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Harry Potter Book Club

Coming in February - Chamber of Secrets! (thanks to Chantelle for the book club art)

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Getting Hooked, Why Harry Grabbed You

davidenglish View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 11:42 AM Post #1
Official Singer of the Sorting Hat Song Posts: 6,422 Joined: 3:12pm July 22, 2005 Location: Lost in Hermione's beaded bag	It's the Cinderella story of publishing: Single welfare mom writes runaway bestseller and becomes as rich & famous as the Queen. I've recently been talking about Harry to someone who is being teased by friends who just don't get it. It's a kid's book, they say. It's derivative; a rip off of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and others. It's not Shakespeare. Critics, such AS Byatt, Harold Bloom, and Robert McCrum, have heaped scorn on the Potterverse and pleaded with children & adults to read the Classics or their favs instead. (I can't help thinking it's a matter of sour grapes.) Still, Bloomsbury was the not the first publisher to look at the book. Philosopher's Stone was thought to be out of fashion because it was set in a boarding school. Editors said it was too long for young readers and the vocabulary too large. The appeal would be limited. Well, we know different. It's appeal is universal. Adult covers have been created to hide the Children's Lit label while riding the bus to work. And thousands talk about every aspect of the books in ways that haven't been seen since Dickens ruled the bookshelves. (Well, okay. I'll admit the since the Tolkien craze of the 1960s/70s.) What hooked you? What hooked your friends? What is it about this first book that simply grabs you and won't let go until you reach the last page? For me, it was the humorous images: a cat with a map, the talking snake, the letters from no one. JKR is a master plotmaker, but her plot is hardly visible from the explosion of powerful images. As the story barrels along, I was taken to greater heights by more and more images: the vanishing wall into Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express, the Sorting Feast, and Mirror of Erised. It's the sense of joyous discovery that really got me hooked. I never feel this is fantasy where magic is simply natural. No, I always feel JKR is performing magic. It's not enough that Harry uses magic, each scene must be a magic trick in itself. Presto! How did she do it? Since Philosopher's Stone, there have been a dozen imitators of Harry Potter. Not one comes close. Some are very good, some are rather manipulative, and some are just plain bad. So, what's Harry's secret? How did a mix of children's genres and mythology become, well, The Philosopher's Stone. ETA: This topic may be too similar to Poll: Discovering The Philosopher's Stone, but I really want to explore what is it about the book that broke all the rules. Why HP and not some other book? What is Pottermania all about? What do you think is the secret that hooks so many readers? This post has been edited by davidenglish: Jan 8 2007, 11:52 AM -------------------- Come the words that bubble Up through broken laughter, Sweeter than spring-water, "Gods, I am so happy!"

coach View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 01:05 PM Post #2
WhizzHard Books Copy Editor Posts: 2,152 Joined: 12:18pm July 22, 2005 Location: Reading KSK, Deadspin, TheBigLead, and the Fanhouse.	I don't think I have the words to describe why this book rather than another. To attempt a poor analogy, it's sort of like describing why one cheesburger is better than another. They both use the same ingredients, yet one is created so masterfully, and presented so well, that one can't help but choosing that restaurant over every other. For me, I guess, it's that she makes us care about the characters. I care about what happens to them, I need to know, and I'm emotionally invested in them. Other books have similar characters, similar plots, similar settings, very, very few of them make me care so deeply though. How does she make me care so much? I've no idea.

blue_dreamer View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 01:08 PM Post #3
Junk Shop Organizer Posts: 2,618 Joined: 8:53am April 20, 2006 Location: Prifysgol Bangor Univeristy, Bangor, Cymru	coach, I completely agree with you! I honestly can not remember what is was about the books that I like so much about them: they were simply magical! I think it was the fact that it was a kid my age who hadn't got any friends (like me) and then finds his world completely upside down. It wasn't such a dark story either with not too much horror or anything. It was kind of like, we were just mean to like it! -------------------- No regrets" - Cameron Duncan, 1986 - 2003 Evanna Lynch Online .cym Jessie Cave.net THE WEAPON WE HAVE IS LOVE

