53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
Magical!
In my overly-excited anticipation of the seventh and final novel coming out on 21st July `07, I've started reading the Harry Potter series again (for the third time) and I'm enjoying them just as much now as I did the very first time I read them.
`Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' is the first book in the magical 7-book saga, introducing an orphaned...
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
A bit of perspective, please!
Yes, I enjoyed this book very much but some of the comments I have read about are just unbelievable. Steady on people. Better than the Narnia books? Why do people in Britain insist on hyping everything up so? All Rowling's books are a trifle formulaic and a trifle more structurally unsound. But they are a cracking good read, there is no question about that. Nonetheless...
In my overly-excited anticipation of the seventh and final novel coming out on 21st July `07, I've started reading the Harry Potter series again (for the third time) and I'm enjoying them just as much now as I did the very first time I read them.
`Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' is the first book in the magical 7-book saga, introducing an orphaned young boy, Harry, who has been bought up for the past 10 years by his aunt and uncle, who have been keeping Harry's secret very well hidden from him.
To Harry's surprise and disbelief, once he reaches his 11th birthday he finds out that his is a wizard and is invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And so this begins one of the most engrossing and enjoyable stories ever written.
The first book is obviously a great place to start. The book is reasonably short, the story is fairly straight-forward (for now!) and once you have gotten a few chapters in you will without a doubt be already deeply absorbed and won't be able to put it down.
JK Rowling has a special writing talent that many (most) other authors don't, where you actually feel like you have been to places like Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Platform nine & three quarters and Privet Drive and have really met the likes of Ron and the Weasley family, Hermoine, Dumbledore, Snape, Voldermort, the Malfoys, the Dursleys, Hagrid and the rest of the memorable characters.
To anyone considering reading the Harry Potter books for the first time my advice would be this - join the hype, forget about the real world and enjoy six (most likely to be seven) of the best books ever written, that can be enjoyed by both children and adults alike.
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I am not the first person you would be expecting to read this book because I'm a 20-year old male.
The reason I bought the book was to see for myself what all this Harry Potter stuff was about. I am ashamed to say, that before the Philosopher Stone, I had never in my life read a book cover to cover, because I get too easily bored. This book, however, had me up at all hours of the night, I couldn't put it down for a second and when I did, it was to start the next one in the series. I have been amazed to find that this "Childrens Book" has such far reaching appeal, you are both amazed by both the wonder and the detail of wizarding world and by the suspense that will leave the most adult of us guessing on every page.
Absolutely Amazing, but be warned, make sure you have plenty of free time, because once you pick this up you won't want to put it down, I promise.
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I am so pleased with the Bloomsbury Special Edition/Clothbound. My copy was in mint condition, even though it had been on the shelf over a year, still sealed in plastic.
There were no dents - so the Hardboard to me looks durable. The pages were crisp. I really love the Typeset chosen for the Special Editions - it makes such a pleasurable read. The gold embossing was sharp. The gold trims on the page ends was a smooth tone. I liked the added sewn ribbon book mark. The Cover Illustration was so clear, really bringing out the watercolors.
I am glad Bloomsbury put so much attention to make sure this Special Edition series would be one that people could enjoy for years to come. I am a very satisfied customer!
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Anyone who thinks that the Harry Potter books are purely for Chrildren couldn't be more wrong!
I will admit that I picked up Harry Potter & The Philosophers Stone as an "in between" book - I had been reading a lot of crime fiction (Minette Walters, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson) at the time, and wanted something easy to read to give myself a break. The Prisoner of Azkaban had only recently come out so the hype hadn't really reached full pitch yet, and there had been no mention of a film! But I saw guy around my age reading it on a train and thought to myself - why not! I haven't looked back since.
I couldn't put it down and stayed up well into the wee hours to finish it! Everything within the book is compelling - the characters, the settings - everything! By the end of it you find yourself wondering if witches & wizards really exist (its like the feeling you get on Christmas Eve when for one tiny moment you wonder if there really is a Santa Claus!)
