Tag Archives: harry potter

Joanne K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Today you get a review for one of my childhood favourites for BiblioSmiles Summer Book Challenge. Especially as today I am at the Harry Potter Exhibition in Cologne with Unmei.

What is it about?

4 of 5 stars


The young orphan Harry Potter leads a normal life with the Dursleys: his aunt Petunia, his uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley. That is until a strange letter arrives that is accurately addressed at Harry, regardless of where he currently is.
On his eleventh birthday Rubeus Hagrid finally hands him the letter telling Harry that he is, in fact, a wizard. Confronted with the truth about his parents and himself, he soon learns about his fame as The Boy Who Lived and sets off to his first school year in the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. There, for the first time, he gains friends (Ron Weasley, Hermoine Granger)- and foes (Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape) alike – and together they uncover a secret hidden within the school.

The reading experience

When I was about the same age as Harry and the others I read this book several times, I do believe at least seven times. Re-reading it after all these years I looked a bit different at the writing itself though.
I still knew what happened in each chapter by simply reading the title, still I didn’t remember the exact words that were used. This kept the whole thing exciting and still captivating whenever it was interesting.
The writing style did, however, feel like it was indeed intended for young people. It didn’t bother me much though (it was a nice and welcome change from the complexity of A Game of Thrones). I do believe the later books are written a bit differently, but as a series continues, so does an author improve and I wouldn’t be surprised if there really is a change. Like always I can only make my assumptions from the German versions of the book(s).

The characters

I grew up with Harry, Ron, Hermoine (though the latter was spelled Hermine) and Neville and have lived through their trials. Even after all this time I think Harry can be quite a brat sometimes, just as Ron can be quite idiotic, Neville was always quite underrated and Hermoine was – and still is – my hero.
As I have mentioned before am I not a fan of „you/I-have-to-do-this-because-you’re/I’m-the-main-character“- story lines and each book pretty much follows the same principle. The highlight is when the others get involved. Here they are still getting to know each other and the exploring-together part is quite left out and instead we see them butt heads. I never liked it when the boys talked down Hermoine or rid themselves of Neville. I like(d) those two and wanted to see more of them. Ron’s sometimes unwanted stupidity still made him likeable.
When I first read the book I think I was as shocked by the twist at the end, as the characters themselves, but when I re-read it with that knowledge, I saw the hints that are already there and that’s what keeps a story interesting.
Some characters feel like stereotypes, many are named, but not explored, but still, no two characters are the same – well, maybe with the exception of the Weasley-twins. 😀 I never understood why anyone would badmouth the Weasley’s, they are an awesome family…
Regardless of that am I just time and again surprised how soon Muggle-born or Halfbloods forget the technological advantages of their home. Sure Computers weren’t nearly as good back in the early 90s as they are nowadays and many things couldn’t be found with the help of the Internet, but still it’s weird that the Magical community does not show any kind of interest in it…

General Opinion

I don’t know what I can say here.
I really liked the book when I grew up, I desperately waited for my letter for Hogwarts and I still enjoy exploring the world after all these years.
The book might not be a masterpiece – some story lines jump quite a bit, some things could have been covered more, stereotypical characters – but it is one of those books that I will probably always enjoy reading. It makes you want to join this magical world, just like Harry – without the whole Boy Who Lived baggage though – who was allowed to part from a mundane life and experience all that.
Every kid should have the chance to read this book while growing up.

Stuff I’d like to add

If some of the things above sounded familiar than that’s because I mentioned some of it already in these Reading Together: #6 and #7
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover belongs to its rightful owner

Reading Together #7

Only after I published last weeks instalment did I notice that there would be another one, so this time the actual last instalment of Weltenwanderers and SchlunzenbüchersGemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together) for this year.

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m still reading my childhood favourite for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne K. Rowling.
I’m currently on page 212, which is only about a hundred pages away from the end.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Weihnachten stand vor der Tür.

or in English:

Christmas was just around the corner.

Interestingly Christmas has just passed and New Years Eve is around the corner. 😀

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I am soo bad with predictions…
Yes, it’s a short read, but you have to actually read to be able to finish it in a short amount of time…
And I didn’t expect to get distracted by different Fairytales, Being Human (US) and The Fall along the way…
Though this doesn’t mean the book isn’t captivating any more. It is, I’m just too tired to continue reading, when I finally pick up the book in the evening.
I still remember what is happening in which chapter, but I don’t remember the exact words used, so I can still look forward to experiencing the different things again. 🙂
I also think that „I thought you should know“ as addition to the line „Troll – in the dungeon“ is quite weird and unnecessary, though I can’t remember if it always bugged me, but it feels like it did.

