I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying the Covenanter series, @Lady-Merian! I didn't realise Douglas Bond had also written a book about the Huguenots; I would like to read more about them, but I haven't really had any success with the fictional books I've tried (so tackling the Henty on the subject is probably not a good call).
Congrats on finishing The Silent Bells (the first person I know who has done so ) - glad it was what you were wanting! I went back and found an email I'd written shortly after finishing the third book and discovered I had been waiting 14.5 years...

Due to a busy couple of weeks, it took longer than I hoped to finish the Covered Wagon Women but have now done so; I enjoyed it as I anticipated. I have also now made it through Jeeves and the Tie that Binds (not my favourite but had some fun parts for sure) and am eying my next read - it might be Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, another Wodehouse, or something else altogether off my to-read shelf.

I never read the Harry Potter series as a kid since my mother wanted to preview them first to see if they were appropriate for young me and she never got around to it. I don't mean that as a complaint BTW. In fact, for a while, I've been grateful I didn't grow up reading Harry Potter like so many in my generation. Why? Because I want to write fantasies for children and I don't want to be accused of ripping off (even subconsciously) something that was so lucrative. 

However, I've sadly come to accept the fact that I just don't have ideas for children's fantasy stories and I'm in the mood to read something fun and exciting but not too challenging, so I'm reading them (and for the most part enjoying) Harry Potter now. 

I'd heard that The Prisoner of Azkaban is something of a fan favorite but having finished it recently, I've got to say I prefer The Chamber of Secrets.

Now I'm about to start the part of the series where the books get darker, more adult and noticeably thicker and I'm not that excited because while there's nothing wrong with a book being dark or for adults or long, like I wrote above, I'm more in the mood for fun fluff. (I also understand there's a lot of stuff about teen crushes and love triangles and angst in the second half of the series and those aren't always my cup of tea. ) But I'm invested enough in the books that I want to keep reading. Does anyone have any advice for me as I continue? 

Posted by: @col-klink

But I'm invested enough in the books that I want to keep reading. Does anyone have any advice for me as I continue? 

I've only read the Harry Potter series once and generally enjoyed it but have never had any desire to read it again, so I'm going by fairly distant memory. But you're right in that the series takes a much darker turn from book 4 onwards, and I would say it's not a turn for the better. Book 4 I found a drag, book 5 I thought was quite an improvement, but books 6 and 7 were both downers. And the way in which Voldemort has to be defeated — which is only revealed in book 6 of 7 — is SUCH A CLICHE in fantasy stories (and mythology in general) that I think I groaned aloud when I got to it.

(I won't give it away if you don't already know it, but suffice it to say, if you've ever read Nick Lowe's legendary essay The Well-Tempered Plot Device — Google it if you haven't; it's hilarious reading for fans of fantasy and sci-fi and I reckon you'll enjoy it — well, to borrow one of his terms, we're in Plot Coupon city here. ) 

And yeah, if you don't like teen crushes and love triangles and angst — or even if you do — I'd say you're not in for a treat with this particular series. The romance elements are really not well done.

Other than that, well, if you're not already a massive fan of the series by this stage, the last four books are unlikely to make you one. But they are definitely worth reading and deciding for yourself what you think. 

@col-klink  ...having finished it recently, I've got to say I prefer The Chamber of Secrets.

Yes, I can see how you & Courtenay might have got bogged down in the Harry Potter series, especially in the later books. I think though, it was more exciting for many people, including myself, reading the Harry Potter books in Christmas 2001 and onwards, when the first book in the series, The Philosopher's Stone, was first released on film that year. At the time, I was finishing a master's degree in information and library management, through Charles Sturt University's Wagga Wagga campus, & like Hermione, one of the main characters in the series, I was really needing some "light reading" to relax with. I graduated in April, 2002, & so we went down to Wagga Wagga for the occasion, a 5-hour drive. At the time, I was reading The Chamber of Secrets, and was enchanted to find near where we branched off to go into Wagga Wagga, itself, a general store with a public telephone box outside, along with the usual post box as well. 