The Philosophers Stone has a well thought out plotline, which in turn forms part of the bigger picture that will be the whole set of books. Right from book one you begin to wonder how it will all end, you assume good - but from some of the twists and turns introduced in the following books, you begin to question this, and I truly believe that you won't know for sure until you have read the last page in the final book. One things for sure - it will be exciting, and it will leave you wanting more - but JK Rowling has already confirmed that she only intends to write the seven books that cover Harry's time at Hogwarts (this could suggest an untimely demise for Harry in his last year at Hogwarts - but who knows!).
Within the wide range of Characters there is a favourite for everyone - although Harry is of course predominantly the hero, this wouldn't be possible without his supporting cast of friends and enemies and it is wrong to assume that he is the best character. My personal favourite is Ron, and I even have friends that give Draco Malfoy their vote!
I have of course since read all the books - over and over (I have found that by reading them again I have picked up on things that didn't seem important first time round - but link to something that happens later)
Anyone who is tempted to read it but is put off by the fact that it is a childrens book - give it a try. I dont know a single person who hasn't enjoyed it.
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The first book is really fantastic, like all six of her books. I remember the first book I ever read was book 4 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). I started reading it, but I found the first chapter boring. I gave up. I'm never really in a reading mood and I know I should be, because everybody needs to read and exercise their brain.
Anyway not long after, during an english lesson, where we spent the whole lesson reading in silence, I noticed one of my mates was reading one of the Harry Potter books. I remember it was book 3 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). I remember asking him if the book was good. He said that it was briliant. Don't laugh but this somehow motivated me to read the 4th book I had at home. I started reading it, ignoring how boring I found the first chapter. Near towards the end of the first chapter, I got hooked onto it. I found myself reading it constantly, getting more and more interested. I found the book fantastic. I couldn't believe I had never read it sooner. I had to read the other three (book 5 wasn't out yet).
Anyway the first book is a really good book. No it's more than really good. It's excellent. If you watched the film, then you must read the book. Because believe me when I say that the book is better than the film.
It's about a boy (we know his name), who's spent 10 miserable years with his reltives the Dursley family. His uncle Vernon is always jumping down his throught, his aunt Petunia is always nasty, they both see him as filth and his cousin Dudley (about the same age) is always bullying poor Harry. Harry learns on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard. He's not just a wizard, but in the wizard world he's famous.
His mum and dad were murdered by the most evil wizard of all time, Voldemort. After killing James and Lily Potter (Harry's parents) he attempted to kill Harry himself. Somehow Harry survived it, left with a permanent lightning shaped scar on his forehead. This somehow defeated Voldemort and Harry was only a baby.
He goes to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, where he trains to be a wizard. He befriends a boy and a girl (Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger). Ron is a really nice, loyal person and Hermoine is an annoying boffin, who's always siding with the teachers (the last person to trust if you were attempting to break school rules). Harry also makes his first enemy (Draco Malfoy; a nasty Slytherin kid. All the nasty ones end up in Slytherin House). Harry, Ron and Hermoine end up in Gryffindor house. The other two are Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
Soon Harry and his friends discover that Dumbledore's got something really valuable within Hogwarts (well protected) and someone (their No 1 suspect professor Snape; potions teacher who is nasty to the Gryffindors and is also head of Slytherin).
This book is definetely worth reading and buying. Rowling did a fantastic job with this book. Not just the way it was written OR the story, but how she made the wizard life. Their lives are like ours, but with the use of magic. They have a ministry of magic for instance(the wizard govenment), wizard shops and their own sport Quiditch.
That I found brilliant. There are Seven players on each team, that fly on broomsticks and there is four balls (a quaffle, two bludgers and a golden snitch) Two beaters hit the bludgers, protecting their team as the bludgers zoom around the pitch, trying to injure the players. Three chasers handle the quaffle and try to put it through one of the three hoops at the end of the pitch. The keeper defends them and the seeker catches the snitch, ending the game and awarding his/her team 150 points. The game was really well designed.
The schools are similar to secondry schools. At secondry schools pupils have different subjects in different classrooms, with differnt teachers. The classrooms are designed for that subject. Hogwarts is the same, but with wizard subjects (charms, potions, etc). It's a well written book, inteligently done. One of the best books I've ever read. There's no chance in hell you'll regret getting this.
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Having just read Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, hyped to be the next best thing to Harry Potter, once can immediately tell by contrast just how good Rowling's writing is. The most noticeable thing is that Rowling's writing is far more substantial than Colfer's. Indeed, the depth of Rowling's work does surprise you when you pull apart its mechanics.
