washingtonpost.com — It happened on a dark night, somewhere in the middle of Book IV. For three years, I had dutifully read the "Harry Potter" series to my daughter, my voice growing raspy with the effort, page after page. But lately, whole paragraphs of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" had started to slip by without my hearing a word.
Jul 15, 2007 View in Crawl 4
nightlight101Jul 16, 2007
It kinda bugs me how people are paid to give their opinions to others. It almost seems as if you should get a quarter every time you say that you don't like something.
ansjc09Jul 16, 2007
Personally, I have never read the Harry Potter series because the books never sounded interesting. I have friends (college-aged people) who are enthralled at the new one coming out and are going to lose sleep reading it. I think the author has brought up some important points that maybe we should expand our reading interests. My parents read a lot when I was young and I learned from their example to love to read. Now that I'm an adult, I read voraciously when I find the time. Mystery, true crime, romance, historical, and classical literature have me grabbing books as quickly as I can. One genre I do not read and don't like as much is fantasy. Yes, I realize all fiction could be called fantasy because it isn't real, but I like literature that is set in familiar places, i.e. London, Pittsburgh, New York. The more we read, the more our vocabularies and thought processes expand. I am told by friends that Harry Potter's so good and it's hard to put down and amazing. I reply with OK, but Ann Rule's "Green River, Running Red," Mary Higgins Clark's "Daddy's Little Girl," Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," Agatha Christie's "A.B.C Murders," and John Grisham's "The Rainmaker" are books I can't put down once I start them. Yes, most of these books have sinister twists or murder plots in them, but they're engaging to read. Classics can be great to read. I enjoyed Milton's "Paradise Lost" in high school even while I'm sure I was reading a Mary Higgins Clark book. It's great that adults and children alike are picking up Harry Potter and reading, but once the series is finished, they shouldn't stop reading. Keep reading because the worst you can lose is a few bucks and a couple hours if you don't like a book, or go to a public library and check out books.
kablaaamoJul 16, 2007
I dunno. That series only really starts degenerating after Blood of the Fold, I thought. Stone of Tears was definitely still a fun read.
americanforestJul 16, 2007
God I hate f**king critics. In the last two months I have read Dickens, Tolkien, and Orwell. In a week I look forward to reading Harry Potter. I don't give a s**t about your elitist attitude. Harry Potter is entertaining and it does what any work of art should do: provides catharsis. It's not like some empty TV shows people are talking about. When Dumbledore died I was devastated; when I watch TV shows like Big Brother I'm just bored and want to relax and not feel anything.
wagnerelliJul 16, 2007
Greatest book series of all time? Not even close.
kelbearJul 16, 2007
Parent is right on the money.I read like there was no tommorow as soon as I learned how, all the way until college. From that point on, I could not find the time to enjoy sitting around for 4-hours just lost in a story; it's no longer practical. There are diminishing returns to be gained from reading for entertainment purposes. My vocabulary encomposses all common usage and a sufficient breadth of the more esoteric words in the english vernacular, but there is no advantage to be had from pedantry when a simpler word can sufficiently describe the subject at hand. It just makes words longer and protects from small-minded internet nitpickers, while locking out a larger portion of your audience.All that needs to be taken away from entertainment reading is the ability to absorb unfamiliar words and find the context. Subtext is helpful for other forms of literature, but not for practical usage(too many idiosyncracies in each subject). I still read for personal edification but in small amounts and for specific purposes. For my entertainment I look to more convenient and more easiliy digestible mediums.As for Harry Potter? I'm not a fan, not interested in the series at all aside from the pop culture impact, for which I will refer to Wikipedia. I have nothing against the book, I just don't have the time to pick up new interests when I can barely satisfy the ones I have now.
gab00nJul 17, 2007
More like Harry Potter and his dead owl, yes his owl dies in the next book.
samcapecodJul 17, 2007
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I don't believe you
corn1point0Jul 21, 2007
I love the Harry Potter series.I think it can be enjoyed by the old and the young.My absolutely favorite character is Hermione dies.
kimoftheworldApr 15, 2009
i never thought of harry potter to be a literary piece :)<a class="user" href="http://readingspeedcourse.com/">http://readingspeedcourse.com/</a>