From the Bookshelf of LOVE READING, ( I'M NOT ADDICTED TO READING, i can quit when i finish the book)…

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)

J.K. Rowling

Why we're reading this: you choose it as ya'll fav so i am going to put it in our bookshelf…more
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Jul 05, 2011 Tracey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: england, audio, ya, school, fantasy, old-favorite

It was so interesting to listen to this book. I've read it at least a couple of times over the years, and I've seen the movie – oh, I don't know, probably a couple of times in its entirety, and bits and pieces dozens of times, so I know what's going to happen and about when. This would drive a lot of people up a wall, I take it, but I'm happy. I can enjoy the characters and, yes, the writing, and of course Jim Dale's performance.

The latter is one reason I was excited about listening; I became It was so interesting to listen to this book. I've read it at least a couple of times over the years, and I've seen the movie – oh, I don't know, probably a couple of times in its entirety, and bits and pieces dozens of times, so I know what's going to happen and about when. This would drive a lot of people up a wall, I take it, but I'm happy. I can enjoy the characters and, yes, the writing, and of course Jim Dale's performance.

The latter is one reason I was excited about listening; I became his willing slave with Pushing Daisies. A Goodreads friend prefers Stephen Fry's British audiobook, and found Dale to be a bit over the top – and I can't argue with that adjective. But I love it. He has a voice for every character: Aunt Marge sounded like her dentures didn't fit, and Lupin is slow and deliberate; Snape hisses and McGonagall is Scots. Harry, funnily, sounds a lot like Daniel Radcliffe, and Hagrid is wonderfully Robbie Coltrane. Although his girls and Hermione's constant "Har-reeeee!" do twinge a nerve or two.

Harry Potter for me long ago stopped being books to be analyzed and dissected, plots to be judged and syntax to be critiqued. It's an old friend. Like any friend it isn't perfect, but like a good friend, while it's had a bad day here and there, it's never let me down. I'm always mildly surprised at attacks on Jo Rowling's writing, because … I don't care. I don't notice excessive use of adverbs (at least I didn't before reading Stephen King's article a while back) or any failing in action scenes. There's nothing as breathtaking as something out of Tolkien or Guy Kay, but neither is there anything eye-rollingly egregious: the writing exists to tell the tale, and the tale is well served by straightforward and transparent telling. The books will never be held up as textbook examples of perfect writing, but I think they're going to last a very, very long time as textbook examples of great storytelling.

I wander on a bit more and spoilerifically on my blog: http://agoldoffish.wordpress.com/2011... ...more

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