Potter Redux: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or why you shouldn't mess with Hermione Granger

This post is part of my Harry Potter Re-read 2013. (Book One) (Book Two) (Book Three)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

J. K. Rowling

Bloomsbury, 2000

Goodreads

Previous reads
This was the first hardback HP book that my brother and I had, because it was the first one we bought when  it was first released. By this point we were both big HP fans, but because they were his books I had to wait for him to finish Goblet of Fire before I could read it. I always liked this one a lot, although I never much liked the initial Quidditch World Cup section, and was always eager to get past that part and back to Hogwarts. For some reason, I have never been wild about the Mad-Eye Moody storyline, either (although I do like him as a character).

Re-read:
Re-reading GoF, I was reminded both of the things that make it one of my favourite HP books, and all those other niggly things that really irritate me about it at the same time. The Quidditch World Cup part was actually shorter than I remembered, and I didn't mind it so much this time. I am still not a fan of the SPEW subplot - I don't think Hermione comes off particularly well, and it wasn't much fun to read about. I think when I first read it, I was just annoyed at Hermione, but these days I am more annoyed that she comes across as a bit shrill and aggravating because she believes in a particular cause. Then again, she has plenty of excellent moments - including putting Ron in his place when he invites her to the dance as an afterthought, and finally getting her own back on Rita Skeeter.

I think the tension between Harry and Ron is done really well in this book - when Ron turns his back on Harry and goes to sit with Dean and Seamus instead, it managed to sum up all those school-age feelings of falling out with your friends and feeling totally despondent about it. It felt very realistic, and I like that some of those underlying feelings of jealousy and inadequacy were addressed, building on Ron's horror at his hideous second-hand dress robes. That's not to say I didn't want to bash Ron and Harry's heads together at times for being so idiotic and not just talking to each other (although given that they are 14 year old boys here, it's perhaps more believable that that didn't happen).

The Triwizard Tournament task chapters are actually a lot shorter than I remembered, too - but seriously, Harry. Put the egg in the bath already.

Pick a quote:

"Longbottom, kindly do not reveal that you can't even perform a simple Switching Spell in front of anyone from Durmstrang!" Professor McGonagall barked at the end of one particularly difficult lesson, during which Neville had accidentally transplanted his own ears onto a cactus.

Potter Redux: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or why that blob in your teacup could be the beginning of the end

This post is part of my Harry Potter Re-read 2013.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

J. K. Rowling

Bloomsbury, 2000

Goodreads

Previous reads:
I think I was quite late to the Prisoner of Azkaban Appreciation Party. A lot of my friends always claimed this as their favourite, and I was always confused - but over time, I have come to appreciate it a lot more. (And it does baffle me that at first I preferred Chamber of Secrets!) Again, I would estimate I have probably read this book four or five times before now.

Re-read:
There is a definite turn towards the darker side of the Harry Potter universe in this book, with the Dementors invading the Hogwarts Express at the beginning, and Harry running away from the Dursleys' home. (I love the scene when Harry finally snaps at Aunt Marge, though, and in particular her characterisation, which seemed very Dahl-esque.) I don't think anyone will ever usurp McGonagall as my favourite member of teaching staff at Hogwarts, but Lupin is certainly up there.

It was nice to see more of Hermione in this book, and I liked her shady timetable dealings and the fact that she figured out Lupin's secret. I enjoyed reading the scenes with the Time Turner again, although I think watching the film more recently has warped my memory of them somewhat, even though they are mostly faithful.

I always forget how little time Harry and Sirius actually get together, and reading this book knowing what comes later is always a little bit bittersweet.

Harry's increasing exasperation at his death being predicted at every turn by Professor Trelawney made me laugh, as did McGonagall's dismissal of his looming death, which is why I have picked the following as my chosen quote (although Ron attempting to use the telephone was a close third).

Pick a quote:

“Ah, of course,” said Professor McGonagall, suddenly frowning. “There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?” 

Everyone stared at her. 

“Me,” said Harry, finally.