I had previously thought that Rowling had created her own universe. A search for the names of her fictional characters on the internet will provide reams of links relating to Harry Potter and nothing else. One could say from this that J K Rowling has created a unique imaginative world, with none of the daily grind so beloved of us muggles. True enough, the novel does start off in the rather earthly Privet Drive, but even the cats there aren't real. There is some particularly unusual owl activity, and the aforementioned cat does start reading a map, and before you know it, reality has been twisted to allow a Platform Nine and Three Quarters into King's Cross for the Hogwarts Express. The novel starts off with a plethora of shooting stars as Wizards everywhere celebrate the death of Voldemort. Harry Potter is unaware of this, as he is still only a baby. However, the scar indelibly scored across his forehead is evidence enough that he has been in the wars. Delivered to Privet Drive by the gentle giant Hagrid in a massive motorcycle borrowed from Sirius Black, Harry is handed over to his uncle and aunt. Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia are wizardaphobic, and bring up Harry to believe that his parents died in a car crash, of which he was the only survivor. The Durselys endure Harry's presence, but seem to only enjoy his absence, especially when he is locked in the cupboard under the stairs. But Harry's life changes when he gets a letter...
You get some idea of the vastness of Rowling's plan by the mention of Sirius Black (he features prominently in another book in the series). In an interview I've read, Rowling mentions that she was writing parts of the other six books whilst working on The Philosopher's Stone. She appeals to the modern, sophisticated reader, who likes complex plotting. Eoin Colfer brazenly mentions future Artemis Fowl novels in the debut of his anti-hero. Rowling is a lot subtler, allowing her readers to bask in satisfaction as they get that spark of serendipity, that sudden flash of understanding, as they stumble across a cunning back reference. There's also a great deal of wit and verisimilitude in the dialogue, especially when Hermione points out that it's rather foolish to bring up a fire breathing dragon in a wooden hut. There is an inherent cyclical pattern to the Harry Potter novels, as they usually span one year at Hogwarts (the school for Wizards that Harry and chums attend). This repetition can be a bit tiring in later novels, but Rowling's back referencing is a delight to discover when reading the books again.
I mentioned earlier that Rowling is particularly inventive with names. She does, however, mention some real folk. I was most intrigued by the mention of Paracelsus as a wizard on page 78. I did some research on him, and found that Paracelsus had dabbled in alchemy. An inherent part of alchemy is the search for the Philosopher's Stone. It was here that I got the first inkling of the amount of research that had gone into the writing of the debut Harry Potter. The one character in the book that Rowling says she most identifies with is Hermione, the swot with her nose always stuck in a book. Hermione's name is derived from the Classical god Hermes, and it just so happens that Hermes is greatly associated with the art of alchemy. Researching Paracelsus further, I came across the name of "Nicolas Flamel". This excited me, since Harry and his friends are most anxious to find out who Flamel is. Nicolas Flamel does not have appeared to have excited much attention from Harry Potter readers, but he should, since Nicolas Flamel was a real historical being. Flamel was given the Book of Abraham in the Fourteenth Century, from which he is supposed to have discovered the Philosopher's stone, the secret of turning any metal into gold, and the Elixir of Life. He was also married to a woman named Pernelle, and they are rumoured never to have died... The inclusion of Flamel and the mention of his age (665) mean that we can date The Philosopher's Stone as being set in 1995. Since every novel follows a year of Harry Potter's life, we can date every book in the series. It could very well be that Rowling was writing The Philosopher's Stone in 1995. Or maybe she just didn't want the mysterious Nicolas Flamel to reach the devilish age of 666. The depth of research is also conveyed by the mention of the herb Monkshood. This is believed to have been produced by the saliva of Cerberus, the three headed dog that guarded hell, or as Hagrid calls him, "Fluffy". When you read The Philosopher's Stone again, you can only recognise that it is a classic. J K Rowling has certainly rediscovered alchemy in more ways than one. Let's hope that she's also flourishing on the Elixir of Life, as I've no doubt she's got many more tales to tell.
