I'm starting a new topic just in case someone feels this incredible urge to say something about the new Harry Potter and forgets to add "SPOILERS" to the subject.

I'll be back to this folder once I finally get my copy.

El

I've only gotten through the first three chapters, but boy is it great already! Mrs. Figg is a witch and there are dementors in Little Whinging?! And what the heck does Petunia know about the non-Muggle world that she's not saying? I can't wait to find out!

BTW, Hermione is my fave, how about everyone else?

~Anna (off to keep reading)

Can someone PLEEEEEASE get rid of that Umbridge *person*.

OMG, I just went to the bookstore and they aren't getting any copies until the END OF THE MONTH!!!!! I'm so cheesed... Howabout someone scan some of the first few chapters and mail them to me? I'm dying over here!

Melisma (under her Rock, normally a spoiler virgin, but unable to wait this time)

I just would love to kill Umbridge. That is all. (On Ch. 20 at the time of this writing)

GAAH!
I wanna read it, too!
Unfortunately, I had this crazy idea never to buy a HP book. I read the first four volumes....borrowing them from my neighbour who's a native English speaker... I just don't dare to go there and ask her if she has already gotten it....

Well, it's all my own fault. For now I'll have to feed off of these wonderful comments here (which make me want to read volume 5 even more!!)

~Sira~crazy, but hey, aren't we all from time to time?

*deep sigh*

Just finished...wow...that was a very involved book... it was almost 900 pages and yet I didn't want it to end.

ok, JK! Where's book 6?!?!

(Nag to JK to write!)

-Breanna

Was sobbing during the time when ***incoherent mumble*** died...it's not fair!!!!

Re Karen...think we *all* wanna kill Umbridge!

Sara

I just *loved* the name, though... Umbrage. <g>

At page 700 right here. Her little "detentions" ARGGH!!! I would have told on her a long time ago. And Dumbledore taking the fall for DA?!?!?! This whole book has just been one big ?!?!?!

Jen

Heh. Keep reading, Jen. What Fred & George do is priceless.

I finished it. She killed him. I cried.

Jen
hasn't recovered yet.
is thoroughly depressed and speechless.
is there a support group for this?
yeah, i know, it was only a book, but COUGH COUGH COUGH was one of my favorite characters.

I haven't finished yet, but I read the last couple of pages, so I know who dies. (I cheat, so sue me) And I agree with you, Jen, *incoherent mumble* was one of my favorite characters too. I read an interview with JK Rowling and in it, she said that she cried after she wrote the death scene. I don't blame her!

Caroline (who has to start at the front of the book instead of the back. It's really getting to be a bad habit. But, to borrow a quote from When Harry Met Sally, "When I buy a new book I always read the last page first
that way in case I die before I finish I know how it ends.")

Whoa!!! ), but what really made me cry was reading this:


El

Yes :p

If you use the Today\'s Active Topics link to see what posts have been added since your last visit it gives you the first few sentences of the post (a very handy innovation btw...)

So class, repeat after me...

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It's JK's take on Hamlet... everyone dies at the end

Just editing to add I've realised you need to put a 'fool yahoo' paragraph in there as well... except this isn't yahoo, so a 'fool UBB' paragraph... that is a paragraph or so of random text at the top of the post. Poems and songs are much appreicated...

Helga
(who doesn't have the new HP because she has no money, but doesn't mind being spoilled anyway... but she's sure there are others who will...)

Okay, I'm writing this in as vague a way as possible, but just on the off-chance:

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Well, I finished reading OofP at about one o'clock last night and...

Did anyone else spend the first half of the book wondering when the plot was going to kick in and then suddenly think, 'Duh! This is the plot?' The pacing seemed a little 'off' somehow -- but that may well have been me.

Oddly, the death didn't do much for me. Maybe it was because that was the part that had been hyped so much, maybe it was who died, or maybe it was the fact that it happened so [not saying more]... I don't know. However, I felt that Cedric's death in Goblet actually was more powerful.

What did get to me though, was Dumbledore's revelations. Now, that / they were sad. (Can anyone here say angst? )

What did impress me, though, was the way JKR used all sorts of things from the first books that had seemed merely quirky at the time were used here to great effect. (I'm thinking things like the quality of teaching etc.)

Oh, and those detentions were horrible.

Overall, a good book, and one that I would recommend more than most. I mean, I read it avidly (and from front to back without looking ahead to see what was going to happen later on); it was a page turner. However, it didn't leave me thinking at the end that I had to go back and start at the beginning again (which has happened once or twice with other things). Nor did it leave me with that terrible bereft feeling of having just lost a great friend (which also happens from time to time.)

Oh, and Prisoner of Azkaban remains my favourite.

