As I recall, they were pretty true. Except for the fourth one, that one sucked.
I did like the first four books, but I was also very young when I read them, so the opinion is dated. But millions upon millions of people love them, so I'm sure you'll enjoy them. ^^
Also, the books get more mature and the series progresses. The first few are a bit more kiddie, but as Harry grows, the readers are expected to as well.

@lilith - still better than me. sheesh. @_@

@dani - WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
also. what was wrong with tantalize, since i have the second book by her that is related-but-not-really-a-sequel.

@feyona - the harry potter books were fairly amazing.
at least at first and then it started spiralling into an angst diary of harry.
sadly, i don't remember a lot that happened since it's been a while since i read the lot of them.
the basic plot and main characters stay the same in the movies and books.
there were a lot of little changes.
a LOT.
so i was upset.
because i'm a little bit of a purist. D:

Yeah, I remembering being irritated with how angsty Harry was in the fifth book.
He has a pretty bad case of wizard angst.

I stopped reading the Harry Potter books after The Goblet of Fire because I just wasn't enjoying them any more. :/
(Potter Puppet Pals is amazing though)

Dream: I still have Jonathan Stroud books to read. One of the books I bought at the library book sale was Ptolemy's Gate. I haven't got the second of the trilogy yet, but it was only 30p. XD

I loved the Harry Potter books. I don't remember a whole bunch though. My favorite was the second. It has one of my favorite characters in it. If I remember correctly he only appears in that one... at least... uh. Yea, I shouldn't say if you haven't read it yet. It's good though.
I hated the ending of the seventh book though. Seemed very... fanfiction-y. So annoying. It just didn't make sense to me. Oh well. =/

Everyone always hates on the fifth book, but it's actually very psychologically realistic.
Spoiler:
Harry's fifteen and no one can figure out whether to treat him as an adult or a child, he has an evil megalomaniac living in his head, showing him visions and sending him emotions that are not his own. He's realizing just how big of a role he has to play in the demise of Voldemort, and he is being tortured by a member of the government he is supposed to support. Does anyone expect him to be cheerful about it?

I agree with you about the fifth book shadowfoot. I liked it.
I just didn't like the seventh books ending. =/

@leenie: It was s. l. o. w.
Also very disorganized, characters were thrown in and out of the book without ever fully explaining their roles or who they were. The plot itself is disjointed and the characters, ugh. If twilight characters have the depth of cardboard, then these characters must be tissue paper. The only real thing I know about the main character is that she's a horny teenager. Oh and they're annoying, brutally oblivious to everything and they never seem to finish their thoughts. Then there's the end; the end almost saved the book, TILL SHE KILLED IT. It wasn't even a good cliff hanger, it just seemed like the editor let a couple pages blow away in the wind and never replaced them. Arg.

@Kat: Go read that trilogy! Though I don't recommend his Buried Fire book. It's good but not his best work. Though you may like it more then me, but I say read the others first at least

Originally Posted by Cherry Flavored Antacid

Wow. @_@ Even at my peak, I never read that much.
Do you own most of your books or use a library?

Uh, okay, that was a stupid question, library, right? xD

I really have no life.
When I was reading a book a day I used a library. But almost all the books on my list right now are my books. At last count I own over 400 books. So my bedroom is a small library. ^_-

@Feyona- I loved the Harry Potter books. I read them when they came out then just recently reread them. And I still loved them.
I have only seen the first movie so I can't tell you how they compare.

Originally Posted by tirethminet

@iltu - omg, you poor dear. try and sneak some more in your suitcase or something?
i bring at least 5-6 books every time we go to my grandparent's house because apparently the entire town hasn't heard of wireless internet so i can leech it.

I’m thinking I may do just that. The place we’re going has a library that you can use at will, buuuut… I just want my own books. D: I mean, I can’t imagine they’d have a very large selection. Besides, it’s not so much the actual cruise time I’m worried about not having anything to read, I’m worried about not having anything to read during the two hour drive to the airport, the wait at the airport, the plane ride, the wait to switch planes, the next plane ride, the shuttle to the hotel, the shuttle to the port, and the wait to get on the ship. And then most of that all over again on the way home. o_o

Originally Posted by Dream_and_Die

:Throws hands up in victory:
I finished Buried Fire by Jonathan Stroud! I started that book before I started any of the books by Laurell K. Hamilton, which puts that back in January. It read very slow, in my opinion at least.
I finished Tantalize as well, it wasn't spectacular and I only started that yesterday.

I like Buried Fire, but it wasn’t great. It did read very slow, took me like a month. XD The Bartimaeus trilogy is way better!

Originally Posted by FeyonaSaibre

So I just recently started the Harry Potter series and I wanted to know what those who have already read it think. I'm not talking about people that have watched the movies... I want people that have read the books.

…I adore Harry Potter. <3 And I do like the fifth book. It was interesting. Except I hated it when my favorite character died. That sucked. And the first two movies weere decent, all the ones that followed are awful. X_x

Originally Posted by shadowfoot

Everyone always hates on the fifth book, but it's actually very psychologically realistic.
Spoiler:
Harry's fifteen and no one can figure out whether to treat him as an adult or a child, he has an evil megalomaniac living in his head, showing him visions and sending him emotions that are not his own. He's realizing just how big of a role he has to play in the demise of Voldemort, and he is being tortured by a member of the government he is supposed to support. Does anyone expect him to be cheerful about it?

True.
I barely remember the book. I read it in a week, so not a lot was retained. And it was also a long time ago and I was much younger, so I didn't have as good of an understanding of these things as I may now.