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I was living in Japan at the time I bought the first book, and I don't remember whether I realized or not that this was a gigantic worldwide craze, but probably not. What I do clearly remember is that in the bookstore in Japan they had two versions of the book--one British and one American.
Americanizing a work of English literature is absolutely obnoxious. I'm rather sure that even small children can decipher a UK writer's choice of words and spellings without the need of an English-to-American dictionary, and what they don't understand will broaden their horizons as they endeavor to find out. It was bad enough when they did this with J.R.R. Tolkien's works, for which I also bought the UK version. And ne'er has a book been bastardized worse than that other English children's classic, Peter Pan--real genius imagination and writing in the original that it is. Oh, and let's not forget how poor little Oliver Twist's story was murdered with song and dance.
So from the first volume to the last, I've read the Bloomsbury, original volumes of Harry Potter, ordering the last two from Amazon UK after moving back to New York--where I'm originally from. It cost me about double, but was worth it to get the proper book.
My brother looked at my editions of Harry Potter and confirmed that the American versions are different in quite a few places, so I'm glad I didn't read them.
Later on, when I became a real fan of the series, I was also a bit suprised that there is a Harry Potter "Adult" version of the series. My guess is that Hermione doesn't get naked in it or anything, just that the style of the printing is more 'mature.' Still, I rather have the book that the author and native publishers meant, for the audience they meant it for.
You can't do something great, then go back and change it to appeal to another group--not to Harry Potter, not to Star Wars, none of it.
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A lot of things are overhyped these days, but this book isn't one of them.
Harry Potter is an orphaned child, living a miserable existence with his cruel uncle and aunt, and their dreadful, spoilt son, when, suddenly, his luck changes, and he gets the opportunity to go to a new school, Hogwarts.
There are four houses at Hogwarts, and Harry ends up in Gryffindor, who are determined to end Slytherin's hold on the House Cup, and Harry's amazing powers make him their main hope. A star at Quidditch, it looks as if his reckless behaviour looking for the magical Philosopher's Stone, with his friends, will cost Gryffindor dearly. What happens after that...well, that would be telling!
The good characters in this book are delightful, especially the three child heroes (four if you include Neville!) Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, and Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall - and even the fur-wearing Hagrid (speaking as a vegetarian, one of the book's faults is it's not veggie friendly!).
The unpleasant characters are hissable - Snape, Malfoy, and Voldemort, plus one or two surprise baddies. The book has a balanced mix of light and dark, and the vivid descriptions of the Quidditch matches mixes the two.
What makes this book special is really the mix of old-fashioned storytelling, involving wizards, monsters, ghosts, and good and evil, but placed in a modern setting - which, though giving you the feeling you've read something similar before, you know you haven't!
- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.
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I taught English for 34 years. Some 10 years ago we bought two sets of this book for classroom use. In my experience, it is the only book which children spontaneously bought in numbers because, using it in the classroom, they could not wait until the next lesson to see what happened next. By the time we were reaching the end of the story, more than half the class would have their own copies - and, of course, would know what the end of the story was anyway! It's easy enough to see why the book has appeal - sympathetic hero (an orphan) poorly treated by grotesque guardians, going off to boarding school (by steam train) with long dark corridors and marvellous banqueting hall, interestingly eccentric adults, strange animals, ghosts, the struggle between good and evil (Gryffindor and Slytherin, Harry and Voldemort), very enjoyable character and place names and above all the ability to use magic. What is more difficult to understand is why the book has been so extraordinarily successful. It doesn't matter - it has, and it gives pleasure to children and adults alike.
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I've never read a children's book that gripped my imagination or made me smile so much. Sure, a lot has been said about the Harry Potter phenomenon, and people have claimed that J.K. Rowling is not a good writer (where did they get that impression?), but surely if a writer can compel so many people and drag millions of children into the wonderful realm of literature, she can't be so bad.
The storyline in the first installment of the 'Potter' series is one of the best of all. It is simple, but opens up many mysterious doors which aid the storylines of the other books to follow. Most of all, it keeps you reading. Rowling uses enough skill to impress the reader, while not too much to bore the reader (or confuse children). There is no obvious symbolism, but you could argue that for a children's book with a fantastic plot, who needs symbols?
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is a wonderful, gripping and well-developed book. Since when did children's books amaze adults so much? Well done Rowling...
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