve seen them all before but not for a long time). Dobby’s final speech on the beach is great :(

 

Ive finally done it. Ive started reading the books. 6 chapters into Philosopher's Stone and loving it. My 34 year old sister (who hasnt seen the movies, doesnt know anything about them, and doesnt even like fiction at all) started reading the books and it kicked me in the ass to finally start and catch up to her so we can read and discuss together.

My first impressions:
-Love the intro of Vernons perspective seeing all the witches and wizards out celebrating and him hearing the rumors and watching the news. Loved the extended description and background to Harry's life. Of course Harrys glasses broke because Dudley! You definitely get more of a picture of what a hell it is to live with the Dursleys
- The mention of Hagrid borrowing Sirius' bike had me like

Had no idea.
- I havent even gotten to Hogwarts yet, but Im already loving the detail and getting into Harry's head more.
- Maybe this is just because Ive watched the movies first and am picturing everything as Ive already seen it, but it amazes me how incredibly the movie adapted everything. Visually. The casting. Especially Coltrane as Hagrid and his speech patterns. Its just so perfect.
- Im happy with most of the changes the movie made. Suspending the Voldemort story until after Gringotts and not at the cabin. Hagrid surprising Harry with Hedwig.
- like the foreshadowing with the dragon in Gringotts and Hagrid's expulsion. Its obvious but its nice finally hearing why Hagrid doesnt have a wand but still can do magic and stuff.
- Harry's first meeting with Draco, the pandering Harry gets at the Leaky Cauldron, and the train ride with meeting the Weasleys are scenes I liked more in the book.
- I liked the movies version of the zoo scene a smidge more.
- I saw Newt Scamander on the Marauder's Map in Azkaban, but had no idea Fantastic Beasts was a text book they needed to get. Also nice to see Bagshot's name early on.
- Much better painted picture of the prejudice from both sides of Muggles towards magic and Magicians towards non-magic.

I wont be doing this much because Im sure itd be annoying and I tend to write long posts, but Im just so excited Im finally reading these and getting the added detail Ive always wanted since watcing the movies!!!!!! As much as I adore the movies I wish I could partially Eternal Sunshine my mind so I could experience these stories for the first time via book.

 

Please continue.

How are you reading? Physical, digital?

I really want to re-read but with the illustrated versions

 

Digital. I do want the hardcovers and was waiting till they were a little cheaper but I just wanted to start now. I am loving it digitally though. Love being able to highlight things and easily accessing them.

 

After years and years of my wife pestering me to read the HP books, I decided to finally give them a go. Im now about half way done with The Deathly Hallows.

Im actually really happy to be reading the series. It's pretty amazing stuff.

 

Yeah I'm also reading through HP for the first time this year. (wasn't allowed as a kid due to the witchcraft stuff.) It's great and I feel like I really missed out as a kid.

 

What book are you on?

 

Almost halfway through Goblet of Fire. This book was a definite turn into a darker, more mature writing style pretty much right off the bat.

 

What's great is as the series goes on the themes and writing gets more complex and it's like the books grow with the reader (if you grew up reading them that is) but there's is still a ton that as an adult you can really find enjoyable as well.

 

I remember when Goblet of Fire was released, I was like 15, and I read it thinking it was as "light" as the rest but it just fucking hit me. Not really wanting to write spoilers although I knew there's been movies and blah blah. My parents went to a WH Smith midnight release where I stay and got it. Hate the movies for being YA all you want but they basically brought me up when I was younger and defined my reading standards. I grew up with those books.

14 years later and my younger sister is now more obsessed than I was. It's a great thing to see. Hope she follows in the Brandon Sanderson footsteps.

 

So I hadn’t started reading the books because 7 books just felt like such a daunting task and I’m not a fast reader. Plus I guess they were stories I already knew. I thought it was going to take so long. I started TPS last Friday and finished today. Flew by so fast. I was hooked. I figured I’d enjoy it but didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I can’t believe how different it was and how much it added to the story I already knew from the movie.

I’m going to write down some specific thoughts but that’s the initial takeaway. Hooked now and can’t wait for Chamber of Secrets.

 

starting reading these for the first time after having watched the movies for the first time last month

 

I need to start reading the first one to my daughter, whether she likes it or not

 

K. So the first thing was after a while it was too weird to picture the movie cast as the characters. It was really kind of messing with me because so much of the story was so different so I had to switch up my strategy. I decided to treat the movie and the book as two completely separate things so I needed to create something totally different and my own so it wouldnt clash with my memory of the movie.

