Why Do You Read the HP Books?

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No: HPFGUIDX 142740

ibchawz writes:
>I have seen criticism of Harry Potter's character and moral fiber.  
>Comments I have seen include him being arrogant, lazy, rebellious, 
>amoral, immoral, plagiaristic, disrespectful, incompetent, etc.  If 
>Harry, as the main character, is really this bad a person, why do 
you 
>read the books?

I read Harry Potter shortly after it became a "must read" and 
exploded across the face of the globe, merely for the sake of 
curiosity.  I was not impressed with the first book and frankly, 
couldn't see the attraction.  JKR didn't seem to be a particularly 
good writer, I found the characters to be a bit flat, the plotline 
was okay but not terribly gripping.  I read the second book and hated 
it.  The whole Tom Riddle thing seemed contrived and barely 
believable.  However, I love snakes and found the whole parselmouth 
thing to be an excellent idea.  Then the third book came out and I 
became a Potter fanatic.  Somewhere after the second book, JKR found 
her niche and became a decent writer.  I really enjoyed Prisoner of 
Azkaban and I *loved* Goblet of Fire.  The characters have grown and 
the plotlines have thickened.  Sure, there are plenty of mistakes but 
I consider a lot of them to be the fault of the editors.  It is the 
JOB of the editor to catch the things we catch on this list, but it's 
easy to see them skimming the book with dollar signs in their eyes 
and yelling, "It's great!  Print it!!!"  I saw this same thing happen 
with Stephen King.  The more money the publisher made, the more carte 
blanche they gave the author.  Unfortunately, this prevents them from 
making the novel as good as it should be.  Even great writers are far 
from perfect and they all need someone to tap them on the shoulder 
and say, "You know, this timeline isn't making sense."

Nicky Joe