Harry Potter est orphelin. Il mène une vie bien monotone, chez son oncle et sa tante et leur horrible fils. Le jour de ses onze ans, son existence bascule : un géant vient le chercher pour l'emmener dans une école de sorciers où une place l'attend depuis toujours. Quel mystère entoure sa naissance? Et qui est l'effroyable mage dont personne n'aime prononcer le nom? Harry intègre le collège Poudlard et s'y plaît aussitôt. Voler à cheval sur des balais, jeter des sorts, devenir champion de quidditch (une sorte de football pour sorciers), combattre les trolls : Harry Potter se révèle un sorcier vraiment doué. Il semble pourtant que tout le monde ne l'apprécie pas... Source: www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD-JEUNESSE/Grand-format-litterature/Romans-Junior/Harry-Potter-a-l-ecole-des-sorciers
Harry Potter est orphelin. Il mène une vie bien monotone, chez son oncle et sa tante et leur horrible fils. Le jour de ses onze ans, son existence bascule : un géant vient le chercher pour l'emmener dans une école de sorciers où une place l'attend depuis toujours. Quel mystère entoure sa naissance? Et qui est l'effroyable mage dont personne n'aime prononcer le nom? Harry intègre le collège Poudlard et s'y plaît aussitôt. Voler à cheval sur des balais, jeter des sorts, devenir champion de quidditch (une sorte de football pour sorciers), combattre les trolls : Harry Potter se révèle un sorcier vraiment doué. Il semble pourtant que tout le monde ne l'apprécie pas...
Source: www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD-JEUNESSE/Grand-format-litterature/Romans-Junior/Harry-Potter-a-l-ecole-des-sorciers
Review of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
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.
Review of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
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.
Review of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
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.
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.
Review of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
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.
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.
With this post, I hereby commence my charging through the entire Harry Potter series. Today was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, since my housemate owns the UK editions of books 1-4, and I wanted to read those; got in the reading today on the bus to and from going to a movie.
Once I got into the story I started remembering the various plot details, most of which I'd recalled from the film version, with one or two smaller exceptions. So there weren't any real surprises here for me. Prose-wise, I found it mostly a quite accessible read, though Rowling's propensity for ellipses and all-caps screaming towards the very end got a little over the top. Plot-wise, it's a nice little story, with just enough dark adventure to it that I can see why everyone went agog over it when it came out.
What really makes the book …
With this post, I hereby commence my charging through the entire Harry Potter series. Today was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, since my housemate owns the UK editions of books 1-4, and I wanted to read those; got in the reading today on the bus to and from going to a movie.
Once I got into the story I started remembering the various plot details, most of which I'd recalled from the film version, with one or two smaller exceptions. So there weren't any real surprises here for me. Prose-wise, I found it mostly a quite accessible read, though Rowling's propensity for ellipses and all-caps screaming towards the very end got a little over the top. Plot-wise, it's a nice little story, with just enough dark adventure to it that I can see why everyone went agog over it when it came out.
What really makes the book for me, though, are the smaller details: the various strange things that happen to Harry before he gets the word to come to Hogwarts, the wave of endless letters and their changing addresses, all the little touches and descriptions of the layout of Hogwarts (like the staircases that go different places on Fridays), the Weasley family's accountant cousin that they don't talk about, the individual crafting of every student's wand, and more. It's all these things that not only put the story on a real-seeming foundation, but also give it not just a sense of wonder, but an outright rush of it. All these details are the things that make a magical world magic. Three and a half stars.
Once there was a boy called Harry Aloysius Potter, and he nearly deserved it. One fine morning Harry was attempting once more, in the dark land of Behind-the-Shed where the shadows lie, to make a pile of vaguely-animated sludge pregnant. A shadow fell over him; and despite the bright sky of the day the land of Behind-the-Shed was always black and gloomy. What godsforsaken Thing could cast a shadow down there? It was an owl, smoking a corncob pipe. It perched on the apex of the shed and looked down at Harry. One ringpiece to rule them all, eh, Harry? It said, in something that was if not the Black Speech sufficiently close to it that squirrels died of fright and creatures long unnamed shifted underground in their burroughs and shuddered. Who are you? said Harry. You know me, Harry, said the owl, and long, long moments ticked by and …
Once there was a boy called Harry Aloysius Potter, and he nearly deserved it. One fine morning Harry was attempting once more, in the dark land of Behind-the-Shed where the shadows lie, to make a pile of vaguely-animated sludge pregnant. A shadow fell over him; and despite the bright sky of the day the land of Behind-the-Shed was always black and gloomy. What godsforsaken Thing could cast a shadow down there? It was an owl, smoking a corncob pipe. It perched on the apex of the shed and looked down at Harry. One ringpiece to rule them all, eh, Harry? It said, in something that was if not the Black Speech sufficiently close to it that squirrels died of fright and creatures long unnamed shifted underground in their burroughs and shuddered. Who are you? said Harry. You know me, Harry, said the owl, and long, long moments ticked by and the Dursleys' car exploded sending wheels of coruscating aluminium into low Earth orbit. You have always known me. Your mother knew me. My mother is dead, said Harry, staring into the owl's huge yellow eyes and wondering at the last thing a mouse saw before it became dinner. Harry felt hungry. Don't speak rudely of my mother. Your mother was a jackal, said the owl, offhand. You never knew her. I used to visit her in the zoo and we had long congress - not that kind, elevate your mind from the gutter - at night when the zoo is asleep. Did you wonder about that, Harry? The night world of the zoo when all the children have gone home? And the zookeeper is tucked up in her bed fretting whether every gate is locked? No, said Harry, though he had. I am your nemesis, said the owl. Though not just yet. I bring a letter. And it dropped a scroll, sealed with wax in several inchoate and deepspace colours, into the pile of festering sludge that even now was whispering sweet words of love and delight. That was low, said Harry. Well it is now, said the owl. I must be off. See ya. And read the bloody letter. Harry reached for the letter and for a moment something that could have been a hand, in some other land, reached too and then fell back into the pile. Harry, feeling like Prince Arthur seizing the sword in the Stone, pulled and the letter was in his hand. The owl was a black silent shape winging it into the darkening sky. Harry undid the seal.
Review of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Le premier tome de la célébrissime saga Harry Potter, qu'on ne présente plus. Un premier volume enfantin, à l'image de l'âge des héros dans ces débuts pleins de naïveté mais qui donnent tout de même envie de lire la suite.
Le premier tome de la célébrissime saga Harry Potter, qu'on ne présente plus. Un premier volume enfantin, à l'image de l'âge des héros dans ces débuts pleins de naïveté mais qui donnent tout de même envie de lire la suite.
I think that this was my thrid or fourth reading of this book, and I still enjoyed it a lot, and identified with the characters. I still like it best of all the Harry Potter books, in spite of a plot hole that I'm sure many other readers must ha wondered about --in the denouement, when Harry Potter passes all the obstacles, he notices that the key has a broken with, so someone had been there before them. But the potion bottles, including the smallest, which he had to drink, still appeared to be full.
I think that this was my thrid or fourth reading of this book, and I still enjoyed it a lot, and identified with the characters. I still like it best of all the Harry Potter books, in spite of a plot hole that I'm sure many other readers must ha wondered about --in the denouement, when Harry Potter passes all the obstacles, he notices that the key has a broken with, so someone had been there before them. But the potion bottles, including the smallest, which he had to drink, still appeared to be full.
