Harry Potter Books and Movies

“Harry – yer a wizard […] an’ a thumpin good’un, I’d say, once yeh’ve been trained up a bit.”– Hagrid, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

I first remember hearing about Harry Potter when the third book was coming out.  I caught a news story about the anticipation for it.  I didn’t think any more about it.  When the fourth book was coming out, the news stories were almost constant.  I decided to see what all the fuss was about.  The first book was available in regular paperback, so I bought it and read it.  I was able to see why it was so popular with kids.  None of the other books were available in paperback yet, so I didn’t know if/when I might read them.

I mentioned this to a friend and he said that he had the next three books – he had bought them for his son and daughter, but he and his wife had read them, too.  He loaned me the second book, which was a quick read like the first one.  I returned it to him the next day and asked if I could borrow the third one.  Because the weekend was coming he brought in both the third and fourth books.  This was fortuitous for me because if I had not already had both of them in front of me I probably would not have read any more than the first three.  The third book just seemed like more of the same to me and I wasn’t looking forward to reading a fourth that just rehashed the first three.  I read it anyway and it became my favorite of the four because this was the first one with a story that was obviously geared more to adults than children.

Of course, once I got caught up on the books, author J.K. Rowling decided to take three years off to get recharged and plot out the remaining three books.  When the wait was over I bought each of the next three books in hardcover and read them the day they were released.  I also rented each of the movies as they came to DVD.  While I did re-read book 4 at some point, I have never re-read the series or re-watched the movies until now.

I already owned all seven books.  A few weeks ago when all eight movies became available on Blu-ray in a single set, I picked them up.  That was the genesis for my idea to do these reviews.

My plans are to pair books and movies together and read/watch them in order.  I will then write and post a review of each book/movie before moving on to the next one in the series.  I am curious what my impressions will be of them now that I know how the whole story is going to play out.  What things did I miss the first time around because I did not know the part they were going to play later on?  How well did the books translate into the movies?  Will my ratings for the movies change?  Let's find out.

Here are links to my posts on the books and movies.  I will update this list as I post each one.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Overall Thoughts on the Harry Potter Books and Movies

Here's some Harry Potter humor.

One other bit of fun in regards to Harry Potter: what if the Harry Potter characters appeared on classic album covers?  You can find those here. 

On to the reviews…