Which Book Should I start With?

[Fred Waldrop]

No: HPFGUIDX 90803

"theultimatesen" <senderellabrat at a...> wrote:

I had to respond to this one. I was in the same boat. I was 
*whisper* anti potter *hanging head in shame* for so long. A couple 
of friends of ours brought over SS and tried to get us to watch it. 
I watched a bit of it then fell asleep. Took me several tries to get 
through it. 
I couldn't help but think how LONG it was. Then, one day I just 
watched the entire thing and my interest was REALLY sparked. I got 
all 4 books that night read them all and reread them. I had just 
finished book 4 for the first time when COS came out. You miss so 
much not reading all the books. I wouldn't go out of order either, 
but that's just me. Don't rely on the movies for your info alone. 
Granted, they did a good job, there's just so much they CANT get 
into that's really important. Plus there's a few really good laughs 
in them. 

Sen
Who about died laughing when thinking of pigs in wigs.

Fred Waldrop here;
My story almost follows Sen's to the letter.
I kcould not EVER see my self reading a <gasp> childrens book, not 
at 38 years of age. I kept hearing how great they were and 
everything, and would pick one up, just to get rebuffed by the 
"for ages 9 - 12" thing. Then, when it came on TV (wouldn't pay to 
go to the movies, not to see a childrens movie), I finally broke 
down and watch it. And to my surprize, it was good. I went out and 
bought the first book, read it in one night (I couldn 't put it 
down). The next day I bought the next 3 books, and have read, and re-
read them all over and over.
I have become a such a Harry Potter fan that I wanted to know if  
was missing anything by not having the UK version, I bought a set of 
them, and have even bought a set on CD so I listen to them when I am 
not able to read.
I would most highly recommend reading ALL FIVE in ORDER, because the 
movies, while good, do not do justice to the books.
Example: in the movie you come to the conclution that Harry isn't 
treated grea, but not all that badly by the Dursleys, WRONG.
You see Hermione knowing EVERYTHING, and never freezing, WRONG.
You come away with the imprestion that Harry really did not do very 
much to get to the stone and save it, WRONG.
And these are just a few, very few things that the movies got wrong.

Fred
ps. Not to mention they all but cut out the great humor (comic 
relief) of the twins. I thought it was absolutly side splitting 
funny in CoS how the twins would "pop up" and say things like "make 
way for the heir of Syltherin, really powerful wizard coming 
through", or try and ward off Harry with big cloves of garlic, all 
trying to prove how silly it was to say Harry was the heir of 
Syltherin.