Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 20th 2003, 2:08 pm

Am I the only one excited about the Order of the Phoenix being released? Anyone else going to a Harry Potter party tonight?

:D
Last edited by Natasha (candygirl) on Jun 25th 2003, 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TomSpeed » Jun 20th 2003, 2:58 pm

I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books or seen the movies. One of my coworkers is pretty excited about the new book. I can hear her talking about it now. Maybe I should start reading them. You can't have enough conversation starters.
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Post by Cocolina » Jun 20th 2003, 10:43 pm

I'm really excited about it...can't wait till i have a chance to get it for my son hes all about it ....thats how i got into it...

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 21st 2003, 8:53 pm

We decided to attend a Harry Potter party at Barnes & Noble last night. They did have a few activities for the kids - wandmaking (red plastic straws from Smart & Final and red curling ribbon - apparently the kids were getting a little crazy so the B&N employees decided to do away with the bottle of glue required to make the glitter stick to the wands), a trivia contest (imagine 100 kids and their parents sprawled out all over with crayons in hand straining to hear the questions over the PA system), and a raffle (mostly Harry Potter baseball caps and some $5 gift certificates).

I totally appreciate the effort they put into it, but given that the party started at 9:30pm, it really wasn't enough to occupy the gaggle of kids who were up past their bedtime!

They did give out free Harry Potter glasses, which prompted some of the greedier kids to inquire where the costumes and witches' hats were (to which a B&N employee replied, "We got ours from home.")

Around 10:30pm, a lot of the younger kids started getting really cranky but no way were any of the parents going to leave without their books. Apparently, my last minute decision to go to the party and pick up a copy of the book was not very smart. There was someone stationed at the door with a list of everyone who had preordered the book from this particular location. Anyone who preordered had to check in with her and get a color coded ticket to receive their book. Guess where that left me, the person who intended on buying it at Cost Co? SOL! I was told that I could get a copy if there were any left after all the pre-order people got theirs. Now that was a bit of math that perplexed me. If you have records of everyone who preordered, then you know how many books you need to fill those orders, as well as how many books your store has in inventory, so why phrase it that way? I was informed that I might get a book around 1:30am.

I have NO problem spending hours at a bookstore, so I browsed, read, made a wand, checked my raffle ticket, and before I knew it, they were counting down the SECONDS until they could start handing out books. Despite the color coded ticket system, there was a bit of chaos (which I observed from a distance - no way I was going to brave the herd!), but they got people through the lines pretty quickly - I walked out of the store with my book before 1am.

I have been reading like mad, but still have about 150 pages left. So far, so good! I read a mini-interview with J.K. Rowling online where she said that she cried after she finished writing a scene [spoiler]where one of the characters dies[/spoiler]. Interestingly, even though I am a total BtVS spoiler whore, I am not like that about anything else. I avoided all spoiler mentions pertaining to this book, so I was a bit shocked to read why she was crying (despite the fact that I had read the rumors shortly after the Goblet of Fire). I am almost finished with the book and still haven't come across that particular scene, so I am totally paranoid! I keep thinking "maybe this is it!"
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Post by meggrrrl » Jun 21st 2003, 11:45 pm

I'm on page 220 - my husband and I are trading it off and it's his turn with it now. candygirl, thanks for not giving away the spoiler - I haven't heard anything and don't want to! I had heard too much about what was going to happen in Goblet of Fire beforehand (although I read that within about a month of its release). One thing Dave warned me though - think of how sad you'll be when you've got the book totally read and you know you've got like a good two years or maybe more before there's a new one to read! Boo-hoo!!!

Meg
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 22nd 2003, 4:32 am

Arghhh - that is the exact feeling I have right now that I am finally finished! I am going to let my boyfriend read it before I give it a second go - he was nice enough to let me read the whole thing first.

:D

I guess until book six comes out (and who knows how long that will take?!), I will have to get excited about the third movie coming out next year. The Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite of the series so far, so I hope the movie turns out well.
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Post by meggrrrl » Jun 24th 2003, 6:38 pm

Well, I just finished it this mroning and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. It was good and all, but not up to par with books 3 and 4. I think Rowling is trying to do something really artful and subtle here. At least I hope so - maybe I'm just giving her the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, whatever she's doing, it's not really working for me. It's a good book, but could have been just as good in about 150 pages.

Meg
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For there's nothing like a girl
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Post by Sammi » Jun 26th 2003, 5:34 pm

I just finished the book and I'm also disappointed. [spoiler] I am really upset that Sirus was the one to die because yet again Harry is left alone in the world. Also I think that the book ended on too dark of a note leaving the reader with not much hope for the future of the wizard world. Last but not least I wished we could have found out how much O.W.L.S. everyone got. It would be neat to know if Harry and Ron could become aurors, what Herminone has chosen as a carrier path and about Malfoy's future career path.[/spoiler] Hopefully this book was a set up for the last two books. Lets pray that J.K. Rowling doesn't take another 2 years to put out a book because I really want to know what is going to happen.