Potter Redux: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or why a summer at the Burrow sounds like the best thing ever

This post is part of my Harry Potter Re-read 2013.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

J. K. Rowling

Bloomsbury, 1998

Goodreads

Previous reads:
I seem to remember claiming for a while, after reading the first three or four books, that this one was my favourite, but on subsequent re-reads it's fallen further and further down the list. Of all the monsters lurking in Harry Potter, I don't think you can beat the Basilisk - certainly not as someone who is terrified of snakes, anyway. I imagine that as with the first book, I have read this four or five times before, at least.

Re-read: 
Arrrrrgh Dobby. He aggravates me in this book (and I always will him not to drop that bloody trifle at the beginning...). I like the fact that we get a glimpse of The Burrow at the beginning, and all the Weasleys together. The trip to Diagon Alley was most memorable for Gilderoy Lockhart, who I always think is a good addition to this story, useless as he is. His apparent obliviousness is pretty funny.

There are glimmers of the future Ron/Hermione storyline here, if only on Ron's part, as he is much more interested than Harry in Hermione's crush on Lockhart. I never really saw the Ron/Hermione pairing coming when I first read the series, but it does have some roots here.

Speaking of Hermione, it's a shame she is confined to the hospital wing for a good portion of this book - it was much more Ron and Harry as a duo, and I missed Hermione's input and her scathing comments, even if she did still solve the mystery.

Again, like book 1, the final battle between Harry and Tom seemed quite short this time around, and quite easily rectified. I like that Harry finally addresses his concerns over where the Sorting Hat put him, and his discussion with Dumbledore is one of the stand out moments in the book: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Pick a quote:
"However," said Dumbledore, speaking very slowly and clearly, so that none of them could miss a word, "you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Potter Redux: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, or why Dumbledore is awesome

This post is part of my Harry Potter Re-read 2013.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter #1)

J. K. Rowling

Bloomsbury, 1997

Goodreads

My version of the book has the same cover, but it's only won the Smarties Gold Award once on mine - it seems so low key now! I don't think I ever imagined Harry looking quite like this, but nowadays I do tend to see the film actors when I read the books.

Previous reads: 

I started reading the Harry Potter series in about 2001, when I was about 16 and starting college. I made friends with a girl who recommended them to me and, as my brother was reading them around the same time, borrowed the first three and sped through them. I remember we had them in paperback until Goblet of Fire, which we bought in hardback on its release.

I have read HP&TPS around five or six times now, I imagine. Visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour a few weeks ago, I was discussing HP with the group of friends I went with, and declared that one of my favourite parts of the whole series is when Harry finds out he's a wizard for the first time, and the way in which Hogwarts quickly becomes his home. A lot of the magic in book one isn't to do with spells and wands, but just in the building up of the world that Rowling creates, and the way Harry comes to life on the page.

Re-read: 

Once again I really enjoyed reading about Harry's life with the Dursleys and the incident with the snake, before he realises he's destined to go to Hogwarts. The first glimpse of Diagon Alley and the school itself was as fun as it always was!

One of my favourite things about the book this time around was Dumbledore - his penchant for sherbet lemons, his calm, worldly vibes, his claim that he sees himself with a pair of woolly socks in the Mirror of Erised, to name a few of my favourite moments. I had forgotten how involved Neville is as the fourth member of their gang, and although I always liked the line about the bravery needed to stand up to your friends (which sees Neville awarded those crucial 10 house points at the end), it always seemed a little too convenient that Harry got 60 points, rather than the 50 awarded to everyone else.

The final battle comes surprisingly late, with most of the book given over to Harry's experiences at his new school, giving time for his relationships with Ron and Hermione to build up, which I liked. HP&TPS could almost stand alone in some ways, and I don't think there are so many hints in this one about what is to come, apart from the prophecies of the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest, but it's interesting to see that even in this book, there are threads that will recur in later books as the series becomes more sophisticated and complex.

Although the world and the events only continue to layer up and create a more complex and (often) more frightening series, this first foray into Hogwarts will always be one of my favourite parts of the series, simply because as a piece of writing for children, capturing their imagination, I think it's pretty, magically awesome.

