Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Ratings4,679
Average rating4.3
I've felt the urge to reread this series once again and no matter how many times I read Harry Potter, I always find myself wrapped up in the storytelling and the world. The earlier books are a bit juvenile but it makes sense considering Harry and gang are 11. Still an enjoyable book.
When you re read a cherish book of your childhood there is always the fear that it will not be the same and maybe you would not be as impressed or happy about it. Harry Potter is timeless, I will always feel the warm in my heart that I felt back then, the first time.
Giudizio non imparziale perché chiaramente ho visto prima il film e poi ho letto il libro. Visto da questo punto di vista, sembra che il regista sia stato veramente bravo a cogliere ogni aspetto del libro, però forse quest'effetto è dovuto al fatto che, appunto, avevo già in mente i personaggi cinematografici.
A parte questo, mi è piaciuto ed è stato interessante scoprire in che modo è scritto uno dei libri che ha fatto la grande fama della Rowling.
Ps. Ho amato le citazioni di Silente e il suo personaggio su tutti. ♥
Como é que é possível eu nunca ter lido isto em 17 anos? Mas antes tarde do que nunca. Super fluído e agradável, este livro de introdução à saga que me aguarda animou-me imenso. Estou bastante ansiosa pra dar continuação a esta viagem.
Where: Listened straight in a single day on Moscow-Port Caucasus car road trip
Embarking on my first read through of the entire Harry Potter series this year, mainly so I can understand what my youngest is talking about and to be able to answer quiz questions about wizards.
This is the only HP book I'd read before, back in 1999, and I wasn't enamoured enough with it then to get swept up in the hype. Not much has changed with this read through. At its heart this is a good story, with all the prerequisites for a well crafted novel: a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, neatly packaged chapters with appropriately spaced cliffhangers, and JKR should be commended for how strictly she's managed to adhere to the good old Hero's Journey trope. However, conversely, the writing is overly simplistic, the pacing too measured, the reveals and resolutions often predictable, and the deus ex machina in the final chapter so heavy handed it cracked me up.
At the end of the day this is a children's book so I'm cutting it some slack and giving it three stars, but if I come across another scene that's directly lifted from LOTR I'll come back and take a star off, I swear.
I've read the Harry Potter series a million times, but I've never entered it into Goodreads. One of my all time favorite series.
I thought reading this again would be tiring, boring, predictable. Thought I was so used to these characters that my emotional attachment couldn't grow. Thought I knew this story so well by now that it couldn't surprise or move me anymore.
Oh how wrong I was.
Hallelujah, I finished! It took me almost four freaking months to read this book in Spanish, but it was still an excellent book and now I want to re-read the rest of the series. In English.
An enjoyable read. I can really see why this would appeal to a lot of children. The adventure and suspense is reminiscent of children's classics I read when I was young. I look forward to read further books in the series with my son.
I've read this book several times and always love it. I especially love the memories of reading it the first time with my oldest son. My son was 3 in 1997 and he was just learning to read. He loved when I read to him but was anxious to be able to read by himself. He especially loved books about King Arthur and the Knights of the round table and also loved Merlin and any book that mentioned knights and castles. I bought him this book and started to read it to him but he would read a little bit of each page. I remember thinking that book looked so huge in his little lap. He loved the story and always begged for me to read “just one more chapter, please!!” I can still see that little pleading face, even though now he is 26 and has a beard.
My favorite character is Hagrid. He's a giant man with a soft heart. I love imagining him riding on his flying motorcycle and rescuing Harry from the dreary shack with the Dursley's. He starts a fire and cooks up some sausages he had in his pocket. He also pulled out a slightly crumpled box containing a birthday cake for Harry. What a memorable birthday!
Having only read this one in Dutch when I was younger, this was a surprisingly light and quick read. It feels like the accents of the characters come through a whole lot better since they're not translated into Dutch.
Executive Summary: I've now read this book (not sure how many times), and listened to both versions of the audio. It's more like a 4.5 than 4, but I don't get 5 lightly. It's the book that started the Harry Potter series and I don't imagine I need to tell anyone how good those books are.
Jim Dale Audiobook: The first time I did the audiobook version, I did the Jim Dale version. Now that I've listened to both, I think I like him better for the first 3-4 books, and Fry better for the last 3-4. He's a very good reader. He does descent voices for the various characters.