4. The turn of the year is approaching: Did you set any reading-wise goals for yourself for 2015? Which and why?

As I mentioned last time, do I still have the two challenges I want to finish (BiblioSmiles and DarkFairy’s Alphabet Reading Challenge) and after cleaning out most of the books I had for Fairy’s challenge there are quite some books left…
But as I didn’t manage to get the 20 books this year, I think I’ll try to get them next year and with those two challenges I think I would have the needed motivation for it.
As to the why, I guess I could only say: Just because I want to read more regularly.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
As WordPress made a nice statistic for this year, you can expect to read about it tomorrow. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #6

I’m on vacation and I give you the last instalment of Weltenwanderers and SchlunzenbüchersGemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together) for this year.

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

As I finished „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin yesterday and didn’t want to continue with The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula Le Guin, that I wrote about last Tuesday, I thought I might as well start with my childhood favourite for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge, which is none other than Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Joanne K. Rowling.
I’m currently on page 5, which technically is page one as I still haven’t started reading.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Mr. und Mrs. Dursley im Lingusterweg Nummer 4 waren stolz darauf, ganz und gar normal zu sein, sehr stolz sogar.

or in English:

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley in the Privet Drive number four were proud of being well and truly normal, very proud indeed.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I’m quite excited to re-read this book again after nearly 15 years (if I remember correctly). In contrast to Game of Thrones 800+ pages it will be a short read with about 300 and I remember that I once managed to read through it in about a days‘ – or night’s – time.
I really hope I will still like the characters like I did when I grew up.

4. The end of the year is drawing near. Did you have any goals for reading this year? If so, which were they and did you manage to reach them yet or are you going to within the last few days of this year?

I put two challenges upon myself. On the one hand the Summer Book Challenge of BiblioSmiles (see link above) and on the other hand DarkFairy’s Alphabet Reading Challenge. Lo and behold, I managed to finish neither. 😀
While I’m slowly closing in on the eleven books from the Summer Challenge, I am currently thinking of replacing the majority of the books I had counted in Fairy’s challenge and therefore would have quite a bunch of letters left to choose books for.
Still, both challenges give me motivation to strive for actually reading the books I’ve chosen, even if I don’t manage them in the time frame they were set in.
As for my own goals: I didn’t really have any, I just wanted to read more and I’ve managed to do that. Though when I saw my statistic from Goodreads about how many books I’ve read this year, I do have the urge to complete the twenty now…
Maybe I’ll manage it. The Philosophers stone wont be a long read and there weren’t that many pages left in the Earthsea book either, so it might work…

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
This isn’t really book related, but as Unmei and I will be visiting the Harry Potter Exhibition in Cologne in January I thought it best to re-read it beforehand. 🙂
Leading up to our trip I will also host another Book-Week with reviews for the books I’ve read recently.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #4

To keep this one going you get another – this time belated, due to Laptop and Hobbit-reasons – instalment of Weltenwanderers and SchlunzenbüchersGemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from yesterday’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m still reading „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin, one of the books I had chosen as A book someone else picked for me for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge.
I’m currently on page 515, so I managed to read about 300 pages since last Tuesday, by mostly reading in the bus and finishing the chapters I started afterwards and on occasion reading regardless of that.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Jon was breaking fast on applecakes and blood sausage when Samwell Tarly plopped himself down on the bench.

or in German:

Jon frühstückte gerade Apfelkuchen und Blutwurst, als Samwell Tarly sich auf der Bank niederließ.