Originally Posted by Iltu

I like Buried Fire, but it wasn’t great. It did read very slow, took me like a month. XD The Bartimaeus trilogy is way better!

Exactly. xD I mean I liked it and all but I'd never recommend it as someones first Stroud book.

@leenie: I started the Phoenix of the Opera series.
To celebrate starting a new series I went out and bought my Sarah Brightman albums... or was it to celebrate getting my Sarah Brightman albums I started a fresh series? Either way, I'm reading Phantom style books while listening to Christine Daee all grown up. ^_^ :boogie:

I shall follow your advice Dream... when these library books are gone. What posessed me (apart from a love of football and Netherlands) to pick up a book about Ajax during the war? Grr.

I've been watching the Granada television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. I couldn't concentrate for some of the second episode because I knew I recognised the Earl of Brideshead from somewhere. It was Arthur Dent!*

* Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in the also amazing television adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Originally Posted by Lilith W

I really have no life.
When I was reading a book a day I used a library. But almost all the books on my list right now are my books. At last count I own over 400 books. So my bedroom is a small library. ^_-

@Feyona- I loved the Harry Potter books. I read them when they came out then just recently reread them. And I still loved them.
I have only seen the first movie so I can't tell you how they compare.

So I've actually watched all of the movies that are out so far... (I think) but it's been such a long time that I only remember bits and pieces of them. The books SEEM good but I've got so much other life related crap i'm doing right now that it's hard for me to concentrate on them...

Oh and about your 400 books... i'm pretty sure my boyfriend and I have more... and we keeps getting more every week. I'm fairly certain that we're going to NEED to make that secondary living area of that house we're looking at into a library. Though it will be fun. I want to take pictures and post them here. When it's all said and done with. ^.^

I finished Jennifer Government. It was amazing. I loved it. I was sad when I finished it (I came home from school sick so I read.)
I actually have a friend wanting to read it, but for him it was for another reason. Apparently there is some game based off the book (?) I don't know, he just sort of pointed at me this morning and was like "Oh, hey that's the book I want to read."

Arn't you happy Cherry? I'm (sort of) converting people to Max Barry books. :)

Yeah, NationStates! My boyfriend plays that game.
And yay! I'll add it to my list that you referred someone.

Ah. That must be it, I didn't know about it till he mentioned it, him and his twin are my little video game nerds.

Sweeeeet. :cool:

Originally Posted by FeyonaSaibre

So I've actually watched all of the movies that are out so far... (I think) but it's been such a long time that I only remember bits and pieces of them. The books SEEM good but I've got so much other life related crap i'm doing right now that it's hard for me to concentrate on them...

Oh and about your 400 books... i'm pretty sure my boyfriend and I have more... and we keeps getting more every week. I'm fairly certain that we're going to NEED to make that secondary living area of that house we're looking at into a library. Though it will be fun. I want to take pictures and post them here. When it's all said and done with. ^.^

I can understand that. I'm really busy with school right now. I am determined to finish the book I'm reading now today. I will finish this book in one day! Or else I'll never finish it.

Lol, I would love to see your "library." I think I do pretty good around here considering that most people around here might have 10 books. And the fact that I bought all most all of those books within the last two years.

@cherry - omg. XD
angstangstangstangstangst. <3

@dani - ... i get the feeling i will never actually read buried fire, then.
i like my books to keep my attention span. x:

you are ridiculous.
i expect you to finish those books in a week.

@iltu - ugghhhh i know what you mean. waitwaitwait.
cruise... are you going on a cruise? if so, bring a lot more books. there are constant activities, but a lot of them you may not want to do.

ps.
TEEHEEHEE.
we went to the library today.
and i got my password for the online stuff.
the books i got were m is for magic and fly by night.
i feel like a little kid. 8DDD
ANYWHO, they have a three week loaning time, unlike my old library, which was two weeks.
so it's EXCITING.

also, there is some sort of severe storm warning a bit south of where i am right now with golf ball-sized hail.
so that is also exciting in a not-happy way. XD

@leenie: I finished book one. I realized I bought four CDs and there are four books. So I set it up a book per CD. ^_^
I gave my books soundtracks! xD
What about Tantalize, are you going to get that?

gogogogo. finish those books!
you are crazy. XD
i may get that... depending.
i'll check it out at the library next time i go. :3

so.
i have never before heard the word "tornadic"
and that's tornadic with a long "a", like "apple"
yay, we're in texas now. XD

tirethminet- Yes, a friend of mine went on the same cruise line as we're going on, and she told me, aside from the pool and eating, there wasn't very much stuff for people under 21. With that information, I've bullied my mom into five books, so maybe I can get up to six by the trip. :XD And my sister said she'd pack a book for me, since I lend her my Twilight books. Good deal, as far as I'm concerned!

What about you? What are your plans for spring break? Any trips or special reading going on? :)

well. the cruises i've been on before were disney cruises and even that got boring every so often.
so try and bring at the very least six books, depending on how fast you read. :3

my plans...? well, i'm not at school, mandatory or college, at the moment, so no real spring break.
and i've been kind of hanging around the house because my job has no hours for me, sooo. :/
but i do have plans to be crafty soon. making costumes and knitting and stuff.
reading... well i have a couple books i got at the library this morning and then a few more i've been working on to read, so hopefully, i'll get to those soon.

@leenie: Costumes! By the way, halfway through the second book and I have to say the tone of Sanvean really fits the book.

yes, costumes. i should start patterning soon. D:
and you are crazy. xp