I realized not too long ago that my boss' daughter owned the entire series which is now in storage in her room and therefore I have access to all of them. so I’ve been reading along with you starting with Goblet of Fire. This works out well because while I've read the first three books several times I've only read the last three once through. This is partly because the books lose a little bit of their charm at this point for me. I don't know why, but they become less quaint and fun as Rowling becomes more ambitious, although they still have good moments. One theory is that as the books increased in popularity, Rowling's editors had less power over her manuscripts. This would explain why by book seven we have an almost fanfiction-esque epic monstrosity of a novel. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the entire series, but either because I got older or because Harry got older or because something changed in the writing, I became less into the series as it progressed.
But I remember when Goblet of Fire was released because I was about 13 and at the height of my Harry Potter fandom. I even went to the release party at Barnes and Noble. I was so excited about this book because I had just finished reading the first three and Prisoner of Azkaban was and is to this day my favorite of the novels. I remember being excited about how long it was because I was just entering my “I can read really long books” phase. This was also the beginning of the “who is Rowling going to kill of next?” speculation, where with each book Rowling would warn us that someone was going to die and there would be endless hypotheses over who it would be and you would hope desperately that it wasn't your favorite character (in my case: please not Lupin!) This was actually a pretty shrewd marketing tactic.
On re-reading Goblet of Fire I found that despite its length, the book didn’t really take that long to read. I still enjoyed the variety of characters and Rowling’s creativity. The Quidditch Cup and the Triwizard Tournament are really fun ideas. However, I thought Harry’s inclusion in the tournament was, well, a bit contrived. I accepted it, but only because I knew this was a Harry Potter novel and therefore all the interesting things are going to happen to Harry Potter, but it seems silly that he would be bound to compete in a tournament he’s not even eligible for. It’s a minor quibble though I guess. I only mention it because I don’t think it occurred to me when I was 13.
some of the things that occurred to me during book 4 were (here I’m going to be lazy)
- Cheating - Harry refuses to offer help from Bagman, but has no qualms about receiving help from Ron and Hermione or Hagrid. Everyone else is doing it after all. I suppose the difference is that they aren’t judges, but still I thought it was an interesting point.
- second chances - the idea of second chances comes up a lot in this one, with Hagrid and snape. “Dumbledore believes in second chances,” we are told. Kind of a grace theme perhaps?
-There’s an increasing amount about equality and prejudice in this book, particularly with spew. (Ha! I love this sentence on re-reading it!)
But I remember when Goblet of Fire was released because I was about 13 and at the height of my Harry Potter fandom. I even went to the release party at Barnes and Noble. I was so excited about this book because I had just finished reading the first three and Prisoner of Azkaban was and is to this day my favorite of the novels. I remember being excited about how long it was because I was just entering my “I can read really long books” phase. This was also the beginning of the “who is Rowling going to kill of next?” speculation, where with each book Rowling would warn us that someone was going to die and there would be endless hypotheses over who it would be and you would hope desperately that it wasn't your favorite character (in my case: please not Lupin!) This was actually a pretty shrewd marketing tactic.
On re-reading Goblet of Fire I found that despite its length, the book didn’t really take that long to read. I still enjoyed the variety of characters and Rowling’s creativity. The Quidditch Cup and the Triwizard Tournament are really fun ideas. However, I thought Harry’s inclusion in the tournament was, well, a bit contrived. I accepted it, but only because I knew this was a Harry Potter novel and therefore all the interesting things are going to happen to Harry Potter, but it seems silly that he would be bound to compete in a tournament he’s not even eligible for. It’s a minor quibble though I guess. I only mention it because I don’t think it occurred to me when I was 13.
some of the things that occurred to me during book 4 were (here I’m going to be lazy)
- Cheating - Harry refuses to offer help from Bagman, but has no qualms about receiving help from Ron and Hermione or Hagrid. Everyone else is doing it after all. I suppose the difference is that they aren’t judges, but still I thought it was an interesting point.
- second chances - the idea of second chances comes up a lot in this one, with Hagrid and snape. “Dumbledore believes in second chances,” we are told. Kind of a grace theme perhaps?
-There’s an increasing amount about equality and prejudice in this book, particularly with spew. (Ha! I love this sentence on re-reading it!)
Overall, you can tell that Rowling is making the books more complex. They are "growing up" along with Harry. We don't have such a simple divide between good and bad characters anymore and there's a lot about politics, not to mention the press with Rita skeeter's character. I remember thinking it was all a bit advanced for a kid (when I was 13!) Now I find it an odd mix for children's lit. Perhaps not inappropriate, but certainly not what you expect in this genre.
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