Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

[Tami]

We are going to have one thread for each book as now Goodreads has made a spoiler tag that you can use to put before anything that is a spoiler. Use your discretion as to what would be a pretty big spoiler and label it. Please put up to what page the spoiler is for.

To create the tag simply do this:

< spoiler> Blah blah blah spoilery stuff < /spoiler>


*Take out the spaces in both of the spoiler tag.

It will look like this:


(view spoiler)[[This is a spoiler. Spoilers should be labeled so you don't ruin books for others. (hide spoiler)]

Discuss away...

[Kimberly]

I LOVE that html now has a spoiler tag that works with GR.

[Richard]

Soo who all is enjoying the book thus far? I personally read it when it first came out and plan on re-reading it before the movie. Anyone else in the same boat?

[Kimberly]

I usually reread the book before the movie, but I'm not letting myself do that this time. I found I enjoyed the movie more without the book fresh in my mind. I might reread 1-6 again before the movie though...

[Richard]

I've actually never re-read the book before the movie xD. Although if I do I'll probably nitpick at the differences hehe.

[Kimberly]

Which is exactly what I do. I'm already irritated with the new trailer they just released. There is a scene in there that I KNOW was not in the book.

[Richard]

I think I know the scene you're talking about xD. I reacted the same way, just annoyed that they're drawing a certain part of the book out to make it "Hollywood-appropriate."

[Kimberly]

It's the scene where (view spoiler)[ Harry grabs Voldemort and says something like "lets end this where it started, together." and then throws himself and Voldemort off the edge of a cliff. (hide spoiler)]

[Richard]

Yes!!!! That's the exact part I was thinking and didn't really like xD. Ever since I saw it I keep thinking...WHY!?!?!

[Nicole]

I, too, reread the books before the movie comes out. I didn't get a chance to reread this one before part 1 came out because of lovely schoolwork and such but now that it's summer I do! I'm excited to because it's the only one I haven't reread yet. And I definitely agree with the comments about the trailer.

[Joi]

I'm in the middle of rereading the 5th, and I've reread all the ones before that in prep for the last movie. I have until July 15th to get through the rest!

And I have to try to think of the movies and the books as separate entities, simply because they can get so different. That way I have less expectations, and less frustration when they leave things out/change things/skip things.

[Richard]

Ohhh Alyssa the post-it strategy sounds like a good idea :O. I'll have to put on a post-it to do that xD.

[Anika]

I am the same way Alyssa! I usually try to reread the whole series before the movies! For some reason it satisfies me to be able to identify exactly what the director/producers change when adapting the novels... don't know why lol. I am currently trying to get in a book or two right now before I start rereading SS! Can't wait! And I like your post-it idea too :)

[Ashley]

I'm a little terrified for this movie coming out - I'm pretty positive I'm going to walk out of that movie theatre hating Hollywood.

That said (and I realize this is a bit off-topic) has anyone rewatched some of the movies? The actors are just so young!

[Tami]

I rewatch them all the time.

I am not nervous about the movie being bad, but I am so depressed that this is it.

I may do what was sugggested awhile back and start my reread at book 7 and go backwards. Not sure yet.

Did anyone think that book 7 was written to be a movie? When it first came out I had a coworker that read it all the first night/day/whatever. He hated it because he said the author was writting it to be a movie. I always thought that was a bit wierd.

[Kimberly]

No, I didn't think that at all. Actually it was so... bookish I was worried that they'd mess it up.

And I'm the one who read the series backwards, you should do it!

[Emily]

So....we know that J.K. wrote the later books after the movie had been cast, how do you think that influenced her writing? I know she said she had a lot of the plots planned out years in advanced, but the actual writing of it...the dialogue between the characters...do you think she started imagining daniel radcliff saying the lines when she sat down to write?

[Tami]

Maybe a little, but some of the things still didn't mesh with the characters. Dudley wasn't so fat in the new movies but in the books he had just gotten bigger and bigger. Ron is supposed to be tall and lanky while the twins were shorter and stouter, while the actors are opposite. And the books kept showing Mrs. Weasley saying how tall Harry has gotten. Well, yes, since he was 10 or whatever, but Daniel Radcliff isn't tall. I also found Ron in the books much funnier than in the movies.

[Richard]

Also in the books (although it wasn't mentioned in the newer ones) it said how Harry's hair grows back as soon as it is cut, whereas in the movies his hair got shorter (obviously via cutting). Also the movies influenced whether or not I thought Snape was evil after the sixth one. I just couldn't see Alan Rickman's Snape bing evil xD. Along with other more reasonable reasons xD.

[Ashley]

I plowed through the majority of this book over the weekend - it's impossible to argue just how catchy her writing is. Part of me wishes I have never seen the movies as I can barely see the characters as I originally pictured them (and I felt that so much of the character casting in the movies was really done poorly).

Overall, it seems like Rowling wasn't influenced by that, though. I think the charaters in the book still remain distinctive of the movies for the most part. That being said, I feel like there was a significant change with Hermione. The Hermione of the movies didn't have nearly the "bushy" hair I always pictured, and I've noticed in the later books that is mentioned less and less - and you would think months upon months of camping in the woods would do a number on someone's hair!

[Kimberly]

lol. Maybe her hair is like mine. It was a terror to take care of when I was younger, always messy and probably very similar to Hermione's. It got better and better as I got older though. No idea why...

It's funny you mention that you can't picture the characters the way you used to, I'm the opposite. I still picture them the way I always did when I read.

[David]

Haha! Read it! (Or listened to it on a drive to San Francisco and back)

This is the first time I read a book completely during the challenge!!!

Now I need to reread the series. Haven't done that since 2008. And find a Neville Longbottom costume for next month.

[Tami]

I am to the battle at Hogwarts. Why is it after several rereads I still notice something different each time?

[Tami]

Finished last night again! This time I took note on where they ended the first movie as to its position in the book. It was over the half way mark (closer to 2/3rds) but way further in the book than I had oringinally predicted.

Then as I was reading along, I noticed I only had about 20-30 pages and I kept thinking, wait a minute I haven't read about this or this or this yet. It can't possibly fit into such few pages. It did. I love JK Rowling's writing and the imagination involved in the story. Now on to book 6.

[[deleted user]]

Love the sixth one!!
I missed a bunch of stuff in the fifth, and notice new details each time. I'll have to reread it soon.

[~*I love Tea*~]

That's very true Anna, I thought that the political nature of the book made it even deeper and more real. She is a truly gifted author, you don't even realise how much your are learning about human nature itself.

[Tami]

Another reason why educators/parents/clergy/etc should encourage children to read this series. I have to laugh every time I hear that the books are evil because magic is evil. If these people would just read the books I doubt many of them would still see them as evil.

[Ethan]

Tami wrote: "Another reason why educators/parents/clergy/etc should encourage children to read this series. I have to laugh every time I hear that the books are evil because magic is evil. If these people would..."

My neighbor was a retired Catholic priest, and a fan of the series. He borrowed my copies after I read them!

[Tami]

Exactly my point. Most of those that say they are evil have never read them. Never gave them a chance. There are some books I beleive are not appropriate for certain people, but I have read them to form that opinion. I personally find the series very spiritual.