JaneMarple9 View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 01:12 PM Post #4
Teaching Professor Longbottom the language of Typonese Posts: 9,346 Joined: 8:51am January 28, 2006 Location: Planting the Holy Grain with Professor Longbottom	I think what hooked me to the series, it was such a exciting beginning! I'd read the Hobbit, and The Lords of the Rings trilogy. I'd read some of the Narnia series. but none of them grabbed me as much as Harry Potter. I was fascinated that this series was about a fairly young wizard, and I wanted to know what exatly "Muggles" were. The first chapter hooked me immediatly! -------------------- (Avatar from Hagiographer13, Siggy from Dreamteam) Everybody needs a hug!!

QueenExiem80 View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 02:32 PM Post #5
Flesh-Eating-Slug Catcher Posts: 147 Joined: 2:01pm December 21, 2006 Location: Charlotte, NC	There are millions of ways I became hooked. The love stories really grabbed my attention. The love of a mother, godfather, the love of friends, young love and basically how love will save the wizarding world because HARRY CAN LOVE. I enjoy the fact that its like a mystery novel being unraveled by each book. You can never just read book 1 or 2 and not want to come back to the characters. The characters grew so dear to me as I read books 1 and 2 that I felt pulled back to their lives. Once I realized JUST how much was not yet told to me as a reader I was hooked. I love a bit of intrigue and these books hook you right from the start! -------------------- "I love you, Hermione." said Ron, sinking back into his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, "Don't let Lavener hear you saying that." ~HBP

Perenelle Flamel View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 02:43 PM Post #6
Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 12 Joined: 1:42pm January 8, 2007 Location: Up to no good	I was hooked after the first chapter. The magical world, transfiguration, Dumbledore, a baby on a doorstep, a giant man on a flying motorcycle. I just fell in love with all of these characters! -------------------- "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"

jadedragon View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 05:38 PM Post #7
Monster Book Stacker Posts: 395 Joined: 6:34am January 28, 2005 Location: At home in Norway, running to escape from Norbert.	I agree, the books just gets your imagination going and keeps you hooked to the last page! It is also very calming to read the HP books. They are very special, and JK Rowling has a way of grasping the reader around the shoulders and dragging them into the story! Sort of like Riddle's diary in CoS! --------------------

cjopbj View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 05:47 PM Post #8
Rat Spleen Restocker at the Apothecary Posts: 457 Joined: 6:42pm October 10, 2005	SS/PS was one of the first books my husband and I read together to our young son. We read books to him all the time but seldom with all three of us together. It has become a much loved tradition in our family even though our son now reads much faster on his own than we can read to him. I am very grateful to JKR for enriching our lives and bringing us closer as a family. Very good memories of snuggling up together during the sad or scary parts, laughing and dancing at the fun and triumph, waiting and dreaming of what is to come next. Our local bookstore hosts a Harry Potter party with every release and the boys and girls I have known for all these years are now young men and women ready for university. But they still come to these Harry Potter parties. It is SO much more than just a book to me. It is a tradition as rich as any other my household enjoys. Like Christmas in July!

LizJ27 View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 05:57 PM Post #9
Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 3 Joined: 1:40pm January 2, 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD	When it first started getting big in America, my neighbor had let my brother borrow it. And my brother was obv. too cool for reading I suppose. So, one day when no one was looking I stole it from his room and although I as young at the time, I loved it from the first chapter. (I had a thing for cats and how Minerva could tranfigurate was AWESOME to read.) Been my life ever since. -------------------- take me away to NYC. <3

SoCalEagleEye View Member Profile	Jan 8 2007, 06:08 PM Post #10
Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 2 Joined: 1:46am January 3, 2007 Location: Etiwanda, California	For me, the Potter books represent the fantasy world that we all secretly, or openly, wish to be a part of. Rowling is able to paint a vivid picture with her words that capture young and old alike. The plot is so compelling and, as COACH said previously, the characters become so familiar to us, that we can't help but jump on that Hogwarts Express!