Chris (who, having finished the fun stuff might actually be reduced to reading articles on housing policy this weekend!)

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ALIVE!

Kinda sort of. I kept expecting the whole book to be at Hogwarts like the others, and then I finally had my 'duh' moment. The first half was by no means bad, I just didn't predict the setting correctly.

Yeah, I agree. And there's something about Harry dragging a dead body back with him after battle in Book 4 that's a whole lot more powerful for me. COUGH's death in OotP was extremely sad for me because COUGH was my favorite character, but battle-wise, it wasn't the biggest thing. If it was some random character that I had no attachments to, it would have been like, "Oh, well, so n so's dead, let's get on with it."

Ah, I still can't pick after 5 books!

Jen :p

I just finally finished the book and I'm most impressed.

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It's a great book, even though I sometimes had ideas like 'oh, now this is gonna happen later' and I was right. I already had the feeling that the person might die, and indeed at the end it happened. (my other guesses were pretty close too, they got nearly killed). But I'd never expected Dumbledore's story. So now I can't wait to read what's going to happen in the next parts.

But I noticed two things while reading the book I thought were funny. First, it seems that the first of September *always* falls on a Sunday. The train always leaves on Sunday, since there term starts a day later, which is always Monday. Now magic can be very nice and do lots of cool stuff, but fiddling with dates like that just isn't possible.

And then there were the Thestrals, whom you can only see if you have seen death. I find it weird that Harry can only see them at the start of his fifth year, after Cedric died. Harry has seen his parents die as a baby. He may not remember it, but he still saw it. So I believe he should have seen the animals earlier.

Anyway, I'd like to know what other people think of it, or if I'm totally losing myself.

Saskia (going to read her favourite chapters again now)

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ok... i can say that...





Chiara
P.s I love the Book...

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LOL Maybe it'll be like L&C where nobody is ever *really* dead. Luthor came back *how* many times? <g>

Caroline

Oh boyyo! I just have to go haunt the bookstore and see if they have finally gotten the shipment in, now. You guys are killing me here... Well, it *is* the beginning of July, and they promised me it would be in by the end of June - but they promised to call... I'll just have to go lean on them, ya think??? Or is there a site I can go to (very illegally I'm sure) where someone has downloaded it for those of us in remote parts of the world where they are so 'backward' as to think nobody wants to read an English book the day it is released?...

Melisma (getting off her soapbox and crawling back under her Rock to go ring up the bookstore *again*)

Melisma - there is indeed a very evil scan of the book in the net. I don't know where. I got it from a friend. But after the first four chapters I quit reading it, because already a page was missing. A page I thought quite important for the proceedings that early in the story.
That's why I have decided to buy the book instead where I know I'll get all the pages and which I can take with me wherever it pleases me (in opposition to reading it on-screen...too much pages to print them all).

Maybe I just missed the feel of a book in my hands while reading...or I'm just too honest for my own good. I'm still waiting for *my* shipment, too. So let's wait together. It will be worth it. I'm sure.

~Sira

I guess I could have read this topic before the book after all. <tiny g> Not feeling much like smiling at the moment. <sigh>

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Well, he wasn't my favorite character. He actually wasn't even a leading candidate on my "list of people who likely got it." And the actual death, as was mentioned by others, mostly made me go, "Say what?" But when Harry and Luna had that talk a couple chapters later . . . ok, then I did cry. But yes, the death in HP4 was far more wrenching.

As for Dumbledore's revelations to Harry . . . for over a year I've been utterly convinced I knew why Voldemort went after Harry. Totally wrong. <grumble> Although this does explain a few things . . .

Holy Canole, I finally got my book yesterday afternoon - was up until 4:30 am this morning reading, and am just over halfway done. Will now be able to join the discussion - just give me another half day or so

Melisma (a happy camper, finally, here under her Rock - skiving off on a schoolwide activity so that she can read... and she's a TEACHER!!! ... oh yeah, and can you tell she just learnt a new Britishism??? )

Well, I've finished reading it... It took about 24 hours from the time I bought it to the time I finished reading, and that was taking time out for teaching 8 hours of English, a couple of (disjointed) hours for sleeping, an hour at the gym, and, well, other personal stuff...

Whew! Intense or what, and I was guessing all the way through about who it was that kicked it - had a few potential victims in mind, and yes, one of them was the winner...

I'm rather frustrated, tho'... Two years (prolly) before we find out how many OWLs Harry and Hermione and Ron got... And the shippiness is heating up - time to go look up some fanfic to save my sanity, I guess. After I catch up on the sleep I lost to reading.

Talk to you later - time to SLEEP!!!

Melisma (yawning here under her Rock)