Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Ratings4,673
Average rating4.3
I don't reread books a lot, but it's been a long time since I've read Harry Potter so I decided I want to try and reread the series this year and do so via audiobook. This decision has been an amazing one already. I am so happy to be back at Hogwarts and back in the wizarding world. I forgot how much I LOVE this world and these characters and these books. I found myself getting so excited during this book and just remembering all the little details that I had forgotten about, and things that weren't included in the movies. I can't wait to listen to the rest of these books throughout the year and just be able to go back to Hogwarts and re-experience all the joy and emotions that Harry Potter brings me.
HP sorta creates the problems and isn't instrumental to solving them, which takes away from his eventual victory. Still, it's a charming book.
Everything that could be said about this book has already been said. Regardless, here's my two cents. The book is great both on its own and as a start of a series.
I first read it over 10 years ago and absolutely fell in love with it.
And re-reading it now, I can't help but wish I was reading it for the first time, so I could discover it all over again.
The author has crafter a truly magical world. A perfect story to get kids - small and grown-up, to fall in love with reading. The characters are so likeable, the details so well crafted, and the atmosphere is so engaging, as to make you almost believe it's actually true.
I highly highly recommend it.
Summary: Thoughts after reading this to my children.
I am not going to do a full review of this, but I do want to note a couple of things. I have read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at least four times previously. But you always see a book with new eyes when you are reading it to children. I read this out loud to my 6 and 8-year-old. This was their first real contact with Harry Potter and we watched the movie after the book was finished. I do like the broader stories and I am a big fan of children's fantasy literature. But there are problems with the books.
Rowling regularly makes fun of or demeans fat people. There is a lot of examples of words like dumb, stupid, ignorant, etc. I modified or skipped a number of them when reading. It is not that I am opposed to all language like this, there is a time and place, but most often these words are used to reduce people as less than. Part of what I try to communicate to my children is that we should not be harming people with our words and I do not want to encourage my children to see others do it.
Another thought is the concept of mixed blood and pure-blood wizards. While it is developed more in later books, it is introduced here. Rowling does condemn it, but I also think the history of these ideas should be explored if she is going to bring it up. I was just reading Stand Your Ground by Kelly Douglas Brown and she explores the history of racial/ethnic purity in the English common law system and culture and there is a lot of problems with it. In Harry Potter, I think the purity of blood is being associated with a WWII German concept but there is a much wider conversation than that.
Dr. Douglas Brown quotes Benjamin Franklin,
“Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?
Which leads me to add one remark: That the number of purely white people in the world is proportionally very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes are generally of what we call a swarthy complexion; as ar the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English make the principal body of white people on the face of the earth. I could wish their numbers were increased. And while we are scouring our planet, by clearing America of woods, and so making this side of our globe reflect a brighter light to the eyes of inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the sight of superior beings, darken its people? Why increase the sons of Africa, by planting them in America, where we have so far an opportunity, by excluding all black and tawneys, of increasing the lovely white and red?
I don't need to give my children a dissertation on the problems of the Enlightenment and its promotion of human hierarchies and the development of scientific racism, but I do think that stopping and pointing out some of the histories and not just placing the blame on others, but absorbing the reality that many of our historical heroes agreed and promoted similar ideas is important. Even in fiction, or maybe especially in fiction, we need to help children understand the ways that ideas can lead to action or actions can lead to ideas that harm.
As a Christian, I am not opposed to Harry Potter because of magic. And as someone that is concerned about justice, I am not going to prevent my kids from interacting with Harry Potter only because of the concerns I have with justice within the series. But I am going to regularly stop and discuss the ideas and problems, even if there are times when I just skip words so that I don't have to discuss every idea all the time. We start the second book tonight.
THE TRANSPHOBIC BITCH/WHORE WROTE THIS AND ITS AMAZING IMMA SAY THAT!!!
SECOND OF ALL HOW TF WAS IT SOOOOO GOOD!!!! I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD LIKED HARRY POTTER.... I tried it at first and didn't like it (people was pressuring me to read it so I was like dune I do it)
THE WEASLEY TWINS OMG THEY WAS SOOOO FUNNY GEORGE UGH HOW MUCH I LOVE HIM!!!! THEY HAVE TO BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM THIS BOOK...THEY MADE ME LAUGH AND CHUCKLE!!! Harry Potter was Soo amazing I hated how his uncle and aunt treated him with disrespect also there son that lil fatty ugh I'm glad Harry can torture him just like that lil fatty did!!!!! I understand how potter think that Snape was trying to kill him and get the sorcerer stone.... bc Snape didnt like him probably bc his father saved his life love it just love it
IM OFF TO READ THE SECOND BOOK WHOOP WHOOP
I don't think I have actually ever re-read any of these books. I got the first three in a box set for Christmas in 1999 and then bought every other book on release.
