Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Arthur A. Levine Books (2007), 4167 pages
Description
Collects the complete series that relates the adventures of young Harry Potter, who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he and others of his kind learn their craft.
User reviews
LibraryThing member BayardUS
It's difficult to rate the Harry Potter series because they were more than just books, they were events and discussion topics and a whole lot more, since their release coincided with most of my childhood. I even have a signed copy of the third volume on my shelf, having waited hours in line to see
The Harry Potter series has several virtues, its greatest being that the series is very readable. You can go through hundreds of pages of Harry Potter in a day with ease, and the constant forward momentum of the plot makes every volume a page turner. There are few times when the books slow down, but in the overall scheme of things they are quickly forgotten. This makes the series ideal for anyone looking for an entertaining read, or for people who haven't read much before. Another of the major virtues is the concept that Rowling explores with these books resonates universally- we'd all like to be whisked away from mundanity into a world that's more magical, we'd all like to think that there's a wonderland hidden behind back alleys and thick forests that someday we'll uncover. We'd all like to somehow be special. Rowling gives this to the reader (indeed, with the titular character Rowling gives us a character who's not only special, he's The Chosen One special, another rank of special above all the other special people), but she couches this magical world filled with special people in a relatable format: grade school. We've all been through it, and so even though the classes are potions and charms we can still relate to the experiences. Combined, the readability and strong central concept, as well as giving readers a battle between good and evil, makes for a very fun book series that well deserves its popularity.
On the other hand, there are also many flaws in this series that detract from its greatness, and which make me doubt whether I will still enjoy the books as much when a few more decades of my life has passed. First, the characters and their relationships. Harry Potter, at first a sympathetic reader surrogate, goes through long stretches of the series spewing teenage angst at everyone around him. Perhaps this was Rowling trying to communicate that teenagers can be unpleasant, self-centered jerks, but she went a bit overboard with this lesson for my taste. Harry’s friend Ron shares this trait, going through a significant portion of the fourth book being a jerk to Harry more for the sake of dramatic tension than any reason that makes real sense. Hermione is defined merely as “the smart one who follows rules” far beyond the point where she should have a more nuanced character. All of these are relatively minor complaints, though, compared to my main one: Rowling rarely makes these characters actually feel like friends. Over 90% of their interactions with each other are aimed at solving the mystery of that year, or preparing for the next big challenge presented by Voldemort or the school, and very rarely do we see them actually enjoying each other’s company. We’re left to assume that such things happen between the lines, but often it seems more like we’re reading about Detective Harry and his two assistants rather than about three teenage friends.
Other aspects of the characters are also noticeably weak. The villains are pure evil, with almost no nuance, to the point where Slytherin is exclusively populated by assholes, and the adult villains are basically magical Nazis. There’s room for nuance here, but besides the character of Snape (whose death renders his allegiance a largely moot point, as he would have been killed regardless of what side he was fighting for) Rowling mostly blows past the possibility of differing perspectives to tell a simple good vs. bad story. Toward the end of the series characters start to pair off in romantic couples as well, an aspect of characterization Rowling seems particularly weak at writing. Harry and Ginny just felt shoehorned together at the last moment, as Ginny had appeared very rarely for the books before Harry suddenly decides he is in love with her. Recently Rowling has revealed that Ron and Hermione would have made a bad couple, and it stuns me that she’s just realizing this now. To anyone who was paying attention it was blatantly obvious that the guy with major self-confidence issues, a bitterness streak against those with wealth or fame, and probably with an inferiority complex probably wasn’t a good match for the brilliant overachiever who everyone constantly praises. Nevertheless, Rowling had planted the seeds, and she was either incapable of analyzing whether the two characters made sense together or wasn’t willing to deviate from the planned course even though she knew it wouldn’t make sense.
Beyond the characters, the world of Harry Potter, though fascinating and richly depicted, often felt as though Rowling was making things up as she went. This was epitomized in the sixth book when Rowling reveals that there is a spell that can be performed that makes a person keep a promise, and if the person breaks that promise that person dies. Well, that spell apparently solves everything, right? Don’t want people using the unforgivable curses? Make everyone promise not to, and they never will again! Don’t want people killing muggles? Make everyone promise not to, and all the muggles will be safe! Don’t want death eaters trying to oust the government? Have everyone promise not to be a death eater, or an evil wizard, and problem solved! This spell, much like with the truth serum that makes an occasional appearance before disappearing for books at a time, would seem to completely change the world of Harry Potter, but it’s never clear that Rowling has bothered to think of all the implications of the new aspects of the world that she is introducing. As such, it feels like a patchwork universe as often as it feels like a living, breathing realm.