I didn’t continue to read until I published the post to make this a Jon-hat-trick, I just couldn’t resist and this way I wrote one of the last few stories for the Advent Calendar instead of reading in the bus.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I’m not sure if I like the way the tv-show changes stuff, but I mentioned that before. Besides, even if I know I should stop watching the episode after reading the chapters portrayed in it, I kind of can’t because it’s still interesting to watch. This series is just too damn captivating…
Story-wise did a lot happen in the past chapters and I’m quite certain that this was only the beginning. Neither of the Starks is in a very good situation, the Lannisters plot and maim as they see fit and the Targaryen’s have reached their destination.
I by the way really enjoy the portrayal of the characters in the book so far, especially Arya and Daenarys. I really liked how Ned handled the whole thing with Needle and I grinned while Dany gave her brother a piece of her mind upon their arrival in Vaes Dothrak.
On the other hand was I just as shocked as Catelyn when she met her sister again.
As for the men, I don’t know what to make of Tyrion.
He’s an interesting character, with good advise and clever lines, but he still seems a bit too superior to me at times. Even with his physical restraints he can do a lot of things with seemingly little effort. Of course his pain is mentioned, but it still feels a bit too much like „look at this character, he is an imp, but look how awesome he is“. Kind of like one of those imba-characters in games or role plays. I still enjoy the scenes he’s in though.
Jon on the other hand is one of those characters that I don’t want to like, due to a possible death, but still do. It’s great how he changed from lordling to tutor and protector of his Black Brothers.
I have noticed that the characters have a different view on peoples ages, but when I read Sansa’s comment on how old someone was who was closing in on twenty two I certainly had to take a moment to let this sink…
Sure she is eleven and a brat (my least favourite of the Stark-bunch by the way), but people can’t have high life expectancies if mid-thirties are considered close to death and mid-twenties regarded as old, but it does fit the context.

4. Are you reading books only once or are there books you read/re-read several times?

Generally I read books only once.
Though, when I was a teenager I re-read the first three books of the Harry Potter series a couple of times. I do believe it was something around 7-5-3 times, maybe more often, maybe the fourth one as well, I can’t say any more. I just didn’t want to leave that world and the next book was still far away…
With BiblioSmiles challenge I am going to re-read the first one again as childhood favourite.
When Fairy posted her review on Reaper Man for her Alphabet-Challenge I couldn’t help myself but to follow DEATH on his journey to understand mortality again, either.
There are also a couple of other books that I wouldn’t mind re-reading, simply because I can’t quite remember them (like Waywalkers and Timekeepers by Catherine Webb), but that wont be done quite soon I guess, as I still have a couple others on my list.

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
As you’ve probably noticed was this post a bit delayed, but with my Laptop being at the service and me getting some sleep before the Hobbit-midnight premier last night it wasn’t really possible for me to finish the post in time.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together #2

As I’m still not finished with the Advent Calendar and feel like doing this again, you get another instalment of Weltenwanderers and SchlunzenbüchersGemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).

Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.
[Edit: I just noticed that this is the actual post I had to answer and I instead looked at the one from two weeks ago…
I added the real fourth question at the end.]

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m currently reading „A Game of Thrones“ by George R.R. Martin, one of the books I had chosen as A book someone else picked for me for BiblioSmiles’s Summer Book Challenge.
I’m currently on page 49, so not that far into the story, but I already met some Starks, the last Targaryens, a couple of Baratheons and some White Walkers – though they are still unnamed.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

There were times – not many, but a few – when Jon Snow was glad he was a bastard.

or in German:

Es gab Zeiten – nicht viele, aber einige wenige – wenn Jon Snow froh darüber war, ein Bastard zu sein.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

As a more or less rule I do not watch movies and series unless I know the books.
Or at least there are three categories to this:

  • I don’t care (e.g. Percy Jackson)
  • I didn’t know (e.g. Earthsea)
  • I don’t want to see it without former knowledge (the majority of things out there)

The last category was mostly created thanks to the Lord of the Rings movies, as I simply didn’t understand them, even though I watched them twice – each. (Still have to read the book though…)
So for the Game of Thrones series I decided to read before watching as well, even though I’ve heard many things about it and seen several gifs on Tumblr already.
I’m curious how Martin pulls off the different story lines and handles his masses of characters. I do believe this’ll help me to improve myself as a writer.

[Edit: 4.1] It is time for something new by … ? Which author should pretty soon write another book in your opinion? Or is there a series were you’re thinking „Man there should be another part!!“ ?

As I am rarely up to date with any books by any author is the answer to this quite difficult for me.
Last time I told you that I don’t really like series, so I don’t even know were to start there.
I do, however, know a series were I asked myself after the fifth book or so, why the author IS still continuing it, because the stories were pretty much repeating itself over and over again…. (I’m talking about Wolfgang Hohlbein’s Chroniken der Unsterblichen/Chronicles of the Immortals)
As I declared it as my favourite series and mentioned I wouldn’t mind continuations I guess the Harry Potter books seem to fall into the „there should be another part“ category…

[Edit: 4.2 This weekend is the first Sunday of Advent! What are you most excited about during the time of Advent? Christmassy books, Blog-Advent Calendars or are there any book-related topics that delight you especially in this time of the year?