Stephen Fry Audiobook: I wanted to see the difference between the Jim Dale and Stephen Fry versions, but if I'm perfectly honest that's going to be hard as it's been 2 years since I did the Dale versions. I feel like Dale did a better variety of voices, but the Fry version is certainly quite good. I particularly like his voice for Hagrid, but his voice for Snape sounds wrong. That's probably Alan Rickman's fault though and not Stephen Fry.
Jury is still out but after 1 book I have to give it to Dale.
Full Summary
I'm not going to bother with a very long review, as this book is very well known at this point. It's been a few years since I last read it (likely as a re-read before book 7). It's a great book for re-reading. The characters are all well developed and the story pulls you in and holds on as you adventure along with Harry as he battles bullies at home, at school, and on the quidditch pitch before confronting the ultimate bully in Lord Voldemort.
This book introduces the reader to the world of magic and muggles. Of Hogwarts and broomsticks. It's not as good as several of the later books, but it's an excellent kick-off and signs of what is to come are quite apparent.
I could take you through many parts of my life that pertain to why it's taken me this long to read this book. I could talk about how my parents wouldn't let me read it. Then I could mention how I felt it was going to be too immature for me. I suppose that could be the right time to say that I've seen all but the last movie. I could say many, many things, but I think I'll just say: I read it.
You know what? It was fun. I'm willing to judge a book based on what it is, not what it's not - and this book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it I doubt that there's anyone out there that is interested in this books that hasn't read them yet, so I'll just quickly touch on some of the major points in this book.
Bravery & Friendship: These were both common threads throughout this book. My personal favorite was the budding friendship that forms and it was also nice to see true bravery cropping up in an unexpected place - and actually treated as such.
Eleven: Seriously, this isn't what eleven year olds that I've been around act like. I also really like the way the characters that it wasn't so much that the adults didn't believe the kids - which happens way too often in books for youngsters.
Fantastical World: I quite like the world that was created - yeah, the magic seems a little odd at times (just how, exactly, do those spells work and why are only some people born with that talent?) but I love the way all this is taking place alongside the normal, average world.
Quidditch: I'm sure it's difficult creating a sport from scratch. I don't think I'd ever be imaginative enough to create one myself. I do find Quidditch interesting in theory (and I was so glad to have it a little more prevalent in this book than the movie) however, I dislike the idea of any game where ninety-five percent of the game is irrelevant. Really, all that seems to matter is which team catches the snitch. I'd love to know if there was ever a case of the loosing team catching the snitch. Now, the muggle quidditch that is based on this fictional game makes a good deal more sense to me because the team that catches the snitch only gets thirty points instead of a hundred and fifty. This seems to me to be a case of wanting Harry Potter to be too much of the hero in every little thing.
Good vs. Evil: This is the only true complaint I've got about the book - even the series to date (though I've only read the first two). I think that the lines are too clearly drawn. I would love to see some sympathetic villains or at least villains that have a reason for their actions. I love it when stories have a bit of a grey morality and I think this series could pull that off wonderfully. (Of course, I'm not sure it would want to do that, considering most YA and MG books are pretty straightforward with heroes and villains.)
Book vs. Movie: As this book satisfies one requirement for a challenge I'm doing - wherein I read a book whose movie I saw first - I thought I'd give a quick overview of how they are different or the same.
First, I'm sad to say, my favorite quote from the movie wasn't from the book. It's where Hermione says something about ‘getting killed, or worse, expelled' and Ron responds with ‘she needs to work on her priorities'. Honestly, I loved how that was in probably ever single trailer I saw for this movie. But, while those exact words weren't in the book, it still has echoes of those thoughts.
Really, I think that this was probably one of the more accurate movie adaptations. (Of course, it's been ages since I've seen the movie, so my memory is a little fuzzy.) The movie seemed to stay pretty accurate, but the book - as expected - was simply more fleshed out on most things. Also, the order that things happened was a little different in the book than the movie. I think they actually introduced the characters quicker in the movie than they did in the book. (I also think the challenge to find the sorcerer's stone (whose name I wish they would have kept to the Philosopher's Stone) was a longer process in the book than it was the movie. It was also one of my favorite parts of either.)
Final notes: Fluffy is still adorable. Simply adorable. And: I had no idea that Dumbledore was quite so...crazy. He seems almost normal in the movie compared to his book counterpart.
(Originally posted on my blog: http://pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com/)