Considering the movies do such an incredible job making the wizarding world feel as real as possible, I decided to imagine the books story as animated. And to further separate it I looked up fan art to cast the characters. So Ron I use the illustrated edition version. Taller. Harry is a little shorter and lankier and messier hair. There was a lot of fan art where Hermoine was black and actually really liked it so I kept that. I imagined Peeves as an animated Patton Oswalt with Shakespearean clothes on lol But yeah once I just started to imagine it totally my own it really enhanced the experience.

 

I mean, they are separate things telling the same story.

 

lol true. I was just trying too hard to make them one thing and mash the movie and book world together.

 

Keep forgetting to post. Finished first book. I wrote a review somewhere else so Im going to post an edited version here for fun in case anybody wants to chat.Its long so hopefully Im not annoying people with my long posts

Can’t believe how much was different. The extended Norbert stuff, the extended trapped door challenges, and the extended Forbidden Forest stuff with the centaurs were all so much fun. Loved the second quidditch match with Snape refereeing as well as Neville standing up to Draco and him and Ron fighting him! probably my favorite scene added.

Love all of the foreshadowing or just things that we will see eventually play a bigger role in future books.
- Talk about Malfoys family coming back to the good side once Voldy disappeared and saying they were “bewitched.”
- bezoar which is used in Half Blood Prince
- Dittany in Deathly Hallows
- The centaur’s scene kind of implying they know whats going to happen
- Albus saying Harry’s not ready to know why Voldemort wanted to kill him

They are all nothing heavy handed, paint the world better and reward you when you get to them in the future and they just show that Jo had a great idea where she wanted to go from the start.

Also loved how Rowling kept bringing up Quirrel’s Turban all over the place. Harry’s dream where he’s wearing the turban and it tells him to transfer to Slytherin, rumors of Quirrel having garlic to ward off “ a vampire” and “fought a zombie” which kind of what Voldemort is at this point with him sucking Unicorn blood. Even stuff like the twins throwing snowballs at the “BACK of his turban.” Brilliant! They are such trivial things on the surface, but when you know its so cool all of the clues Jo gave you.

As much as I love the movie and consider it one of my favorites, the book medium really allows it to execute all of its characterization, character arcs, themes and many storylines infinitely more effectively than the movie. I never realized how shallow the movie is until you understand its depth in its original format. It IS unfair to compare because the movie medium is so vastly limited by time so its goal or what it sets out to do has to be different, but still I have to acknowledge the book handles these things way more effectively:
- Dumbledore giving The Invisibility Cloak to Harry and how he got it from James
- Mirror of Erised and the theme of desire
- Nicholas flamel stuff. Finding out about Flamel through the Chocoloate Frog card was so much better.
- the theme with saying Voldemort’s name culminating in Albus’ “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
- Snape saving Harry and why
- The Sorting hat stuff

You actually get a sense of all the knowledge that you need to become a great wizard or witch and I LOVE that. You know the books they need to get. I love how often studying is brought up, spending time in the library, studying for exams during the end, quills “bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell”. Also I loved how Quidditch is a way more prevalent thing, not even just because the book has two big matches that both extremely affect the plot, It’s also just constantly talked about just like sports are in the real world. Harry talks about Quidditch practice and how the team hates him after he loses the house points

I finally learned more about the game too. I love finally understanding that the Bludgers’ purpose is to knock people off their brooms and that the Beaters job is to simply to keep the Bludgers on the other teams side more. Also its cool that the game ONLY ends after the Snitch is caught and a game “…can go on for ages —I think the record is three months.”

Characters
-The biggest thing is finally being able to get into Harry’s head. You get so much more of a sense of how painful the scar is, how lonely he feels without having a family, his obsession with the Mirror of Erised, how much Hogwarts feels like his home, how much flying means to him, more of his insecurity and fears. His fear the Sorting Hat wouldn’t choose him at all.
- I loved this version of meeting Ron. ”Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy’s a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they’re really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it’s no big deal, because they did it first.” With that one quote, you get more of a sense of the inferiority Ron has being overshadowed by his older brothers. It adds more reason why he’s so annoyed by Hermoine flaunting her knowledge and making him feel inferior when she levitates the feather. It also adds more meaning to what he sees in the Mirror of Erised, as well as how much bigger of a deal his chess victory and sacrifice was in the end. I think that one quote shouldve been left in.
- I loved how Hermoine is more emphasized as just an annoying side character at first who even Harry is just as annoyed with as Ron. The troll scene is way more meaningful now knowing that that’s the moment they became friends.
- Even though her Muggle parents aren’t mentioned, I loved how it goes deeper into how much of a know it all she is to compensate for that. Her being so nervous about flying because “This was something you couldn’t learn by heart out of a book” and chess being the only thing she ever lost at for her were two awesome additions.
- LOVED getting more Neville. In the movies its the big three, but in the book Neville really feels more like a major character especially being in the finding Fluffy and Forbidden Forest scenes and I love it. Seeing how clumsy he is, afraid he is in those situations, and how bullied he was, especially when he says “There’s no need to tell me I’m not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy’s already done that,” adds so much to him standing up to Harry in the end and him getting the points to win the House Cup. Hope he remains this prominent in the books.
- I can already tell Im going to love Dumbledore so much more. He’s so much more of a quirky dude and I love it.
- Love how much more it feels like Snape is following Harry and hates him by constantly taking points from Gryffindor.
- You get more of a sense of the fued between James and Snape because of quotes like “loathed each other.” And Dumbledore saying “they did rather detest each other.”

