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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Harry Potter fans - tell me why I should read the books?
I've never read the books or seen any of the movies. I've acquired a tiny bit of knowledge about it just because its so omnipresent in the culture, but I really know nothing.
Initially, it didn't appeal to me to read about child wizards, etc. and what little I do know about it, it just seems overly complicated w/ lots of characters and events just for the sake of being complicated.
Are there any former skeptics like me, that have been converted?
Re: Harry Potter fans - tell me why I should read the books?
What do you typically like to read?
Basically, they are fabulous, engaging books with very loveable characters. I wouldn't call them complicated for the sake of being complicated- remember, they are actually children's books. If a 10 year old can follow the plot, I'd hope you can handle it.
But if anything fantasy-esque turns you off, then you won't like them.
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This. and if you need to be convinced to read something, you probably won't like it. She is a very vivid writer and you can picture these character's before the movies even came out.
I couldn't have put it better myself!! I am convinced JK Rowling is a genius.
Why don't you want to read them? Do you think they are overhyped, not your cup of tea, etc?
If you don't like fantasy or can't suspend disbelief for a few hundred pages, you probably won't like them. All the character development in the world can't really conceal the fact that they attend a school for witchcraft and wizardry, kwim?
But if you can get over that hump, so to speak, they are excellent. They have a great plot, interesting, well-developed characters, and Rowling paints a wonderful picture - the reason people who love the books love the movies is because you watch the movie and you think, omg, yes, that's EXACTLY how I pictured it!!!!
Everyone says they are childrens books but in my opinion, only the first two or three are. After that they get much more sophisticated and much darker.
I haven't either.
Me either. Fantasy is generally not my genre, I've read some of the vampire series but for me those are different from things like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, even the wizard element of Harry Potter. I can watch a fantasy movie for 2 hours, I just don't have the desire to spend hours and hours reading the books.
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Same here. The only fantasy stuff I really like involves vampires.
I personally disagree... I generally do not like Fantasy/Sci-fi but I still enjoyed the HP books. I think it's a happy medium.
All the other good stuff that PPs said, I agree.
Rowling created an entire universe within our own. She painted scenes from shopping on Diagon Alley to wandering the halls of Hogwarts that are so vivid and so detailed that you can easily imagine yourself right in the midst of it. It's not like Tolkein who spends 25 pages describing a tree in more detail than one could ever wish for - she's masterful at creating a world you can truly get lost in.
Yes, it's about kids who are wizards. There's magic and flying cars and teachers who turn into cats. But it's so much more than that. It's about good versus evil. It's about dealing with tragic lost. Overcoming adversity. Banding together to reach a common goal.
The first two books are kids' books, but the rest are much darker and more adult in theme - something that was conveyed in the movies as well. As the characters get older the issues they face grow more mature as well.
The characters are so well developed that by the end of the series, they feel like people you truly know. You can hear them speak in your head, and not just because you've seen the movies. You know them inside and out and feel like you've roomed with them at Hogwarts for all these years. They're flawed - they have good and bad inside each of them. They're staggeringly real.
But, ultimately, if you have to be talked into reading a book, then you shouldn't bother. If you're going into it with preconceived notions of why you won't like it, what genre it falls into, etc., then you're not going to be able to let go and just get lost in the story. But I can assure you, it's so much more than just witchcraft and wizardry. Those two things alone wouldn't spawn the kind of fanbase that Rowling has gathered. They are like nothing that has ever been written before or ever *will* be written again.
Also, to kind of go along with what LLHR said, if you have to be talked into it, then it probably doesn't appeal to you as a threshold matter. You may end up loving it - I sneered at the series until the first movie came out, and I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. I devoured all four books in about a week. (only 4 were out at that point.) But I sneered more because I assumed it was for children. Once I read the books and realized it wasn't, I was hooked. But if the basic subject matter doesn't appeal to you, then you don't have to force yourself to read it.
I love Star Wars and I think it's about so much more than battles in space and the like. But not everyone does, and that's okay. Not every piece of pop culture has to be appreciated and loved by every person in that culture, you know?
Several people said in another poll that they felt bad for people who didn't read Harry Potter or gave the side-eye to people who hadn't read it, etc. (I'm paraphrasing, I'm sure those aren't the exact quotes). I was just asking to hear what the appeal is to the fans.
oh yeah some people did. To be clear - because I was one of them, lol - I don't side eye people who haven't read Harry Potter. I side-eye people who haven't read it because they know they would hate it and they're awful books etc etc. There was a thread on MM last week or so where a teacher was talking about how she wouldn't let kids reads those books in her classroom etc, but she had never read the books herself. How can you hate something you haven't read? I can get maybe knowing it's not going to be your cup of tea because you don't like fantasy and/or magic or trying the first book and thinking meh, not for me - but to have never even attempted because you just "know" you'll hate it? Hate is a really strong word for that in my opinion.
(I know you didnt say that kathryn, thats driected at the teacher from mm and I have seen similar comments elsewhere.)
I've seen this too, which I don't get. I like some books, I don't like others, and even when I read something that I really love, it doesn't improve my quality of life, lol. It's entertainment for however many hours it takes me to read it. I'm a slow reader with a short attention span, so if I'm going to spend the time to read something, I'd better have a pretty sure idea before I start that I'm going to enjoy it. For me, HP doesn't fall into that category, so I'm not going to read it. I don't understand why anyone would be judgemental over that, big deal.
So glad you posted this thread! I didn't start reading them when they came out because the concept seemed so silly, but then as they grew in popularity I figured I'd missed the band wagon. But fourteen years later they're just as popular (if not more) than when they came out.
I'm a little intimidated just because of the size and numbers of the books, but these are definitely on my list.
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I think that's sad. Not that I think you're sad, or that you pick the wrong books, etc. But the amazing books I've read absolutely have improved my quality of life. I can't imagine reading and never having anything impact me in a positive way aside from an hour or so at a time of entertainment.
I got the "side-eye" ing part confused.
Fair 'nuff.
To further expand on my comment, I cannot imagine saying that I'm a Harry Potter fan but not reading the books. The movies are incredible, yes, but the books, the originals, are just so much moreso.
I don't side-eye people who aren't interested in Harry Potter. I do think the series is utterly phenomenal and I wish everyone would read it and love it, but I know that's unrealistic and I'm not going to judge people who don't pick it up.
In terms of reading, I only judge those who say "I don't read".
Hmm, well, thanks for that. You and I are obviously different people, and different people read books for different reasons- I read for entertainment, you read for something more. Where is the problem in this? I don't get it.
Good grief, it was just a comment, not an attack on your character. ETA: It surprised me. I figured everyone got something out of reading. You don't and that's fine. It wasn't a flipping judgment, as I tried to convey in my initial comment.
FFS.
When you say, I think that's sad, it sounds like a judgement. Which was my point, I don't understand why someone (not you, general someone) would care whether or not someone else had read a particular book. Sometimes I lurk on the Nest Book Club board, and I've seen it over there and that's why I don't post there. I hadn't noticed it here, I didn't read that post the other day. Anyway...
I think you can get through the first two, which are the youngest in the series, by far, you won't be sorry that you read them. They are books that have changed my attitude about life, in some ways. They bring you back to a place of full imagination, of hoping beyond hope, that maybe we are all Muggles (non-magic folk). They filled me with every emotion imagineable, and for that I will always love them. I will always turn to them when I need a place to get lost and to forget about problems or darkness in my own life.