Pick a quote:

[Dumbledore] "Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"
"A what?"
"A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."
"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons.

Potter Redux: The Harry Potter Reread 2013

Ever since visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour a few weeks ago, I've been itching to get back into the wizarding world. My housemate and I watched a handful of the HP films before we visited the Warner Bros. studios, and although I don't mind the films, they generally make me want to dig out the books again and really immerse myself in the Hogwarts experience.

So... after raiding my mum's loft and finding mine and my brother's copies of the books, I have dragged them all the way back to Birmingham and have set about reading them from the beginning again. I won't be posting reviews as such, because I've read some of them four or five times before (certainly the earlier books), but I will be posting my thoughts, favourite quotes and anything that I've noticed or particularly enjoyed the second third fourth time around...

Feel free to join in or just leave a comment telling me what you liked most/least about each of the books, and at the end of the reread (which I imagine will run up to the end of the summer, if summer indeed ever starts) I'll do some round up posts and maybe finally have a chat about why McGonagall is the shiz.

via

Showcase Sunday #26

Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea.

If you follow me on Goodreads, you might have noticed that I have launched into a reread of the Harry Potter series, so this week's Showcase Sunday is a little bit Potter-heavy...

I picked these up from home when I went to visit my family last weekend. I also picked up Agatha Christie's The Murder At The Vicarage (borrowed from my stepmum), which is my second attempt at a Miss Marple mystery this year. I normally prefer Poirot, but I decided to give Marple a go for a change. Unfortunately, the first Marple book I picked up from the library a while ago was The Moving Finger, which hardly features Marple at all - this is meant to be more of a classic!

I also got My Mad, Fat, Teenage Diary by Rae Earl from the library. This is the actual diary of Rae, and was the basis for the recent E4 programme My Mad Fat Diary.

Recent reviews:
All That I Am - Anna Funder (7/10) - based on the true story of German citizens who resisted Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s
Dare You To - Katie McGarry (DNF for making me go ARGGGGH throughout the first few chapters)
The Whole of My World - Nicole Hayes (6.5/10) - Australian YA with a footie backdrop
Twerp - Mark Goldblatt (7/10) - funny MG featuring Julian and his journal

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to Privet Drive: The Harry Potter Experience

The cupboard under the stairs

As I mentioned in last weekend's Showcase Sunday, I recently visited the Warner Brothers' Studio Tour, or the Harry Potter Experience (or, as my friends and I have been referring to it, "Harry Potter World", because it really is a world of Potter-tastic stuff). Eleven of us drove down to Watford for the afternoon after booking tickets a couple of months ago, and although I was prepared for it to be good, I wasn't expecting it to be quite as awesome as it turned out!

We got to walk through the Great Hall (sadly without that enchanted ceiling...), which had two of the four tables in it, and seems a lot smaller in real life! It was a great start to the tour, and the little details were fun to spot, such as the house points counter up on the dais (Gryffindor were way out in front). They had some of the original costumes, including the huge costume that Robbie Coltrane wore as Hagrid. It was news to me that he had a (taller) body double at times, and a robotic Hagrid head does some of the scenes, rather than Coltrane - I had genuinely never noticed that, so it'll be interesting to see if I can spot it now...

The rest of the tour was self-guided, and there was so much to see that it seemed almost impossible to take everything in, no matter how many ways you tried to look at once. There were some unexpected bits that I really enjoyed seeing, like five versions of the same outfit that Harry wears, in various stages of distress, and plenty of original sets: the Gryffindor common room, the boys' dormitory, Dumbledore's office, Hagrid's hut, and the Burrow (or, as the French girls behind me yelled gleefully, "la maison de Weasley!"). I really liked Dumbledore's office (where apparently the books are actually recovered phone books), and the Burrow had the magical iron and the magical knitting, all going on while no one was home.

One thing I was really excited to see were the green tiled fireplaces from the Ministry of Magic - I always loved how that was brought to life on screen. A weird little thing, but still one of my favourites, was a pile of letters like the ones used in the scene where Hogwarts writes to Harry care of his cupboard under the stairs, to tell him that he's a wizard.

