Check in here if you don't "get" Harry Potter.

[Tyler Durden]

As a voracious reader (and I do have some tastes others view as dubious) I have really tried to read these books...PROMISE.

I just can't. I made it about 50-100 pages into the first one a couple of times, and since then I've tried a couple of the others...

I just can't. I don't "get" the attraction...but I do realize there are tomes I have read several times that a lot of you wouldn't give room on your shelf.

Don't let me "...feel so all alone..." here. Check in.

[Tyler Durden]

1. C'mon here. Do ALL of you LOVE Harry Potter?

I can't be the only wet blanket on your Potter Joyfest.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. I only read the 2nd and 4th books ...

and I have zero interest in the series. I am glad that it has people reading books but to each their own.

[stuntcat]

3. eep

I'm afraid to admit it in public.
I read half of book one.. that was when I had some huge distracting things going on so that's partly why I couldn't get excited about it, then I saw the first movie which was alright but I wasn't really moved.. maybe by then it was too late for me.
It's neato though!, I'm totally glad for people who're into it :headbang:

[Tyler Durden]

4. Hey, far be it from me to denounce anyone's personal tastes...

I just don't get the mania. I like Thomas Harris, but if he he'd written Red Dragon and STOPPED, I'd be just fine.

[Tyler Durden]

5. At Barnes and Noble, I watched a grown woman get GIGGLY about a "Potter Party."

They were having one at this B&N in an upscale area, and she practically SQUEALED.

I haven't gotten THAT excited about anything since 1976 when Vicki Eaves literally ripped my clothes off in my own living room. Best looking woman I've ever met in the flesh.

[datasuspect]

6. i imagine i would have been into it if i was 7 years old right now

[BlueJazz]

7. I feel the same way. I'm sure the Books/Films turn a lot of people...

...on but for me, they are just boring.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. I thought the first book was good...

Kids the age of Harry Potter often feel like they're freaks and don't fit in anywhere. The first book, with Harry learning of his heritage and finding a community where he could mature, did a good job at exploring those themes. The subsequent books, especially after "Prisoner of Azkaban," are more pot-boilers than anything.

[bigwillq]

9. I've never read any of the books

I tried to watch one of the movies, not sure which one, and I could only get through 20 minutes before I turned it off. I just didn't care for it.

[MissMillie]

10. I read the first one, and it was entertaining, I guess

but enough to keep drawing me back in? Nope

[realisticphish]

11. Not much to get really

I love the books, but some people don't. :shrug:

Just like music, imho. Personal taste, all that. As long as you don't get the idea that not liking it makes you intellectually superior, it's all good (That's true with music, too; I hate music snobs).

[Tyler Durden]

12. Oh no. I don't judge people on what they read or listen to...

As long as they grant me similar license.

I started a thread a while back on the subject that IN MY OPINION a certain rock star might consider retirement, and I was ROASTED as a no-taste snob.

Everyone has the right to whatever is in their head as long as it doesn't involve the present day equivalent of camps, ovens, and swastikas.

[XemaSab]

13. Here's the deal:

The first few books are dissatisfying until you have read the last few books and understand that the first few books are a lot of setup.

All the random details and color she puts in, and the maddeningly whimsical plots... it's all there for a reason, and the reasons come clear in 4, 5, and 6.

Pure goodness.

[Tyler Durden]

15. Don't get me wrong: I'm happy for you.

I simply do not grok the series, any more than I would insist you get John DeChancie's "Starrigger" trilogy, or the Taltos books of Steven Brust, or any of the David Weber series.

I also do not try to convert Country Music devotees to Baroque/Romantic Classicists.

Tolerance will save us all.

[Tyler Durden]

27. I have just discovered something about myself.

I'm tolerant as long as it's the kind of tolerance of a Public Library: full of quiet, polite grown-ups.

Guess I'm not as tolerant as I presumed.

[KG]

14. tho the fantasy/sci fi genre is a fave of mine, i really don't care to read about

the adventures of children, hence my lack of intrest in the whole potter thing.

[Tyler Durden]

16. We "reach" on that one.

"Narnia," while well written, could not hold my attention either.

Although I enjoyed the Tolkein books several times, and the films as well, I haven't re-read the trilogy in many years: perhaps I don't wish to break the spell.

[KG]

17. i found the narnia thing creepy

[Tyler Durden]

18. Wasn't my thing either.

We all have our tastes in literature. That's why libraries are so huge.

[tigereye]

21. we started reading them to my son

previously I probably would't have read them. But I have enjoyed them for what they are. She's a clever plotter in some ways. No, she wont' be winning a Pulitzer, but....


I loved Narnia when I was a kid.... and my husband read the Trilogy out loud for my son and it was really cool to hear it read aloud.

[stuntcat]

25. that's it

that's mostly why I don't love it I think

[skygazer]

19. I thought the idea was brilliant

A world where magic and sorcery exist and kids go to school to learn their art - nifty idea with a lot of potential, I thought. So I went into it expecting to enjoy it because I do enjoy well-written children's books and fantasy.

I read the first book and part of the second and I tried to watch a couple of the movies. I really did give them a chance. But I found the writing to be pedestrian at best, plodding at worst and the execution of the ideas wasn't anywhere remotely near what I expected. I just don't think the woman is that talented a writer. Frankly, she bores me.

I'm glad kids enjoy them and that they've encouraged them to read. That's terrific. Maybe they'll discover some really good books now.

[Tyler Durden]

20. I read some fairly "pedestrian" stuff m'self.

I wouldn't call my addiction to pulp Science Fiction exactly participation in "high art," but I like it. Doesn't stop me from reading Preston or Kozol, too.

Some stuff just doesn't stimulate.

[Left Is Write]

22. I have never read a Harry Potter book, nor have I seen a Harry Potter movie.

It simply does not interest me.

[AlCzervik]

23. i'm not a fan of the books myself, i love The Hobbit and conversely my daughter can't stand it.

she read it this year for school and she complained the whole time, "Thats how i feel about Harry Potter books honey". they just aren't my thing but i can totally understand how people can get really into them.

[El Fuego]

24. I liked "Goblet of Fire," the only one I've been able to read.

I tried to read "Order of the Phoenix" but it totally bored me and I never finished it.

[JVS]

26. Well they do say that the newspapers are written at a 5th grade level, maybe people want their...

books that way too. :hide: