I was first introduced to Harry Potter in a Children’s Lit class in college. I had resisted this popular phenomenon until I was forced to pick it up for a grade, and Book 1 was short enough that I could read it in the course of 2 hours. I have to admit I wasn’t impressed to any extent, nor did I dislike the experience, but I was critical on grounds of its being derivative, even if reading the first led to reading the second. After all, if I was bored and looking for something light, I could do w More...

Since pretty much everyone I know has read these books, I figure reviewing them is pretty pointless. But with the new book coming out in a couple of days, I have to go through them beginning to end. To make the reviews more entertaining, I will be doing them in a variety of unexpected formats. For this review, I will be writing as a power ballad.

(Intro: Piano and strings)

You were always by my side
You will always be my guide
But the road I'm on
Goes on and on
And I've left you beHIIIIIND!

(Big crunch More...

Well I decided to come back and actually put in a review for this book since all I'd done is give it a star and go on my merry little way.

Hated this book. Flat out, this book was the worst of the whole seven-book series.

I bought HBP the day it was released and I was very excited to read something new in the series. To my shock, I couldn't believe how bad the story was. Something happened to JKR's editor. I think perhaps foul play was involved because apparently the editor was completely absent. More...

After the loss of the (admittedly: occasionally interminable) dark psychological tone of the last book, this one falls into a very recognizable 'plot coupon' pattern, which should be familiar to anyone who played D&D or watched Dragonball (we were all 11 once, right?). Of course, constructing the finale around such a simple and direct concept for the ending of the conflict is easy for the author. However, it is formulaic and predictable for the reader, and robs us of actually seeing a physic More...

OK. I'm prepared to admit I've read it. As someone once said about Jeffrey Archer novels, it's rather like a packet of stale chips. You keep taking them out and eating them, hoping that the ones at the bottom are little better. But they're not. After a while, you notice that the bag is empty, and you feel rather disgusted with yourself.

She claims the whole story was planned from the beginning. Yeah, right. Though, to be fair, she's in good company; Proust said something similar about A La Recher More...

The crown jewel of the Harry Potter series, "Half-Blood Prince" is one of the finest novels I've read in my lifetime. Having allowed us to watch Harry evolve and mature for so many years, Rowling finally lifts the veil, so to speak, humanizing the larger than life characters of not just Dumbledore and Snape, but significantly and achingly, Tom Riddle. This is love letter to one of the hardest things we all experience: the moment that your idols become your peers, your parents become your friends More...

What stands out in book 6:

* The introduction of the Horcrux.
* Molly Weasley asking Arthur Weasley about his "dearest ambition." Rowling has always been great at revealing little intriguing bits about her characters at a time, and Arthur’s answer "to find out how airplanes stay up" reminds us about his obsession with Muggles.
* Harry's private lessons with Dumbledore, and more time spent with the fascinating and dangerous pensieve, arguably one of Rowling’s most ingenious inventions.
* Fred and Ge More...

Okay, how am I really supposed to review this book? The thing is, I'm obsessed with Harry Potter, no way around it. I've been obsessed, and more than likely will always be obsessed. So I can't really step back and give a biased review on this book... but I will give a review nonetheless.

This book did not let me down. Just like Order of the Phoenix I read it within 24 hours. Every single chapter, sentence, word, grabbed at me! By this point in the series I'm seriously invested in the characters a More...

Again...wonderful, amazing book.

My wife however (and she was 60 at the time)never got over this book and was hesitant to read the last book. I can't go on without a spoiler other than to say we get another tragedy and it really jarred her. So again I can only say these are amazing books! The very quality makes them so real to many readers. Same advice...read the book and decide if your child is old enough. But be assured the quality is here.

I do recommend these books and believe that "you" will More...

Please excuse me while I cry myself to sleep :'(
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Okay so even after that ending this is still my favorite of the series by far. Before it had been The Prisoner of Askaban, but I loved this one so much!

I only have a few dislikes (apart from the ending obviously), and they are mainly how some characters irritated me.
1. Could Hermione & Ron not shown a bit more trust & support in his suspicions about Draco & Snape & about the room of requirement? More...

Even though I already knew what was going to happen, no thanks to a friend who spoiled it for me, that didn't stop the tears from flowing as I read the end of this book. J.K. Rowling continued to take the series down a deeper and much darker road with this book. This particular book seems to focus quite a bit on emotions--fear, love, hatred, grief. As a reader, this book was the most gripping out of all of them. Within the first chapter or two, I was already ready to start throwing punches left More...

ok, I admit it. I'm a grown many (debatable) and I like Harry potter. However, I was like any other 'Mr. Macho' in the beginning thinking Harry potter Books are for children and maybe women.

It started off innocently enough, my wife and daughter were reading the books, they really enjoyed them so I bought the first movie for my daughter when it came out... then the second, third, and fourth movies. And I enjoyed them, but I still hadn't plunged to the humiliating level of actually reading the bo More...

I have three words for you: oh - holy - hell. I had braced myself but I wasn't really expecting the bottom to drop out from under us until the 7th book. Arghhhhh.

There's more of the same here ie. heartbreak and betrayal but this may just be the most terrifying and complex of the series. In fact, there is so much plot advancement that it makes me want to crawl into a ball (while I wish for simpler times when Harry was just an orphan who finds out he's a wizard and there was still lots of fun to b More...