This place was the sort of place we could stop at to buy refreshments, on the way, like cold drinks, ice-creams etc. And it fitted the story when there is, or was in 2002, a very real

Spoiler

public telephone box

just the place where that particular phony Professor of the Dark Arts, Gilderoy Lockhart allegedly caught the "Wagga Wagga Werewolf", and tamed this poor creature with a tea strainer so much that it could only eat lettuce ever after.

Also, I was enchanted with the series because every now and then there were actual references to Australia, as part of the globe, which I found easier to relate to. We enjoyed the books when the last three books had not been written at the time, and as we breathlessly waited for the next book to arrive, we had a lot of fun out of surmising what would happen next, and how the books would end.   Like others elsewhere, online, I could see several Narnia references. And I'm sure I've mentioned where my original username came from, as a result. By 2011 when Walden's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was released the previous Christmas, Warner Brothers had already begun to catch up, having divided The Deathly Hallows into two parts. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

At the time, I was finishing a master's degree in information and library management, through Charles Sturt University's Wagga Wagga campus, & like Hermione, one of the main characters in the series, I was really needing some "light reading" to relax with.

Sorry off topic - but I attended Charles Sturt University's Wagga Wagga campus too (in 1996 - it was for some farming training, I was spending a year working on my relatives' farms in Cootamundra and Bethungra). I have never read Harry Potter - though the films are certainly interesting.

@davidd Sorry off topic - but I attended Charles Sturt University's Wagga Wagga campus too (in 1996...)

Yes, that is right, when the faculty of Applied Science (600) that hosted farming, viticulture, and dairying not to mention horse management, for the Sydney Olympics, for some reason best known to the Charles Sturt University management, also hosted the Graduate Certificate of Library and Information Management course, which I studied by distance education in 1996, & which I converted to a Graduate Diploma in 1999, finishing the full Master's degree in Applied Science, in 2022. That, I am told, is doing an attenuated degree, that is to say, the hard way, when I was also working full-time as a Librarian at a TAFE college.   By the way, farming, along with pets etc in the Dewey Decimal Classification system is between 630-639, whilst Library studies are at 027 and thereabouts. 

But back to the topic of the Harry Potter books, yes, the films were fine enough, though I thought @courtenay's favourite, Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the series, did diverge from the book, more so than the two earlier films. I suppose there is a limit

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

But back to the topic of the Harry Potter books, yes, the films were fine enough, though I thought @courtenay's favourite, Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the series, did diverge from the book, more so than the two earlier films.

Just to clarify, I enjoyed the book Prisoner of Azkaban, but have never seen the film, so I can't compare them. I only watched the first two Harry Potter films and haven't seen the rest, only read the books — which, increasingly, didn't grab me enough for me to want to watch the films as well. So I'm not sure where this claim is coming from that PofA was my favourite. 

 

Posted by: @lady-merian

@snowangel just curious, did you see the pictures inside the printed chapter, or did you see them on the site? I can’t say I like either one, but the colors are much brighter on the site. I never liked my copy of The Dragon’s Tooth (the hardcover one with Cyrus holding up the tooth.) but the paperback version and the next two I liked better. It is a shame that he doesn’t have the rights to the original covers.

Also I didn’t wait long before looking into the Tommy and Tuppence tv series. I binged it last month. I was glad you mentioned it! It was so much fun it makes me want to reread them already.

We were looking at them in the printed chapter. I just wish the new covers were going to be more vivid and detailed like the originals. I have hardcover copies of the series, but The Drowned Vault and Empire of Bones sadly don't have dust covers. I would be tempted to buy another set of the books if I really liked the new covers.

How fun! I've got both the Tommy and Tuppence books and TV series on my list of things I would like read/watch again, but I don't think I will get to either for awhile.

Well, I started off fast on The Dragon's Tooth, but then didn't feel like reading it after what happened on September 10, so I set it aside for a few days. I've picked it back up and enjoyed a good size chunk over the last few days.

My nonfiction read is currently Honor Thy Fathers: Recovering the Anti-Feminist Theology of the Reformers by Zachary Garris, I am into the second half of the book and it's really good. 