- But out of everything that reading this book added to my Potter knowledge is... James SAVED SNAPE?!?!?!?!?!?
WHAT?!?!? WHEN!?!?!? HOW!?!?!? How the fuck is that not mentioned in ANY the movies?!?! “Professor Snape couldn’t bear being in your father’s debt. . . . I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father’s memory in peace. . . .” Thats fucking brilliant! Such a powerful explanation for why Snape did everything he did in this book. HOW WAS IT LEFT OUT?!?!?! Cant wait to find more about that.

What I liked about the movie more
While I do think the book is more effective, I do think this movie still adapted the book very well. It did such a great job of shifting a lot of the moments in the book into a different scene so it could cut down the run time and flow better.

I liked these aspects more in the movies:
- Zoo scene
- The incorporation of the owls when they keep getting the letters.
- Diagon alley
- The moving stairs
- Moving paintings on the wall
- Quidditch (especially Harry catching the Snitch)
- Fluffy and all of the challenges under the trap door
Basically seeing the magic in action and this world that feels so lived-in with incredible effects makes those moments come to life or feel viscerally more satisfying in ways that you can’t get from a book (at least for me). Not to mention Williams’ masterpiece score sucking you into this new world even more. For example in the restricted section you can read “The library was pitch-black and very eerie.” But with Williams score in that scene I felt the erieness and hearing that book scream terrified me as a kid.

Basically I think both the movie and book are brilliant for different reasons and symbiotically enhance the other. Both give life to the story in different ways and I love them both.

With already knowing the story I did not expect to be as hooked and unable to put the book down. I did not expect to enhance my love for this story as much as it did. I did not expect it to totally change my relationship or interpretation of the world or the characters as much as it did. So happy I started reading these.

For those who havent read the books I strongly recommend!

 

I really need to reread the books so I can't comment much cuz it's been a long time and I don't remember a whole lot but I love how giddy and enthusiastic you're getting reading the books!

 

This post is so aweosme. I just finished reading Half-Blood Prince and I hope you continue doing this because I’d be really interested in what you have to say about that one.

 

I am loving reading your insights.

I found it really hard to enjoy the films, particularly the first few, due to my intense love and enjoyment of the books. There was just so many bits that I felt they missed out. As I've grown older I've realised that's inevitable. I recently rewatched the films in preparation for seeing the play and I did appreciate them a lot more than previously but I still vastly prefer the books.

I think the point you made about Neville and the films is a great one by the way.

Anyway, loved reading your thoughts. You could tangibly feel the electric excitement from the pleasure you were getting from reading this first book - thanks for taking time to type them up.

 

I just started reading the books. Currently on book 2 but I’m already enjoying it way more than I had anticipated.

 

For the people that are just now getting into them for the first time, out of curiosity, what DID you think about then beforehand to make you think that you wouldn't like them?

 

No problem! and thanks for the comment.

And ya I can totally understand not being able to enjoy the movies much after reading the books first. Even with the strengths of a visual/auditory medium, I feel like theres way more of a dissonance when you know the most realized form of all the characters/themes/story and it gets so stripped down that it just feels like this adulterated shell of what you know. Its why Im always on the movies before books train. Id rather enjoy the movie and then uncover the depth in the book later and have them both to love.

if by "into them" you mean the books, it wasnt about thinking i "wouldnt like them" per say. I had the first four when I was younger actually just above my bed and was just one of those silly people who got infected by the anti-reading bug. I only really got into the movies at the start of the 2010s and after that was always interested in eventually reading them but just kept getting overwhelmed with 7 books. I really hadnt started reading until a couple years ago with Star Wars books so Im not a fast reader and I thought itd take me forever.

I just started and its only taken me about 5 days per book so not nearly as bad as I thought.

 

Gotta say, after finishing both the 4th book and movie, as much as I'm enjoying the books is how disappointed I've been with the films. I wonder if it would've been different had I watched the movies first, but man these are NOT adapted very well so far.

 

I think if its ever redone it should be as a series where each book is a season.