[HPforGrownups] Book Lengths (Was Re: Harry's Knowlege of Lord Voldemort - SS- post 1)

[lil.magill at adelphia.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 161160

---- kathy kulesza <kat7555 at yahoo.com> wrote: 
I'm surprised JK Rowling thought Order of the Phoenix was too long. It's my favorite of all the books and I wouldn't change anything. I thought Goblet of Fire was too long and the House Elf subplot could have been eliminated without changing the story.


Marion here (surprisingly there seem to be 2 Marions posting):

I, too, thought GoF was the one book that could have been trimmed a bit, but for different reasons.  I think the house elves will play a part in the downfall of the Death Eaters and Voldemort.  The kids' relationships with Dobby and Winky, as well as Dumbledore's and Hermione's respect for the elves (and, in a twisted way, the twins appreciation of their services) will all come to play in getting the elves to help against the dark wizards in some way.

What I thought dragged on too long was the World Cup match.  Admittedly, I'm not a sports fan, and I don't enjoy the quidditch play-by-plays much.  But the world cup seemed to go on forever, and about the only thing it established for future use was the Wronsky feint (sp?), which Harry later used against the dragons.  I think we could have been introduced to the veelas and Viktor at the triwizard tornament without hearing about the long match.  Their trip to the match was necessary because of the events surrounding it, but the details on the game itself dragged for me.  Sports fans will disagree, I'm sure, but I was very pleased to hear that JKR was done writing quidditch!

Marion, who would probably announce a game like Luna did