Posted by: @courtenay

And the way in which Voldemort has to be defeated — which is only revealed in book 6 of 7 — is SUCH A CLICHE in fantasy stories (and mythology in general) that I think I groaned aloud when I got to it.

I am SO GLAD to see you post this Courtenay. I thought I was all alone. 

I'm such a story snob, and it took me a very long time to figure out why..... it's because I find that so many stories (books or movies or especially TV shows) have incredibly strong beginnings and middles, but then the writer(s) have no idea how to end it, so it completely falls apart.
I do think that's why I'm such a massive fan of LotR and The Hobbit. I loved both of those endings.
Narnia grated a bit for me, which is why LB is far and away a distant favorite compared to the other six chronicles (though it certainly doesn't fall into the dislike category, just wasn't a favorite).
But then you arrive at Harry Potter, and as well told the story was for me throughout the series (though I too liked them less and less as they went on) the ending COMPLETELY fell apart for me. So much so that the series as a whole lost it's luster. 

I will say one thing for Harry Potter that I don't think anyone else mentioned. I did find it worth one reread. One of the things Rowling did that I very much enjoyed was all the little Easter eggs that were placed in early books, and then when you go back and read through it a second time, the "ah-HA!" moments were fun. But after that second reread, I was finished with the series and have never gone back and read them again, and have no desire to do so. 

@courtenay  Just to clarify, I enjoyed the book Prisoner of Azkaban...I only watched the first two Harry Potter films...only read the books — which, increasingly, didn't grab me enough for me to want to watch the films as well. So, I'm not sure where this claim is coming from that P of A was my favourite. 

It was my perception when Prisoner of Azkaban was the only one that you actually admitted you enjoyed, out of a series, a septet, where arguably four of them were spun out too long, & became increasingly too convoluted, as both you and @col-klink have written   And yes, I agree there was much to dislike about the fourth book, Goblet of Fire, not only the misfiring romances, Nagini the snake & Voldemort, himself. Ironically, the filming wasn't too bad when it mostly kept to a straightforward account of a rigged competition which resulted in Cedric Diggory's death. Yes, Cedric was supposed to be the proper Hogwart's champion, not Harry Potter, who should never been in the contest at all. And it is realistic to say that most of Harry's fellow students would have ostracised him accordingly, in the belief that it was his own fault.  But though Cedric seemed to be a reasonable sort of person, why was Cedric's surname "Diggory"?  A nod to Digory Kirke, perhaps? To emphasize Cedric's basic decency as a character? 

I believe one point of her exercise in writing the series, was to show how teenage life gets more entangled in the gap between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, itself, and how people change over that time. That was part of Lilith Norman's & others' 1970's criticism of Enid Blyton books which do not show children so realistically. In their opinion, Blyton's boarding school accounts conformed to a stock pattern where the protagonist always gets to be school captain, is school dux or one of the sports captains, not to mention is always popular, & always romances the right guy. No, that isn't always the truth in some boarding school books that I have read, but I do understand Rowling's point.  And I did get a really good laugh out of Rowling's description of the Hogwarts librarian, Madame Pince, & how she ran her library, but which I did not put into my final university assignment about the public & literary image of librarians, to my eternal regret.  

Rowling also admitted that though she enjoyed most of the Narnia books as a child, she never completed reading LB. But Susan's growing up to dismiss her Narnia experiences as "childish games", was not really something that C.S. Lewis needed to delve into, when he left her alive, to live her life how she pleased. It was the anti-Christian literary lobby like Philip Pullman, that twisted her omission from "Narnia heaven", into a rejection of normal growing up, I think. But on the whole, I prefer the Harry Potter books to Philip Pullman's "His dark materials" trilogy, with its antagonism to Christianity, all too obvious.

@ fantasia I do think that's why I'm such a massive fan of LotR and The Hobbit. I loved both of those endings

Yes, but both LotR and The Hobbit are about a wholly different sort of world of orcs, balrogs, dwarfs and elves, as well as humans, invented by Tolkien, far into the past, rather than scenarios partly detached from the mundane world of England, much less so in Harry Potter's case than in out-of-this-world & out-of-school Narnia. And when the films were repeated over and over again during school holidays at least once a year, on one of our main Free-to-air television channels, there was no need or desire for me to go back to read the books.  

