Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, 1)

By force and pure persuasion I decided to follow through and read the first book in the Harry Potter series after existing for so long and having never read or watched the movies, apparently I was missing out lol.I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised because this is NOT something I would usually read, but I’m happy to have read it. I’m shocked that I loved every minute of it, seeing as there was no skimming through and I read with bated breath, dying to see what would happen next.I was kept on my toes and enjoyed the plot twist at the end. I loved to see the development of Hermione, Ron and Harry throughout and even Neville who gained a backbone. Overall, I feel like a childhood void from not ready for pleasure when I was younger, was slowly filled after reading this book and I love this. Felt like I was healing my inner child and I couldn’t be more grateful for being forced and challenged to start what could simply be the most iconic series.

I’ve read this book many times over the years and as I’m due to go to Harry Potter world this summer I thought I’d reread the books again.J. K. Rowling is a brilliant author with an amazing imagination and very descriptive way of writing. It’s a thou I was there.

The first book is really fantastic, like all six of her books. I remember the first book I ever read was book 4 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). I started reading it, but I found the first chapter boring. I gave up. I'm never really in a reading mood and I know I should be, because everybody needs to read and exercise their brain.Anyway not long after, during an english lesson, where we spent the whole lesson reading in silence, I noticed one of my mates was reading one of the Harry Potter books. I remember it was book 3 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). I remember asking him if the book was good. He said that it was briliant. Don't laugh but this somehow motivated me to read the 4th book I had at home. I started reading it, ignoring how boring I found the first chapter. Near towards the end of the first chapter, I got hooked onto it. I found myself reading it constantly, getting more and more interested. I found the book fantastic. I couldn't believe I had never read it sooner. I had to read the other three (book 5 wasn't out yet).Anyway the first book is a really good book. No it's more than really good. It's excellent. If you watched the film, then you must read the book. Because believe me when I say that the book is better than the film.It's about a boy (we know his name), who's spent 10 miserable years with his reltives the Dursley family. His uncle Vernon is always jumping down his throught, his aunt Petunia is always nasty, they both see him as filth and his cousin Dudley (about the same age) is always bullying poor Harry. Harry learns on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard. He's not just a wizard, but in the wizard world he's famous.His mum and dad were murdered by the most evil wizard of all time, Voldemort. After killing James and Lily Potter (Harry's parents) he attempted to kill Harry himself. Somehow Harry survived it, left with a permanent lightning shaped scar on his forehead. This somehow defeated Voldemort and Harry was only a baby.He goes to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, where he trains to be a wizard. He befriends a boy and a girl (Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger). Ron is a really nice, loyal person and Hermoine is an annoying boffin, who's always siding with the teachers (the last person to trust if you were attempting to break school rules). Harry also makes his first enemy (Draco Malfoy; a nasty Slytherin kid. All the nasty ones end up in Slytherin House). Harry, Ron and Hermoine end up in Gryffindor house. The other two are Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.Soon Harry and his friends discover that Dumbledore's got something really valuable within Hogwarts (well protected) and someone (their No 1 suspect professor Snape; potions teacher who is nasty to the Gryffindors and is also head of Slytherin).This book is definetely worth reading and buying. Rowling did a fantastic job with this book. Not just the way it was written OR the story, but how she made the wizard life. Their lives are like ours, but with the use of magic. They have a ministry of magic for instance(the wizard govenment), wizard shops and their own sport Quiditch.That I found brilliant. There are Seven players on each team, that fly on broomsticks and there is four balls (a quaffle, two bludgers and a golden snitch) Two beaters hit the bludgers, protecting their team as the bludgers zoom around the pitch, trying to injure the players. Three chasers handle the quaffle and try to put it through one of the three hoops at the end of the pitch. The keeper defends them and the seeker catches the snitch, ending the game and awarding his/her team 150 points. The game was really well designed.The schools are similar to secondry schools. At secondry schools pupils have different subjects in different classrooms, with differnt teachers. The classrooms are designed for that subject. Hogwarts is the same, but with wizard subjects (charms, potions, etc). It's a well written book, inteligently done. One of the best books I've ever read. There's no chance in hell you'll regret getting this.

Absolutely love the Harry potter books. I have read them many times and always enjoy. I started to read them to my children who have also started to fall in love with the magical world too

Double book review:Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)These are two very different books, aimed at roughly the same age bracket and both the start of a multiple volume series.To appreciate Harry Potter's book, one must have acquired a taste for quality writing, attention to detail and subtlety. To appreciate Percy Jackson's one only has to be able to read (a penchant for Greek mythology will also come in handily).Harry Potter is very well written, using a language that is simultaneously sophisticated and accessible to younger readers, a no mean feat. It is also the epitome of Britishness. There is a posh quality to it, an underlying assumption that readers must make an effort and have cultivated some sort of "good" literary taste. This is a book that goes well with shoegazing, faded wallpapers (the ones on actual walls, not the digital ones) and unbelievably bad sartorial choices. On the weak side (yes, I know it sounds odd, but I was being appreciative...) the book is slightly boring, doesn't have that much of a plot and sounds more like a diary than an adventure story.Percy Jackson is pure American entertainment industry fodder. It is competently written, but just so. It is imaginative and evolves at a regularly fast pace. It is a page turner (which Potter struggles to be) and is easily enjoyable. In a sense, and within the constraints of both books being roughly the same genre and for the same public, they are the opposite of each other. This is a book that goes well with Aerosmith, baseball caps and deluded world views.In the end both books get four stars but for very different reasons. Rick Riordan's book reaches the epitome of everything it sets itself to be, but its goal is one that, even if honed to perfection, is never worth more than four stars. Rowling's book aims higher but doesn't quite get there, so fails to earn the last star, which it could have earned had it managed to be more of a page turner without losing any of its present qualities.