Best Harry Potter book

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Since I know some of you out there are indeed Harry Potter fans on this site, despite the arguments on both sides (I’m a Harry Potterite myself, but I fully appreciate the anti-side), I was wondering which book was the most popular. I like Goblet of Fire best myself.
 
A vote for PoA. It was a fun story that contributed significantly to the series’ overall story arc; it was short enough to not have any saggy periods; it still preserved the whimsy of the earlier books; and you had considerable character development going on.
 
One of my favorite things about the series is how the books pair up. There are themes that weave throughout all of them as well as the larger narrative, but in the details the books each seem to have a “partner” in the series - except for GoF. (The pairs I think of are 1 and 7, 2 and 6, 3 and 5.)

My favorite two are CoS and HBP, but I can’t pick between the two. It depends on the day. 😛 Looking back at CoS, I see so much that set up the end of the series that I completely missed on the first read (granted, I was 14 when I first read it and I’ve grown up a bit since then.) I am big on character development, and Harry grows up in a big way from the first book to the second.

</English lit nerd> 😊
 
Order of the Pheonix for me, it was by far the best one in my estimation!
 
rocklobster said:
Since I know some of you out there are indeed Harry Potter fans on this site, despite the arguments on both sides (I’m a Harry Potterite myself, but I fully appreciate the anti-side), I was wondering which book was the most popular. I like Goblet of Fire best myself.
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Amazing.

God Bless
 
I voted for GoF, but I also like the first book. I like GoF because it’s at the point before Harry becomes very…angry…as he does in later books (with good reason, I think, it just got annoying hearing about it).

The structure of the Triwizard Tournament also has a very “fairy tale” feel. I think whole books have been written on the folkloric content of the books, but GoF definitely has that sort of vibe for me.
 
silicasandra said:
One of my favorite things about the series is how the books pair up. There are themes that weave throughout all of them as well as the larger narrative, but in the details the books each seem to have a “partner” in the series - except for GoF. (The pairs I think of are 1 and 7, 2 and 6, 3 and 5.)

My favorite two are CoS and HBP, but I can’t pick between the two. It depends on the day. 😛 Looking back at CoS, I see so much that set up the end of the series that I completely missed on the first read (granted, I was 14 when I first read it and I’ve grown up a bit since then.) I am big on character development, and Harry grows up in a big way from the first book to the second.

</English lit nerd> 😊
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JKR did say that CoS was the book that set up everything before OotP was released.
 
I love them all but I went for Order of the Phoenix, though Goblet of Fire was a close second!
 
My vote in for “Deathly Hallows” since it pulls everything together and provides the point of the preceding novels. The conversation Harry has in his head with Dumbledore emphasizes/reemphasizes points Rowlings made in earlier novels-- we carry the good works of people we’ve known in our life with us-- something mentioned in several previous books. Ultimately that scene is the point of the books showing the eternal consequences of Voldemort’s actions and choices regardless of his success on earth.

Looking forward to the last film, but if it doesn’t follow the book in making the same points, particularly the above, and … of course this is all in your head, but what makes you think it isn’t real… explanation for Harry’s seeing the ghosts of the people who’ve influenced him positively in his life, I won’t be able to recommend the films to people without reading the novels.
 
This is kind of a hard question for me to answer. Seems like each book in the series is my favourite at the time I’m reading it! 😛 But in the end, I guess I’d have to say it’s a tie between the first one and the last one. The last one because it brings everything together at last into a very satisfying conclusion, and the first one because it’s what introduced us all to the world of Harry Potter:).
 
Lokabrenna said:
I.
The structure of the Triwizard Tournament also has a very “fairy tale” feel. I think whole books have been written on the folkloric content of the books, but GoF definitely has that sort of vibe for me.
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Good description of GoF. I voted for it too.
 
I don’t know if I could choose a favorite out of all of them. I particularly liked CoS and DH and HBP. I loved that the whole series pulled everything together…it was all so intricately woven throughout. Even when I was reading the last book for the first time, I was amazed that things from way back in the first one were brought up. Amazing series, to say the least.

Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone is my mom’s favorite though, because she loves the innocence in that first book…everything is so new!
 
Easily the first one was the best. It was the only book I felt that got that right sense of innocence and wonder in it. The Good VS evil dichotomy was easily the best in that initial book.

Certainly after book 4 they started to get far to long and drawn out. At 200 pages almost exactly, this was a nice quick read.
 
colliric said:
Easily the first one was the best. It was the only book I felt that got that right sense of innocence and wonder in it. The Good VS evil dichotomy was easily the best in that initial book.

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I like the first book the best to because of its innocence and charm. I didn’t start reading them until a few had been released and I almost found them boring as the seemed to be very repetitive following the same structure thus being predictable. So I enjoyed them, but can’t read them one right after another.

My least favorite was order of Phoenix, just because of how whiny Harry got and his anger all the time got old. It seemed like he became one dimensional. I think the movie here actually did a better job, it showed him functioning and having more emotions than anger.
 
I really loved POA and COS. I loved how the third one wasn’ t really dealing with Voldemort.
 
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