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Post by MartinPierre » Jun 27th 2003, 10:30 am

I finished it Wednesday, and thought that overall, it was both stronger and weaker than the preceding one ( which I thought was the best one ).

In most of the books I read, I pretty much figure out the ending thanks to my best friend ( who is an aspiring author and scenarist... aspiring in the sense that he is trying to get published, not in the sense that he wants to write... he already wrote quite a few thing ) showing me all the tricks...

And honestly, I really loved this one : I knew in advance that [spoiler] one of the adult characters would die[/spoiler] so I read all the hints, but couldn't really figure out the "suspect". [spoiler]But still think it is pretty crappy the way Sirius died...[/spoiler]

Yet, JK did a wonderful job at setting the scene for most of the characters to be possible "suspects".

Let's see :

[spoiler]
Aldus : the aurors going after him
Minerva : The 4 stun spells she got
Hagrid : The centaurs being furious at him
Snapes : Well, I already knew it was not him : didn't make ANY sense
Sirus : when he was suppositly kidnapped
[/spoiler]

The premise was also interesting, the fact that for the first time, [spoiler]Harry blew it up by trying to be the hero[/spoiler].

His relationship with Cho was an interesting part in the book, especially about the fact that is changes slowly in a few books. I hope we hear more from her later.


But I think that the ending is partly cheezy... [spoiler]the way Sirus died is really crappy, and the way that Aldus won is equally cheezy...[/spoiler]

And the final scene with Aldus, the one quoted on the bottom of the book really sucks... I had planned it since the middle of book one. It was TOTALLY clear. And the reason why Harry must return to the Dursley was especially crappy.

Finally, when I started reading the books, I thought the moving pictures were cool... But that they can move between places is just an awful deus ex machina... and I really HATE deus ex machinas until they are really carefully planned.

Which is partly why I love the Tino character so much ! He IS the deux ex machina in MSCL !!!

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Post by meggrrrl » Jun 28th 2003, 7:52 am

Something I noticed in this book was a lot more British-isms than I had noticed in any other H.P. book. Does anyone know if they did a seperate Americanized version of this one like they did for the others? I don't know if I took it the wrong way, but I found that kind of insulting, that the publishers felt that they had to "translate" the books to American english.

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head and I've already loaned the book out so I'm afraid I can't give any examples. But this book just seemed a lot more British than the other four. I liked it - it seemed more authentic that way!

Meg
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"Every home should have a daughter.
For there's nothing like a girl
To keep the world around her
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Post by Megs » Jun 28th 2003, 10:12 am

meggrrrl wrote:Something I noticed in this book was a lot more British-isms than I had noticed in any other H.P. book. Does anyone know if they did a seperate Americanized version of this one like they did for the others? I don't know if I took it the wrong way, but I found that kind of insulting, that the publishers felt that they had to "translate" the books to American english.

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head and I've already loaned the book out so I'm afraid I can't give any examples. But this book just seemed a lot more British than the other four. I liked it - it seemed more authentic that way!

Meg
I heard in passing that there were two versions of this book. But don't take my word on it. :wink:
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Post by starbug » Jun 28th 2003, 3:11 pm

meggrrrl wrote: Does anyone know if they did a seperate Americanized version of this one like they did for the others?
Meg
What? An 'Americanized' Harry Potter? :shock: That's so stupid. I don't blame you for being insulted, actually.

Anyway, a book isn't just about the plot. It's about the literature - the way the words fit together... this makes me so angry. I can understand that when books are translated from different languages obviously some of the literary power gets lost. But please, English English into American English.

I'm not suggesting JK is on a par with George Elliot or Jane Austen, but can you imagine someone suggesting an 'Americanized' version of those?

Bah.

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Post by starbug » Oct 27th 2003, 12:58 pm

Further to my rant over on the Office thread in the TV section, I recalled this conversation I had with myself...

and that led me to recall that my cousin asked me something about HP when I was last in the US.
She didn't understand what 'taking the mickey' was... she thought it was a reference to drug abuse (!). I explained that it in fact refers to teasing another person, mocking them etc. She was quite stunned. It is a very well known british expression and I was astounded she didn't know what it meant.

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Post by fnordboy » Oct 27th 2003, 1:41 pm

starbug wrote: She didn't understand what 'taking the mickey' was... she thought it was a reference to drug abuse (!). I explained that it in fact refers to teasing another person, mocking them etc. She was quite stunned. It is a very well known british expression and I was astounded she didn't know what it meant.
Well, that makes sense, I don't know if the expression holds in the UK, but in the US when you "Slip someone a mickey" you are putting a drug in their drink (or something similar). So I can fully understand the confusion.

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Post by starbug » Oct 27th 2003, 1:43 pm

Nope, never heard that! well, ignorance on both sides then :D

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