So I feel I must publicly expound my Severus Snape theory before the last Harry Potter book comes out. I know, it's a total guilty pleasure, but damnit, I love that ragtag bunch of misfit wizards. So prepare to be awed by my genius analysis of the eternal question: Is Severus Snape evil?

Well, in one word - Completely. Quiet down, quiet down, quit your uproaring and just hear me out. In the world that Rowling created for Harry Potter almost every character is either goodness and light or darknes More...

I admit this is a re-read, as I have of course read this book before, when it first came out in 2005. I haven't read it since, however, and the way my brain retains information (ie: it doesn't) it was almost like reading it for the first time. Which is why I'm counting it here.

I'm one of the many who have been following Harry in his adventures with much interest and glee, and this book held as much magic for me as all of the previous ones. I'm especially thrilled with how much these books have More...

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!! The Half-Blood Prince was easily the best book in the series up to this point. It kept me riveted. This book is right up there among the best fantasy I've ever read. Rowling has finally earned a place in my mind among the best fantasy writers. I know, I came to that realization kind-of late, but this was the first book of hers that really blew me away. It was fascinating to see the scope of the story expand and long-time mysteries be illuminated. In any great fictional More...

The first time I read it at camp, I was bored and taken aback by what I saw as worthless and superfluous backstory. I openly mocked the counselors and campers who cried as a result of the famous murder.

I reread it this past week in anticipation of the final chapter and am embarassed to say that I came close to spilling tears on the Metro as I finished it. This book is better than I remembered, and the history IS significant. It sets up the seventh perfectly and escalates the war and plot in ways More...

I love this book so much! This book kept me wanting more, I am so excited about the movie coming out! This book was a roller coaster of emotion there is sad, happy, love, and anger. This is a very myterious, sneaky book i fell in love with it. This book reminds me of all of my friends in a wierd way, and even some of my family members. I love that finally you find out more about Voldemort and his history other than him just being the cruel, evil bad guy but this book took that a lot farther and More...

THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE IS THE BEST BOOK EVER!!! Oooooh!!! <3

Honestly I ended up watching all the movies before reading the books (ashamed :( ) but because if that I have been absolutly dying to read the Half Blood Prince. It's my favorite HP movie, ergo my favorite book! I'm a bit of an odd one I guess, liking the 6th book over the 7th, but I can't help it :)

Draco's in this book more. It seems to be about him and his struggles as well as Harry. I love that because it shows that he has things More...

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, the 6th out of a series of seven books. This is the book I had been waiting for since I first read Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone. The long awaited book where Harry's and Dumbledore's relationship finally comes to the forefront. This was my first re-read since the HBP movie came out...I remember being so disappointing in the film for taking a more 'romantic comedy' approach and leaving out so many important details. But this re-read has activ More...

***SPOILER ALERT***

This book was really amazing it even made me cry. Even if I know a lot of spoilers which my friend have told me about Snape being the Half Blood Prince, Snape killed Dumbledore, Ginny and Harry being together, about the horcrux was a fake, my friend actually told me the summary of this book.

I think even if I know a lot of what was going to happen I still find it painful to read it especially the part when Dumbledore was killed and Hagrid was talking to Harry and Hagrid doesn' More...

In the summer of 2003, the Arizona Diamondbacks went on a crazy intense winning streak, due mostly to the fact that they had something like eleven to thirteen rookies playing at any given time, all of whom were unknown quantities (and thus harder to beat). They were calling them the "Baby Backs" (future Cy Young winner Brandon Webb among them). As of June 30, 2003, the team had won eleven consecutive games, one away from beating their record. My sister, Melissa, likes baseball in an unnatural ob More...

J.K. Rowling kembali dengan novel keenamnya yang berjudul Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Novel ini seakan menjadi novel penghubung ke novel terakhir dari serial Harry Potter ini.

Harry melewatkan sebagian besar liburan musim panasnya di rumah sahabatnya, Ron Weasley, di mana Hermione juga turut berkunjung. Hari-hari yang dijalaninya cukup menyenangkan, meskipun beberapa pertanyaan berputar di sekitarnya. Beberapa teka-teki disajikan sejak awal novel ini. Hal ini membuat rasa penasaran pe More...

Although not a bad book, I found this to be the weakest book in the series. But that's beside the point isn't it? If you're reading the whole series you can't very well skip this one.

The main stream running through this installment is a sloooow recounting of how Lord Voldemort came to be like his is. To make room for that history lesson, most of the usual crowd (Hagrid, Neville, Luna, McGonagall, Remus, Fred, George, etc) have smaller parts. There is a side plot for Ron dealing with teen age rom More...

As the release of the seventh book nears, I thought it would be prudent to refresh my memory of the Potter mythos. So I reread Book 6. As I remembered, it was one of the high points of the series—made all the more excellent by the fact that it followed the lackluster fifth book.

Harry has overcome most of the childish petulance that both marked and marred his character in Book 5 and Rowling returns to (and further perfects) the formula for adventure that has made the series so popular with reader More...

The movie is releasing in a couple of days and I needed a refresher-course. After all, if I am going to be one of those *p-shaw* *tch*, the-book-was-loads-better-than-the-movie types, then I better get my facts right.

Harry Potter is now a full-fledged teen hero. He has heard ‘The Prophecy’ and has resigned himself to the fact that he will ultimately have a showdown with good ol’Voldy wherein one of them will definitely kick the bucket. All around the wizarding world, the Death-Eaters are wreckin More...