What Books Are BETTER Then Harry Potter

[Parche]

[ZombieNixon]

1. Gotta disagree with you on Narnia.

Did not like it. Too preachy. Nothing wrong with moral lessons, but it was too overt and obvious for my taste and overshadowed the plot, which I found quite forgettable...to the point that I have forgotten it. :crazy:

As for war memoirs, comparing those to Harry Potter strikes me as a bit apples-to-oranges-ish.

For books in a comparable genre that I found just as enjoyable as Potter, with a bit more deep philosophy behind them and more even, measures writing with fewer adverbs, I'd say the "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman. :)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Oh yeah, HDM is amazing.

Better than Harry Potter, though I still like Potter.

[Withywindle]

8. Narnia's SUCH a mixed bag...

Loved 'em as a kid (when I was very uncritical of anything with talking animals in it. :)), had a violent reaction as an adult. Word on the preachiness, but I think the racism is worse. Which is kind of painful, because there ARE some good stories and some lovely imagery in there, it's just hard to enjoy it anymore.

For really good kids' F/SF, I gotta give props to Susan Cooper ('The Dark is Rising' series, soon to be made into an atrocious movie) and Madeleine L'Engle (the 'Wrinkle in Time' series - has Christian themes like Narnia, but much less insultingly so, IMO).

And Pullman, of course--but I wasn't a kid when those came out so I didn't experience them the same way.

[triguy46]

2. Get piece of paper, draw 4 columns....

Number from 1 to 100, turn it over, draw 4 more columns, number from 101 to 200, etc. etc.

[Robeson]

16. Nicely said....

...:thumbsup:

[KatyMan]

3. well...

who cares? I've never read an HP book or seen an HP movie, but if people like it, good for them. there's lots of stuff I read that I think is awesome but wouldn't think others would like. Some of it is extremely popular (i.e. Tolkien), other stuff is more obscure (like the WWII, Nazi Germany history books I read, or the medieval histories I like or even the British detective novels I can't get enough of). Smart people read the things that entertain them, along with the books that teach them. There's reading for learning, and there's entertainment, and often folks just want to be entertained.

[no name no slogan]

5. This one...

:popcorn:

[skygazer]

6. None, obviously

:eyes:

[yellowdogintexas]

7. well, depends on who is doing the comparing.

I should think

[JVS]

9. Roald Dahl's "My Uncle Oswald" A delightful tale for people of all ages!

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying

[gmoney]

22. The expurgated version?

"I can't buy that, it's torn..."

Sadly, one of their weaker sketches... "The Cheese Shop" from the other side of the counter.

"Funny, we've got a lot of books here" is the comedic inversion of "Well, it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese."

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. 'Bookshop' was the original

Done with Marty Feldman in the earlier "At Last the 1948 Show" (as was, for instance, the 4 Yorkshireman sketch, which Monty Python (and others) did live many times after that).

Script here, along with a book whose title is strangely familiar ... :evilgrin:

[gmoney]

32. Maybe that's why the Cheese Shop seems more polished...

...although both seem to suffer from MP's occasional difficulty with providing a satisfactory end to a sketch.

[DS1]

11. two from one guy

(even though he has no idea to actually "end" the story, the ride is amazing"



http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/514E9A0MPEL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Both are fuckin' fantastic!!

Crypto is one of my favorite books ever!

I love - and loved - all his books to death, and was so excited when the Baroque Cycle came out and I found it so disappointingly plodding I didn't finish the first book.

I'll go back and re-read it someday, but I was really disappointed. All his other books were so utterly brilliant.

[InternalDialogue]

19. I worked through the first book of the cycle.

I was interested in the threads that connected it to Cryptonomicon, but I ended up enjoying the book for what it was.

I agree it was plodding, but I decided to take my time with it, and in looking at it as something to drop into now and then, it worked great. I especially enjoyed the etymology he threw in there, hardly announcing the revelations, but rather letting them play out until I saw and thought, "Really? That's where 'dollar' comes from? How 'bout that."

I haven't gone past Quicksilver, but I will when more pressing books are off my list.

[InternalDialogue]

18. Yeah, Cryptonomicon is astounding.

What a ride! Snow Crash is on my shelf and waiting until it's time...

[otherlander]

13. Yay! BOOKPICTURES!

[The Straight Story]

14. The phone book

:rofl: just kidding :)

I have not read em so won't bitch about em. If people like em, than that is good enough for me.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. This one I just finished:

[jgraz]

17. Here are two of my favs

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. 'The Amazing Adventures of Captain Gladys Stoat-Pamphlet

and her Intrepid Spaniel Stig Amongst the Giant Pygmies of Beckles," Vol. VII.



Oh, and "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying."

[jus_the_facts]

21. What books are better THAN.......

...sorry to be a grammar nazi...but I've seen then and than used in the wrong sense in a couple of books I've read lately and it get's on my last nerve. :(

[Nevernose]

23. There's no apostrophe in "get's on my last nerve."

From one grammar Nazi to another...

[jus_the_facts]

25. Oh My....posted to myself....instead o'you....

bwahahaha....TOUCHE'....
...I'm drunk...but that's no excuse now...is it?! :rofl:

[Nevernose]

26. Perfectly valid excuse in my book

Of course, I spilled a beer on my my book an hour ago, but that's a whole 'nother thread.

[jus_the_facts]

27. I'm havin' some Spumante'...but haven't spilled any...except down my throat....

:toast:

:evilgrin:

[jus_the_facts]

24. bwahahaha....TOUCHE'....

...I'm drunk...but that's no excuse now...is it?! :D

[QMPMom]

29. Anything is better than Harry Potter.

"Fun with Dick and Jane" is better.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

30. Here's some:

House of Leaves

Roald Dahl's Omnibus of bedtime stories for sleepless nights

Stranger in a Strange Land

Vellum

Time Enough For Love

Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

Discourse on the Inequality Among Men

Walden

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintainence

Catcher in the Rye

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

The Book of Thell

The Waste Land (might as well be a book)

Starship Troopers

The Prince

What Dreams May Come

I'm sure there's more ;)

[NewJeffCT]

31. In the same genre...

Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" series, and "The Hobbit"

And, so far, George R.R. Martin's "Ice & Fire" series.

[Burma Jones]

33. Just a Few of many......

Absurdism for the Children, Superb

[SteppingRazor]

34. If we're sticking with kids' fantasy books, then Watership Down.

If you're actually asking what books, in general, are better than the Harry Potter series, then I really don't have time to list all four or five thousand I can think of :P

[ezgoingrl]

35. All Creatures Great and Small

et al

Those are great books, laugh out loud funny!