Finally, there are a couple structural problems to the series. The fifth book was flat out bad. Overlong and completely forgettable, when reading the sixth and seventh books years later I would be able to remember all the characters and occurrences except those introduced in book five. Whatever, 6 out of 7 isn’t too shabby. I’m saying that prematurely however, because the single worst segment of the series is located at the very end, in the form of the epilogue. Wow is that thing poorly written. I expect it’s the case that long ago Rowling wrote out the epilogue, and after the series became successful this epilogue became a sacred cow to her that no editor could touch. She certainly had the juice to keep it any way she wanted it at that point, but the series would have been better off if she had had someone to give her some constructive criticism.
So yeah, the Harry Potter series has some issues. I’m not prepared to say, however, that they outweigh the virtues of the books, despite the fact that I talked about the flaws for so much longer. I’m sure that when I have kids I’ll be buying them the Harry Potter series, perhaps rationing them out so that they don’t reach the darker volumes too soon. The key is that after they read them, though, I’m going to buy them books where readability isn’t the chief virtue.
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Rowling sign it. Thus the Harry Potter books mean something more to me than the material itself might merit based on quality. For the purpose of this review, though, I'll be focusing on the quality of the books alone. The Harry Potter series has several virtues, its greatest being that the series is very readable. You can go through hundreds of pages of Harry Potter in a day with ease, and the constant forward momentum of the plot makes every volume a page turner. There are few times when the books slow down, but in the overall scheme of things they are quickly forgotten. This makes the series ideal for anyone looking for an entertaining read, or for people who haven't read much before. Another of the major virtues is the concept that Rowling explores with these books resonates universally- we'd all like to be whisked away from mundanity into a world that's more magical, we'd all like to think that there's a wonderland hidden behind back alleys and thick forests that someday we'll uncover. We'd all like to somehow be special. Rowling gives this to the reader (indeed, with the titular character Rowling gives us a character who's not only special, he's The Chosen One special, another rank of special above all the other special people), but she couches this magical world filled with special people in a relatable format: grade school. We've all been through it, and so even though the classes are potions and charms we can still relate to the experiences. Combined, the readability and strong central concept, as well as giving readers a battle between good and evil, makes for a very fun book series that well deserves its popularity.
On the other hand, there are also many flaws in this series that detract from its greatness, and which make me doubt whether I will still enjoy the books as much when a few more decades of my life has passed. First, the characters and their relationships. Harry Potter, at first a sympathetic reader surrogate, goes through long stretches of the series spewing teenage angst at everyone around him. Perhaps this was Rowling trying to communicate that teenagers can be unpleasant, self-centered jerks, but she went a bit overboard with this lesson for my taste. Harry’s friend Ron shares this trait, going through a significant portion of the fourth book being a jerk to Harry more for the sake of dramatic tension than any reason that makes real sense. Hermione is defined merely as “the smart one who follows rules” far beyond the point where she should have a more nuanced character. All of these are relatively minor complaints, though, compared to my main one: Rowling rarely makes these characters actually feel like friends. Over 90% of their interactions with each other are aimed at solving the mystery of that year, or preparing for the next big challenge presented by Voldemort or the school, and very rarely do we see them actually enjoying each other’s company. We’re left to assume that such things happen between the lines, but often it seems more like we’re reading about Detective Harry and his two assistants rather than about three teenage friends.
Other aspects of the characters are also noticeably weak. The villains are pure evil, with almost no nuance, to the point where Slytherin is exclusively populated by assholes, and the adult villains are basically magical Nazis. There’s room for nuance here, but besides the character of Snape (whose death renders his allegiance a largely moot point, as he would have been killed regardless of what side he was fighting for) Rowling mostly blows past the possibility of differing perspectives to tell a simple good vs. bad story. Toward the end of the series characters start to pair off in romantic couples as well, an aspect of characterization Rowling seems particularly weak at writing. Harry and Ginny just felt shoehorned together at the last moment, as Ginny had appeared very rarely for the books before Harry suddenly decides he is in love with her. Recently Rowling has revealed that Ron and Hermione would have made a bad couple, and it stuns me that she’s just realizing this now. To anyone who was paying attention it was blatantly obvious that the guy with major self-confidence issues, a bitterness streak against those with wealth or fame, and probably with an inferiority complex probably wasn’t a good match for the brilliant overachiever who everyone constantly praises. Nevertheless, Rowling had planted the seeds, and she was either incapable of analyzing whether the two characters made sense together or wasn’t willing to deviate from the planned course even though she knew it wouldn’t make sense.
Beyond the characters, the world of Harry Potter, though fascinating and richly depicted, often felt as though Rowling was making things up as she went. This was epitomized in the sixth book when Rowling reveals that there is a spell that can be performed that makes a person keep a promise, and if the person breaks that promise that person dies. Well, that spell apparently solves everything, right? Don’t want people using the unforgivable curses? Make everyone promise not to, and they never will again! Don’t want people killing muggles? Make everyone promise not to, and all the muggles will be safe! Don’t want death eaters trying to oust the government? Have everyone promise not to be a death eater, or an evil wizard, and problem solved! This spell, much like with the truth serum that makes an occasional appearance before disappearing for books at a time, would seem to completely change the world of Harry Potter, but it’s never clear that Rowling has bothered to think of all the implications of the new aspects of the world that she is introducing. As such, it feels like a patchwork universe as often as it feels like a living, breathing realm.
Finally, there are a couple structural problems to the series. The fifth book was flat out bad. Overlong and completely forgettable, when reading the sixth and seventh books years later I would be able to remember all the characters and occurrences except those introduced in book five. Whatever, 6 out of 7 isn’t too shabby. I’m saying that prematurely however, because the single worst segment of the series is located at the very end, in the form of the epilogue. Wow is that thing poorly written. I expect it’s the case that long ago Rowling wrote out the epilogue, and after the series became successful this epilogue became a sacred cow to her that no editor could touch. She certainly had the juice to keep it any way she wanted it at that point, but the series would have been better off if she had had someone to give her some constructive criticism.
So yeah, the Harry Potter series has some issues. I’m not prepared to say, however, that they outweigh the virtues of the books, despite the fact that I talked about the flaws for so much longer. I’m sure that when I have kids I’ll be buying them the Harry Potter series, perhaps rationing them out so that they don’t reach the darker volumes too soon. The key is that after they read them, though, I’m going to buy them books where readability isn’t the chief virtue.
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LibraryThing member Nevadablue
Late in arriving to Station 9 and 3 quarters (in the spring of my 73rd year) I nevertheless am board now and loving it! I read them on my Kindle and decided these books needed to be read over and over, just as my Hobbit set, which is just about worn out!
nevadablue
nevadablue
LibraryThing member bearlyr
I thought about reviewing each book separately, but didn't believe I could do each book any justice by that approach. This is a series that needs to be enjoyed in its entirety. Starting at the beginning is always a very good place to start, so we get an introduction to the main characters in the
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Sorcerer's Stone. We go to Hogwarts with Harry and company, meet the villain Voldemort. Then we experience the growth of each of the characters over the years, through the thrilling conclusion in book 7. We accompany them to their first day of class, their first dance, first competition... all while learning about their extraordinary world of magic. What an amazing adventure! If you are one of the few people on Earth who has still not read these books, correct a grievous error on your part and get started... today! Show Less
LibraryThing member CTAATGT
Come on people, this series speaks for itself... my childhood right here
LibraryThing member Jennyonfire
I liked harry potter in the beginning of the series. The last few books became tedious, filled with too much teen angst and anger. They became melodramatic and no longer fun to read. It took me three tries to get through Order of The Phoenix. The ending of the series was anti-climactic.
LibraryThing member keithkv
Great read, as has been reiterated by almost everyone on the planet. My only complaint is that Harry is kind of a bitch. Sometimes I wish he would just shut up and let the plot get on with itself. Other than that, good filler reading. It eats up time, the pages fly by, and although these books
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won't shatter your grip on reality, they're like Pringles: once you pop you just can't stop. Show Less
LibraryThing member brownsis
The Harry Potter series is not just for kids!! I started reading these in college and was sad to see it end at 32 years of age!!! These books are instant classics, and keep getting better everytime I read them.
