perfect paperback, 232 pages
Published April 16, 2000 by Bloomsbury Pub Ltd.
Harry Potter #1
When mysterious letters start arriving on his doorstep, Harry Potter has never heard of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
They are swiftly confiscated by his aunt and uncle.
Then, on Harry’s eleventh birthday, a strange man bursts in with some important news: Harry Potter is a wizard and has been awarded a place to study at Hogwarts.
And so the first of the Harry Potter adventures is set to begin. ([source][1])
[1]: www.jkrowling.com/book/harry-potter-philosophers-stone/
An enchanting, kids-know-best adventure, which is magical enough to be read twice.
Maybe not a goodreads problem per se, but FYI this was the Spanish version - Kindle's otherwise fun Goodreads integration doesn't seem to pick that up.
Have decided to re-read the entire series. Will not change the original star ratings, but will include my updated star ratings in the wall o' text.
3 stars
Honestly, I was maybe a just a teensy bit bored with this one. Great world-building but kind of thin on plot.
I was quite surprised with how babyish the book is, seeing as lots of adults, including my wife, enjoyed this so much I was expecting something a bit more grown up. It reminded me quite a bit of [b:The Worst Witch|351023|The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1)|Jill Murphy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349047328s/351023.jpg|341267], something I enjoyed as a kid so if I had read Harry Potter as a kid I expect I would have liked it, seeing as I am all grown up now all I see is somebody ripping off a book from my childhood, and not doing a particularly good job at it.
You know when Hollywood make a new movie and they have already decided there will be many sequels, they always seem to put less effort into the first movie, it all seems to be setting the scene, introducing characters and giving a bit of history on their lives, and after a …
I was quite surprised with how babyish the book is, seeing as lots of adults, including my wife, enjoyed this so much I was expecting something a bit more grown up. It reminded me quite a bit of [b:The Worst Witch|351023|The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1)|Jill Murphy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349047328s/351023.jpg|341267], something I enjoyed as a kid so if I had read Harry Potter as a kid I expect I would have liked it, seeing as I am all grown up now all I see is somebody ripping off a book from my childhood, and not doing a particularly good job at it.
You know when Hollywood make a new movie and they have already decided there will be many sequels, they always seem to put less effort into the first movie, it all seems to be setting the scene, introducing characters and giving a bit of history on their lives, and after a while you get bored and wonder why you are wasting your time with this? Well that's how I thought about this book, each chapter introduced a character or an item and then wasn't mentioned again, I'm sure this was all setting the scene for the next books though, so hopefully they are better.
I found the story quite interesting at first, the build up to joining Hogwarts was interesting, I did like the bank, but once Harry gets to school my brain started to sleep. The writing style reminded me of 50 shades of grey and da Vinci code, horrible but worthy of 2* just because it got lots of people into reading.
Geen fan van het hoofdpersonage.
This is quite obviously the most naive of the books and nowhere near the brilliance of the later books yet. I have to main issues: a) why is Dumbledore so irresponsible with the kids? b) why didn't they just hide the stone in the Room of Requirement? Well, obviously logic isn't a wizard thing.
readathon
I forgot how incredibly annoying Hermione is in the books. Loved the reader! I almost feel like I'm reading this again for the first time (er, you know what I mean).
So much magic in these books, and I'm not referring to wand flicks and incantations. The world that JKR has created is just magic in and of itself. Call me silly, but I get teary-eyed when I think of it. Dumbledore especially. I haven't reread the books in a long time, and when I read about him and how ALIVE he was, all sparkly-knowing eyes giving Harry, Hermione and Ron the tools they'd need to do the things that others would say they shouldn't...
I'm not making a lot of sense I know. But I just love these books.
Upon re-reading the novels, it's hard not to see the author's traditionalist, gender-conformist mindset.
Once, I believed in separating the art from the artist, but this is the first time I've had to try doing so while the artist is still alive and using wealth gained from their art to cause suffering.
Writers have power, the living have power, and the wealthy have power. She is all of those things. I have to do what I can to take the power I gave her back, and this is it.
For children who have yet to be jaded by the world, this book will remain a staple.
Yesterday, while walking through the Narita Tokyo airport, I saw this edition in the only book store I saw while in Japan. I hadn't seen this edition, so I picked it up.
It took me about 4 hours to read and got through it the first few hours of my trip back to the States. I had forgotten many of the details and many more were convoluted with the changes from the movie. It was good to read again.
It inspired me to read the second one, Chamber of Secrets.
Or The Philosopher's Stone as I prefer to call it. I've read the book before, but it's been quite a while. The darker later books were fresher in my mind.
The Sorceror's Stone is a children's book through and through. The story structure is simple and the threats are mainly minor (at least until the end of the book.)
But it's interesting to see how many elements were there right from the beginning though. Just small references, their significance not obvious at the time. Were they always intended for bigger things? I don't know and it doesn't really matter. It works either way.
It's not a sophisticated book and the writing is more journeyman than master. The characters are broadly drawn, the elements are not particularly original when taken individually.
What became really obvious to me while I was reading this to my children though was that this book is …
Or The Philosopher's Stone as I prefer to call it. I've read the book before, but it's been quite a while. The darker later books were fresher in my mind.
The Sorceror's Stone is a children's book through and through. The story structure is simple and the threats are mainly minor (at least until the end of the book.)
But it's interesting to see how many elements were there right from the beginning though. Just small references, their significance not obvious at the time. Were they always intended for bigger things? I don't know and it doesn't really matter. It works either way.
It's not a sophisticated book and the writing is more journeyman than master. The characters are broadly drawn, the elements are not particularly original when taken individually.
What became really obvious to me while I was reading this to my children though was that this book is fun and optimistic and full of wonder. And that's what draws you in and makes you want to come back. And fundamentally that's more important than literary virtuosity.
Full marks for re-readability. I haven't even got the faintest clue of how many times I've read this book now. I remember being sceptical about the series but finally gave in to giving it a one day when I was going to the library and saw a girl coming out with a Harry Potter book. She was reading as she walked, not even slightly looking where she was going on the stone stairway in front of the library. I figured if it could override basic safety like that, it had to be good. So I tried it and by the end of chapter one, I was a lost cause.
It read really nicely. Something about simplicity of the story and...it made me feel good in the end. It's not a literary masterpiece, but I can see why it's a bestseller. Quite entertaining.
An excellent introduction to a wonderfully developed and rich world.