I thought this would be a good first chapter book to read with my daughter, and after a few false starts over the last year or two, this time she really got into it and paid attention as I read. Her review: “That was a good book”.
This first book was always my favorite of the series. I just like the way the world and characters are introduced and I remember being blown away by the reveal at the end. There isn't a ton of side plots or anything, it's a relatively lean and quick story.
Looking forward to reading through the whole series again with my daughter. It's a shame that JK Rowling is a bit of a terrible person though, oh well.
Final note: The fact that the students care about the House Cup so much when the points are complete bullshit ala Whose Line Is It Anyway is absolutely insane.
As I am finally tackling the world of Harry Potter, I'm seeking to keep an open mind to why everyone loves these books so much. The writing is definitely very captivating, and I was easily immersed into the story. I love the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I'm convinced that Dumbledore is actually Gandalf taking a vacation from Lord of the Rings. And my favorite parts were the little bits of humor. Overall, I enjoyed the book, although I'm still waiting to be swept off my feet.
this?? was so much better??? than i remember????
last time i read this was when i was about 10 to 12 years old (and it was after i read chamber of secrets cuz i was a dumb kid). i'm twenty now. this was like a first time read for me because everything that i remembered from this book either wasn't there or wrong??? i only remembered the characters and vaguely the beginning scenes from the opening to the sorting hat. everything else felt brand new to me.
anyways ayo where my fellow slytherins at
Well Ik I'm late to the party, however the child in me is sooo happy after reading this book. J.K. Rowling is damn wonderful with words. She sure know the spells to keep you hooked till the very last page of the book. What an amazing magical journey it had been reading the story.. I loved the first book and am really looking forward to the next one.
Harry Potter is a great story in a magical universe that fills me with joy and nostalgia and I truly love the universe, though this book is not my favorite of the series.
I do want to say another thing:
Obviously, the writer of this book is not someone I want to support and I urge you to buy these books secondhand if you can.
La verdad es que no esperaba que este libro me siguiera provocando tanto, después de tres años sin leerlo. JK Rowling sigue cautivando aún hoy.
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal es; para ser el primero de los siete está muy bien. La aventura que viven los tres amigos es entretenida y me ha hecho pasar un buen rato.
He disfrutado muchísimo de los personajes y de Hogwarts.
Just like any first book in a series, it was amazing! I absolutely love the world the J.K. Rowling has made for the series and love the way that it is written. I could not put the book down and thoroughly enjoyed reading this!
Some stories, no matter their influences, are foundational. I have never encountered another series that seems to so clearly grow-up and evolve with its protagonists. A genuine tour-de-force.
With all the hubbub about this book I was cautious thinking I wouldn't like it. After all, books like the Hunger Games are also very popular, but I found it to be rather poorly written and the story not that great. Harry Potter on the other hand has a lot of great elements and reminds me of great authors of the time and I don't think it's unfair to say that Rowling is like a Roald Dahl of our times. I know of only one modern day children's author that writes better, that I have read, and that would be Philip Pullman. Granted, I haven't read a lot. Sure, I've Neil Gaiman, but I very much his style of leaving a lot of loose ends, and going nowhere (Or should I say neverwhere?) with side stories.
Rowling spins a good tale, the language is good and plenty descriptive, and the characters have interesting personalities.
First read: 2002
My review is more of a 3.5 but I didn't feel right giving it 4 stars.
I decided to do a buddy read with Josh even though he's probably still on chapter 5. I've also seen the first movie numerous times so I wasn't surprised by much. Some questions / observations below:
- Why weren't the Dursley's investigated for child abuse? That family was trash. Harry deserved better.
- Hermione was beyond annoying for the first half of the book and I really felt like she added nothing to the book but a brain since Harry and Ron were dimwits. I am also confused as why she is not in Ravenclaw house.
- Snape was cruel and should have been fired.
- Why do they write with quill? Isn't this supposed to be set in the 90s?
- Malfoy should have been pushed into lava.
I gave it 3.5 stars because nothing really happens and it's pretty standard. Also I felt like a lot of things were cliche (The family being rotten with no redeeming qualities, Malfoy being the dimensional villain / bully type).
This is just an introduction into the series and sets up some back story. I could see how this excited me back then as a kid but not as an adult it didn't do much. Besides that, I look forward to starting book 2. Hopefully, I like Hermione a bit more.
I loved this book as much now as I did when it first came out. This series is so magical and I'm looking forward to re-reading the rest of it. This will forever be a book I hold dear to my heart.