LibraryThing member coconutpalm
Ah, it's fairly childish, but it has accompanied so many of us to grow up!
LibraryThing member jennchem
I read all of the books for the first time when the seventh novel came out, as I'd been promising to do for years. I now see what all the fuss was about.
LibraryThing member cram27
My uncle Ed bought the first two books for me and my sister back in fourth grade. The books started gaining popularity in fifth grade, where my HP and the Sorcerer's Stone was stolen. I admit to dressing up with my sister and 28 year old cousin to receive the seventh book at midnight. With that
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said, I am a fan. I do believe Rowling touches on the importance of looking beyond social class, race, and religion, when she presents the Half-blood, Pure-blood, and muggle born criterias into the wizarding people. I do not believe it was an overly emphasized theme, but present none the less. I plan on using these books to spark an interest in reading into my children someday. I have only read the last book once and I plan to reread them all over the summer, after which I plan to rank them. Show Less
LibraryThing member BadPanda
When I first heard of Harry, only the second book was out. However, I have issues with series. I lack patience and I abhor reading a book, then falling madly in love with the story, and then having to linger in limbo while waiting for the next book.
So I waited. Many years. At last, the box set was
I dearly love this story. I love the characters, the language, the plot (and its twists!) and I love the message: Love >fear.
So I waited. Many years. At last, the box set was
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available! I spent one week solid reading; I even called out of work when I made it halfway through "The Half-Blood Prince." (Don't tell them, please. They are without culture or the ability for aesthetic appreciation and would not understand. Thanks, I appreciate it.) I dearly love this story. I love the characters, the language, the plot (and its twists!) and I love the message: Love >fear.
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LibraryThing member amanda_anderson
Rowling is a talented and inspirational writer. How she brought this world to life and created such an amazing fantasy is astounding. All her books are amazing and I was sad to read the final book - but hopeful she may make a comeback with adult Harry one day ....
LibraryThing member rlbaxter
Everyone 10 and up should read these wonderful stories. My entire family, from my youngest to my mother have read and enjoyed.
LibraryThing member ALoyacano
Yeah, that's right, I own this. It rocks....craziness.
LibraryThing member 78degreegirl
juvenile, fantasy, coming-of-age, friends
LibraryThing member marguerlucy
I'd give it a five, but for her excessive use of capitalization in book 5, and a cheesy epilogue in book 7. Other than that, I'm one of the many rabid fans.
LibraryThing member mannperkins
I'm not sure which one is my favorite. All the books were well written and great for read alouds for kids. The more you get into the books the more adult they are because they get dark. The first couple are more geared towards kids.
LibraryThing member Spiceca
I enjoyed the entire set. The characters have been developed well and grow through each book. My only criticism would be Rowlings overuse of Adverbs- but I can certainly overlook that with the great story she has told.
LibraryThing member DF5B_RobertS
Read them all, what a fantasticly delicious series, that, at the time of it's writing, was a revolutionary turn to books. Now considered classics, J.K. Rowling's books have triumphed over many skeptics, and there is book sales to show. Although, I must say, the acting in the first 4 movies was
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terrible. Just saw the recent one, and by golly, I think they finally sent them to acting school. Show Less
LibraryThing member jphilbrick
I just bought the first six at a used-book sale and figured I should add them, as these are books I've read multiple times, and will probably read repeatedly in the future. I resisted reading Harry Potter until about book 3 (I had nothing else to read at the time), and I'm glad I finally did. :)
LibraryThing member rck
Read a couple of the first ones. Loved the beginning books but they become boring as series progresses,
LibraryThing member hitarthsaini
totally awesome!!
creates a new world around u.
love every single one!!!
creates a new world around u.
love every single one!!!
LibraryThing member LadyKiayaka
My favorite collection no doubt. Amazingly written, great character advancement, and great detail. These books are a permanant staple to my library.
LibraryThing member andilovehim
These books got me through middle school and the first two years of high school. love them to death, and will re-read them again and again
LibraryThing member SoapBoxinMyMind
This was a wonderful series with a lot of suspense. The character development was very thorough and I was quite pleased with the way the story ended. My 9 year old is enjoying the series right now.
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Hall of Fame — 2006)
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Children's Literature — 2008)
Prix Sorcières (1999)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
13.9 inches
ISBN
0545044251 / 9780545044257