There is pretty much only one Blogg-Advent Calendar I’m excited about and that is my own
This might sound selfish, but this is the first time I made a calendar myself and I’m just curios if people will like/enjoy it…
Though as I generally like Advent Calendars and find them a pretty good thing to get into a Christmas mood, I think I’ll check out a couple of others to see how they are done. (Like the BlogBoard Advent Calendar, where DarkFairy participates)
In the farther sense of book-related are the things I like most about the Advent time the many stories that are shared.
Be they as films on television or whatever.
I just like watching/reading Fairytales…]

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
I don’t know if I’ll be participating again next week or some other week, but maybe I’ll do. It seems interesting and could be another regular post beside my Weekend Guess.
Other than that would it also give me a way to talk about my current read without adding a Goodreads Widget to my sidebar.
We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

Reading Together

Recently I discovered several new Blogs through different circumstances, like  Clue Writing from Saturdays post. This comes in quite handy as I am currently quite occupied with the Advent Calendar. I feel that it is easier to pick up someone else’s idea instead of focusing on my own (far too long) ToDo-List (see the side-menu on the right for a small look at it).
The thing I’m picking up today is a mutual project by the Blogs Weltenwanderer and Schlunzenbücher called „Gemeinsam Lesen“ (Reading Together).
Each Tuesday one of them asks four questions, with the first three always being the same about the book one is currently reading and the fourth a new one by either of them. All questions below are obviously translated from today’s German post.

1. Which Book are you currently reading and which page are you on?

I’m currently reading „Doctor Who – Das Rad aus Eis/The Wheel of Ice“ by Stephen Baxter, one of the many novellas telling further stories of the Time Lord.
This is in fact the book that my local library acquired after I asked them about Doctor Who books when I was there to place my piece of paper in a Torchwood novel for Bad Wolf Day (2013). Recently I actually got the Torchwood book and this one to read them.
I’m currently on page 179 and I’m hoping to finish the remaining roughly 300 pages before Monday, as I have to return it to the library by then.

2. What is the first sentence on your current page?

Der Seitengang war gerade so hoch, dass Zoe sich aufrecht darin bewegen konnte, allerdings enger und gröber behauen als der Hauptschacht.

or in English:

The corridor was just high enough for Zoe to move upright in it, yet it was still more narrow and less smooth than the main chamber.

3. What do you desperately need to tell about your current book? (Thoughts, Feelings, a Quote, whatever you want!)

I don’t think I desperately want to tell this, but I do have some thoughts on it, that I’ll probably reuse when I’m writing the proper review.
This novel is a Second Doctor novel with Jamie and Zoe as companions and as I’ve already noticed while watching „The Seeds of Death“ and „The Mind Robber“ do I quite enjoy this combination.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of them.
What bugs me most about reading this book is, however, its layout. It’s a Hardcover version and therefore quite large as it is. Still, the pages have a lot of space around what is written in a rather large font, thus creating rather short pages.
So you have this giant book, with little content to actually read on one page.
This feels especially weird when you’re sitting in the bus and to everyone else it looks like you’re reading a children’s book…

4. There are uncountable numbers of series in our Book-Jungle – are you a fan of series? Which one is your favourite?

I’m not really a fan of long running series, as it’s quite a hassle to keep track of what books you have/have read/still need to get/read. This is made even more complicated by the fact that German publishers have the ridiculous habit of splitting one English Book into two German ones.
Besides if you started buying/reading a series in one language, you don’t really want to switch to the other for the books that aren’t (yet) available or split, because it would look weird in your shelves.
I own a couple of series and one with which I have exactly those problems.
Short series aren’t that bad (three – seven books) though, as it is easier to know the things above.
Good thing I’m co-writing a Trilogy and have another project that might become one as well, if not longer…
So, in general if I buy a new book I try searching for clues if the book is part of a series and if it is, I wont buy it. But accidental buys still happen at times.
I do believe the Harry Potter books would qualify as my favourite series. They had a huge influence on me while growing up and I still enjoy learning new stuff surrounding the world Rowling created (see The Pottermore Experiment) and am going to indulge in it again one of these days as part of BiblioSmiles‘ Summer Book Challenge (and yes it states Summer, but I don’t always manage to read when I would like to, but I’m nearly half way through 🙂 ).