I wanted to thank the Narniawebbers who responded to me about the Harry Potter series. 

I read The Goblet of Fire, and I liked it for the plot twists, the fantastical imagery and worldbuilding and the new characters of Bartemius Crouch and Rita Skeeter. But I can also understand why Courtenay found it dull. It does feel to me like J. K. Rowling thought of the ending first and then had to come up with the rest of the story backwards. I suppose that's the true of the earlier Harry Potter books too with their major elements of mystery but in this one, the characters weren't even really trying that hard to solve the mystery so it felt like I was just waiting for the ending to come along and explain how the Triwizard Tournament could possibly connect to the overall plot of the series. It almost feels like the author wrote this book because she needed one to transition from the first half of the series to the second half rather than because she had a great idea for a plot. Considering that, I think the book turned out quite well. 

@col-klink I think my biggest problem with the teenage romantic drama was not so much that Harry initially had a crush on a girl who turns out not to reciprocate it, but that the one he eventually ends up with turns out to be a very bland and boring character who doesn't have anything particularly interesting about her and who doesn't contribute anything really essential to the plot. I reckon if she'd been introduced, as she was, from the second book onwards but we actually got to know more and more about her until she became an indispensable part of the story (and gradually Harry starts to realise that there's something indispensable about her too that goes beyond just her looks...) — well, then the romantic subplot might have actually worked and been worthwhile. But as it is, it doesn't and isn't. (And no, I never thought for a moment that there should have been something between Harry and Hermione. Or between Harry and Luna, for that matter.) 

@col-klink I suppose that's the true of the earlier Harry Potter books too with their major elements of mystery but in this one, the characters weren't even really trying that hard to solve the mystery so it felt like I was just waiting for the ending to come along and explain how the Triwizard Tournament could possibly connect to the overall plot of the series.

I think that is the whole point of the Goblet of Fire, really. They weren't going to try to find whodunnit, when there were others trying to enter the competition anyway. Such as Fred & George Weasley, who even tried to age themselves up.  Everybody thought that it was Harry Potter, himself, who put his name in the Goblet of Fire, except that it wasn't, and they aren't really interested in listening to excuses, either. And so, nobody really was trying to solve such a mystery, so he was obliged to go into the competition, anyway, to make it four competitors. There are some clues to who it might be, when Barty Crouch Snr, one of the competition officials, is found dead, & when Harry has weird dreams, involving a stranger (played by David Tennant, who also played Dr Who twice).  And who is stealing Polyjuice Potion & Gillyweed from Severus Snape's office, for which Snape blames Harry, of course. 

There were only supposed to be 3 competitors, Victor Krum from Durmstrang (Sturm und Drang, or storm and stress), Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, and Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts. Nobody suspects the Defence against the Dark arts teacher may not be all he seems, or the role he is playing. There is supposed to be a curse on that particular position, when nobody who gets the job is in it for more than a year, & the mystery is often whether they are good or bad. I had a bit of fun with them comparing each of the seven we see, with the Seven Missing Lords from Voyage of the Dawn Treader when at Scribbulus, some devotees, including myself, wrote essays for that Leaky Cauldron website. 

Something I forgot to mention about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is that I actually think the story might lend itself more to a movie because it's so, for lack of a better term, sports driven. Has anyone else ever read a book they thought would work better as a movie? For me, it's often the opposite. 

Posted by: @col-klink

It almost feels like the author wrote this book because she needed one to transition from the first half of the series to the second half rather than because she had a great idea for a plot. 

And I guess that even more, she needed one book for each of the school years (following the British school system). She couldn't really skip a whole year only because she had nothing to write about for that year.

And I assume the publishers wouldn't appreciate her skipping one potential book either.  

I read through the whole series, mainly because a very good friend of was reading it and I wanted to see what it was like. I never reread it and never saw any of the movies.