914 ratings (4.29 avg)
598 reviews
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Jonathan Terrington

http://www.jonathanterrington.com

https://www.goodreads.com/thewritestuff

Jonathan ’s personal-favourites shelf

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Jonathan ’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (475)
currently-reading‎ (13)
read‎ (1188)
did-not-finish‎ (0)
to-read-fantasy‎ (345)
to-read-classics‎ (285)
to-read-sci-fi‎ (246)
to-read-non-fiction‎ (96)
to-read-graphic-novels‎ (49)
to-read-linguistics‎ (22)
to-read-historical-fiction‎ (17)
to-re-read‎ (4)

classic-literature‎ (241)
personal-favourites‎ (175)
1001-books-to-read-before-you-die‎ (94)
fantasy‎ (379)
favourite-series‎ (251)
favourites‎ (215)
children-s-literature‎ (192)
science-fiction‎ (168)
graphic-novels‎ (116)
own‎ (109)
childhood-book‎ (97)
fantasy-sci-fi-challenge‎ (91)

worldbuilding‎ (90)
humorous‎ (72)
want‎ (70)
quirky‎ (56)
gritty-reads‎ (52)
fractured-fairytales‎ (44)
should-have-a-film‎ (40)
re-read‎ (38)
scifi-fan-challenge-2014‎ (38)
fantasy-challenge‎ (37)
historical‎ (37)
non-fiction‎ (37)

faith‎ (36)
mystery‎ (33)
action‎ (32)
action-challenge-2‎ (31)
classic-challenge-2‎ (31)
university‎ (31)
books-with-films‎ (30)
short-stories‎ (30)
classics-challenge-3‎ (29)
classic-challenge‎ (27)
plays‎ (26)
thriller‎ (26)

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Jonathan is Currently Reading

Jonathan Terrington is currently reading

The Butcher's Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #5)

by Matt Dinniman (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 18, 2026 03:40AM

Jonathan Terrington rated a book it was amazing

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)

by J.K. Rowling

bookshelves: fantasy, children-s-literature, favourites, worldbuilding, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in February 2015

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Jonathan Terrington said: " This is probably the best entry in the Harry Potter series to this point. In my personal opinion, the novels begin as average stories at best - with Rowling trying to gain a proper control over her writing voice and style. They do show delightful pro This is probably the best entry in the Harry Potter series to this point. In my personal opinion, the novels begin as average stories at best - with Rowling trying to gain a proper control over her writing voice and style. They do show delightful promise with the worldbuilding and some sense of nice-enough characters, but all in all it's clear that marketing played a huge hand in selling the books early on. I'm not cynical enough to say marketing was all that did it, Rowling has a distinctly British charm and humour that shines even through her early books (and the world of Hogwarts provides a fantastic fantasy setting). However, something is missing from the first three books that is more present in this novel.

Perhaps it is the nuanced political commentary - through displaying the failing inner workings of the Ministry of Magic Rowling appears to provide a critique on normal human political systems. The ideas that she displays include that in trying to do 'good' often laws are designed for those in power to keep power and secondly that those in power often fight among each other for power when they should be fighting bigger problems facing the world. This rings true for politics in Australia at the moment in particular where it seems as if the government and opposition government are busier fighting internal party battles than actually passing legislation.

Perhaps it is the increased (and improved) characterisation present in this novel that causes this to be a more improved novel. You have Harry, Hermione and Ron showing more depth to different aspects of their personalities with their various fears and desires as teenagers and heroes being exposed. The fact that Harry houses more raw anger in this novel to go alongside his perfect heroic goodness leads him to become a more three dimensional figure. The same applies to his friends, however I think the most development of side characters is shown through Dumbledore and Snape. Firstly, because Dumbledore has more of an active role in this novel's plot and secondly because we see some of Snape's tragic, misunderstood, childhood.

All I can admit is that this series is growing on me and I can see the unique brilliance and appeal now in how the audience for Harry Potter grew up alongside the characters. It's a nice series, if not particularly groundbreaking, with some charming moments and a clever magical world. I look forward to seeing how the last two books now play out. ...more "

Apr 26, 2026 04:44PM · see review

Jonathan Terrington is currently reading

Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)

by Pierce Brown (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Nov 18, 2025 03:18PM

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Jonathan ’s Notes & Highlights

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

1 highlight

They were all enamoured with the idea of progress and believed that whatever was new must be superior to what was old. As if merit was a function of chronology! But it seemed to me that the wisdom of the ancients could not have simply ...more

Maria and 8 other people liked this

See Jonathan Terrington’s 4 books with notes and highlights…

Jonathan ’s Quotes

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
― George S. Patton

tags: herd-mentality, inspiration, patton

2774 likes

“The Aunts put their arms about one another so that their faces were cheek to cheek, and from this doublehead they gazed up at Steerpike with a row of four equidistant eyes. There was no reason why there should not have been forty, or four hundred of them. It so happened that only four had been removed from a dead and endless frieze whose inexhaustible and repetitive theme was forever, eyes, eyes, eyes.”
― Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

tags: gothic, humor, weird

5 likes

“Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.”
― J.I. Packer, Knowing God

15 likes

“In general, I would think that at present prose writers are much in advance of the poets. In the old days, I read more poetry than prose, but now it is in prose where you find things being put together well, where there is great ambition, and equal talent. Poets have gotten so careless, it is a disgrace. You can’t pick up a page. All the words slide off.”
― William H. Gass

tags: inspiration, literary-criticism, living-writers, poetry, prose

13 likes

“It is God’s omnipotence, His consuming holiness, and His right to judge that make Him worthy to be feared.”
― David Jeremiah, What Are You Afraid Of?

tags: christianity, fear, god, holy

1 likes

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