From the Philosopher’s Stone to the Deathly Hallows and back again
I’m 150 pages away from finishing Harry Potter and I’m not sure I like it.
Admittedly, I was quite sceptical when the series first came out. “Children’s books” I dismissed them as. “Not my cup of tea” I said. But after some light badgering in the Micronesia Mall, Jase convinced me to buy a cheap paperback copy of The Philosopher’s Stone to read on the plane coming back from Guam. I was an instant convert.
Five years and thousands of pages later, it’s almost come to its end and I’m having trouble coping. I even decided that I wanted to reread all the books before starting the last book in the series. Then, to draw out the task even more, I decided to reread the series in French. This certainly slowed me down a bit, and introduced words like “barn owl” and “cloak” into my French vocabulary. But nevertheless I persevered and in less than a year enjoyed reading À l’école des sorciers, La Chambre des secrets, Le Prisonnier d’Azkaban, La Coup de feu, L’Ordre du Phénix and Le Prince de sang-mélé as much as I did the first time around. I even debated reading them all in Spanish as well, but I knew full well I was just trying to buy time.
I have to recognise Ms Rowling for being an exceptional authoress. She imagined a world out of nothing. She created characters you identified with and then had them change and develop. The plot is highly complex, almost every element and detail becomes significant at a later point, yet the whole thing seems effortless. Without trying to be overly smaltzy, I have no choice but to call Harry Potter a masterwork of contemporary literature.
And in a few hours of reading, it will all be over. The characters won’t embark on new adventures. I’ll never know what happens after. It’ll be time to let go. Sniff.
Admittedly, I was quite sceptical when the series first came out. “Children’s books” I dismissed them as. “Not my cup of tea” I said. But after some light badgering in the Micronesia Mall, Jase convinced me to buy a cheap paperback copy of The Philosopher’s Stone to read on the plane coming back from Guam. I was an instant convert.
Five years and thousands of pages later, it’s almost come to its end and I’m having trouble coping. I even decided that I wanted to reread all the books before starting the last book in the series. Then, to draw out the task even more, I decided to reread the series in French. This certainly slowed me down a bit, and introduced words like “barn owl” and “cloak” into my French vocabulary. But nevertheless I persevered and in less than a year enjoyed reading À l’école des sorciers, La Chambre des secrets, Le Prisonnier d’Azkaban, La Coup de feu, L’Ordre du Phénix and Le Prince de sang-mélé as much as I did the first time around. I even debated reading them all in Spanish as well, but I knew full well I was just trying to buy time.
I have to recognise Ms Rowling for being an exceptional authoress. She imagined a world out of nothing. She created characters you identified with and then had them change and develop. The plot is highly complex, almost every element and detail becomes significant at a later point, yet the whole thing seems effortless. Without trying to be overly smaltzy, I have no choice but to call Harry Potter a masterwork of contemporary literature.
And in a few hours of reading, it will all be over. The characters won’t embark on new adventures. I’ll never know what happens after. It’ll be time to let go. Sniff.
7 comments:
Maybe His Dark Materials can be my HP substitute, though it’s only a trilogy. I’ll just be getting into it by the time it’s over.
aww. i know how you must be feeling. call me when you're done and we can have an international book club meeting.
and i heartily recommend His Dark Materials, as you know:)
Jxx
The Lost Diadem,
The Sacking of Severus Snape,
The Battle of Hogwarts...
...The Elder Wand,
The Prince's Tale...
I felt exactly the same way when I read the last book. I even put it off for months, leaving the book in a drawer - which really pissed off the person I borrowed it from.
I drowned by sorrows over finishing the last book by watching all the movies again. Take heart, there is still one maybe two movies that have yet to be released.
...The Forest Again,
King's Cross,
The Flaw in the Plan.
The End.
Sniff
Jenni,
There's actually three more movies still to come out. Half-Blooded Prince and they are going to split Deathly Hallows into two seperate movies released six months apart because the director decided there was nothing he could cut out of the book and that everything deserved be in it.
So, something still to look foward to for a while yet.
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