That part of the books - the Muggle world at the beginning of each one, but particularly in the first book - is one of my favourite aspects of the series. I don't think you can beat the scenes where Harry finds out he's a wizard. Nothing makes me feel more like a kid than that. So I was also really happy to see the exterior set of 4 Privet Drive - not that it looks that different from the house I grew up in, or loads like them, but it was still interesting to see it.

We also saw the Knight Bus, the Hogwarts bridge, the Potters' cottage, and Tom Riddle's grave, which was in an outside section. I thought the tour was over at this point, but there was quite a lot more to see. There was a room dedicated to the special effects and how a lot of the non-human characters were made and animated: Dobby, the goblins, Buckbeak, and the dragons. They had parts of the basilisk (eek) and the Aragog model, which was suitably disturbing.

And then... Diagon Alley! Again, a little smaller than expected, but absolutely fantastic to get to walk down in and see all the shop fronts, including the Weasley's shop. As one of those early scenes I mentioned earlier, the first time Harry gets to see Diagon Alley is also one of my favourite bits of the book, so it was pretty exciting to get to do the same walk for the first time!

The scale model of Hogwarts was really (sorry) magical, and I spent quite a lot of time in that part - it was so well done. Although the whole experience is based around the films, it was easy to have the books in mind at the same time, because although a lot of stuff from the books was cut from the films, they stayed faithful in a lot of other ways. Seeing some of my favourite parts of the Harry Potter world come to life was definitely worth the trip - if you ever get chance to go, I'd definitely recommend it (broomstick riding and Butterbeer optional!).

It's made me want to re-read the Harry Potter books again - I last did it about four or five years ago, so it might be time to dig them all out again!

[All pictures are mine.]

Showcase Sunday #25

Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea.

It's been a few weeks since I did a Showcase Sunday, so here are a couple of things I've picked up recently, and a few reviews!

BUT FIRST: Yesterday some of my friends and I went to the Harry Potter Experience at Warner Brothers Studios outside London! It was a lot of fun, and there was so much to look at - a lot more than I was expecting. It was quite overwhelming at times, trying to take it all in - there were lots of little details and things you could quite easily miss (for instance, I loved that they had the house points counter in the Great Hall, but totally missed the Black family tapestry later on!).

I will try and write a full post on it sometime soon (and I am thinking about a HP re-read if anyone is interested in joining me over the summer), but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures here:

4 Privet Drive (ext.)

Diagon Alley

Hogwarts scale model

Highlights: Walking down Diagon Alley (a lot smaller than I expected!), seeing the complete model of Hogwarts, the exterior of 4 Privet Drive, walking across the Hogwarts bridge, and the Gryffindor common room / boys' dormitory sets - including the jumpers knitted by Mrs Weasley for Harry and Ron in the first film. :)

Anyway, on to the books...

Library

A couple of weeks ago I picked up The Dinner by Herman Koch, a Dutch novel that I reserved a while ago. I read this within a couple of days (short chapters = excellent for train commute!), and thought it was excellent. Highly recommended - review here! (This also counts for my 2013 Translation Challenge, run by Ellie, which I am having a lot of fun with.)

Netgalley

I received an eARC of Confessions of An Almost Girlfriend by Louise Rozett - thanks to MiraInk/Harlequin UK. I have started reading this on my Kindle to and from work, and am really enjoying it so far.

Recent reviews

The Hidden Child - Camilla Läckberg (7.5/10) - Swedish crime novel with some realistic domestic subplots.

Steal My Sunshine - Emily Gale (7/10) - New contemporary Australian YA with some interesting historical elements as part of the backstory.

It's Different for Girls - Jo Brand (5.5/10) - Funny novel about growing up as a teenage girl in 70s Hastings.

A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (6/10) - The return of Tiffany Aching, as she learns how to be a witch (and why it's not quite as glamorous as she thought).

(After reading Steal My Sunshine, I wanted to find out more about the laundries that girls like Essie were sent to, so last night I ended up watching The Magdalene Sisters, a 2002 film made with Irish/Scottish backing and documenting what life in these laundries was like. Recommended.)