Additional thoughts

You can obviously participate in these questions by either using my translated or the original German version.
I don’t know if I’ll be participating again next week or some other week, but maybe I’ll do. It seems interesting and could be another regular post beside my Weekend Guess.
Other than that would it also give me a way to talk about my current read without adding a Goodreads Widget to my sidebar.
We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the cover, the quote and the banner belong to their rightful owners.

The Pottermore Experiment

As you might remember did I re-discover my wand core on Pottermore not long ago. By now I have played a bit again and started thinking that it might be interesting for my mum as well, simply because she likes point and click games.
From this thought another one started to form:

If my parents went through the sorting, which house would they get?

And thus started the Pottermore Experiment.

The Experiment Set-Up

To learn the answer to my question I had to register my parents to the site (see Link above).
When I made the account for my mum I had the slight fear they wouldn’t let me, as I already used the E-Mail address with mine. But I was able to create it and clicked through the tutorial pages while my mum read them. I tried letting her navigate by herself, but she’s awful at using the touch pad on my laptop ( I didn’t even bother to do either when it was my dad’s turn).
Therefore I navigated through the game and read the questions and answers out loud for her and later for my dad again (They by the way had different questions). While my mum knew what I was up to, my dad only realized it when we started the sorting, but neither of them were as curious as me.
Both times I tried to not influence them by stopping at certain answers I found most fitting, but I do believe some of their choices where more a „I have no idea what I’m supposed to answer so I’m just randomly picking one“ than „Yes, this sounds like me.“.
But I still got my results and that is what counts in the end (however weird they might be).

The Wands

The people familiar with the Harry Potter universe know that wands can be quite different even within the same family. Seemingly my family is even more different than that…
At Ollivanders you can get wands with Unicorn hair, Dragonheart strings or a Phoenix Feather.
Long story short: We managed to divide those three among us.
You already know that my wand is Laurel and Unicorn hair, my dad in turn got Larch and Dragonheart strings, while my mum got Dogwood and the Phoenix Feather. Both of their wands are supple, while mine is only slightly yielding. Seems like I am more stubborn than my dad after all. 😉
The attributes of these wands fit quite well for them (and for me too I guess) and even the lengths are according to their size differences (12 1/2 inch vs. 10 inch; mine is the odd one out with 10 3/4 and doesn’t fit the height pattern as I’m closer to my dad).
When the wands had chosen their wielder we finally got to the interesting part:

Houses

When I made the test back in 2012 I more or less anticipated to end up in Ravenclaw, but regardless of my interest in knowledge and reading, did the Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin.  Yeah, the one usually associated with the bad guys, but hey, even Merlin was in this house. 😉 I was surprised, but not unsatisfied with this decision, I’m probably far too lazy to be a Ravenclaw anyway…
Before my mum started answering the questions we speculated again and I would have put her into Hufflepuff. Afterwards we knew she is a Gryffindor. She was happy about it and I was confused. Though thinking about it, I guess she would be the Neville-kind of student. Always in the background, but there when you need her.
Now this got me thinking: If mum is a Gryffindor, than dad has to be in Slytherin, as we share quite a bunch of traits.
Thanks to my incredible sorting skills he wasn’t in the anticipated house either…
He is in Gryffindor as well…

Conclusion

With my parents in the house that has an ever lasting rivalry with my own I seem to be truly the Black Sheep in my family…
It is a bit confusing and somewhat shoking, but I don’t mind being with the snakes. 😀
It is a bit scary how well the Algorithm behind either question set work to determine your wand and house. During my Bachelors thesis I looked a bit into different mechanisms to do things like that and I can only say that I am highly impressed at how well they programmed it. I would really like to have a look at it one day…
Does anyone know how you can apply as programmer/employee for Pottermore? 😀
(Or at least tell them their German translations are awfully complicated and not without errors)
But I do believe that the house sorting could need a couple more questions, as I am pretty sure some decisions where a close call. You can’t argue with a program the way you can with the Hat and you wont know what the alternative would have been, so you are left with the results, questioning how the decision was made. Who knows maybe you’ll end up in a different house just because you had different questions than before (Happened to someone I know, first sorting Slytherin, second Ravenclaw)?
Anyway, have you tried sorting your family members into the different Hogwarts houses?
What were the results and do you agree with them/are you satisfied with them?
Let me know, maybe I’m not the only odd one out. 😀
PoiSonPaiNter