"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"... Read it yet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CanonAlberic
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I got the book Saturday and finished it Tuesday night. The whole time I was reading it I was so torn between making it last and finding out what happens! I thought it started out good, then got kinda slow. It never lost my interest, though. I thought the last 1/3 of the book was totally cookin’ and I couldn’t put it down. I don’t really know what to think about Snape. I’d love to think that Dumbledore will be back, but would he have shown up in a portrait in his office if he were alive? But I don’t know…he was never awake in it…I’m just afraid that Harry hasn’t learned enough to go on by himself at this point. And who’s left to really teach him anything? He’s gonna need more than luck to get his next job done.

Ya know, this whole Harry Potter thing really makes me laugh at myself sometimes. I’m 37 with no kids and I’m hooked. A man at work who’s 39 (with kids) turned me onto the books, and I’ve got another friend (40), who is sharing the latest book with her two daughters. There’s another guy at work, he’s 30 and he’s read them, too. They’re clearly not just for kids. 🙂
 
I’ve been so busy with school, but I finally finished the book yesterday. It was awesome, I loved it! 🙂 My favorite so far, though, is still #6 (Order of the Phoenix)! Dumbledore’s Army was awesome! 😃
 
Yes, seeing Snape in the pensieve as the “different” kid who was picked on - I really identified with that. I was the one who the “cool kids” made fun of when I was young. And Harry was dismayed at finding that his father had been such a snot. He only became un-snotty because of Lily, Harry’s mother.

I’m coming up fast on 50 and I love the books - yeah, I have to take the jackets off, first, too. I do that will all books - take the jackets off to keep them pristine looking for the bookshelf! 🙂 Most of the people I know who love the books are not kids at all.

I think Dumbledore was protected from Snape’s curse - either a spell he wove before he and Harry went into the cave for the horcrux or by a spell woven over the curse by Snape, himself.

I think Dumbledore is going to be able to communicate with Harry like Obi-Wan did with Luke Skywalker.

I wish I wasn’t all done with the book. 🙂
 
I liked the book, hated the ending though. I don’t like how Harry is a party pooper at the end, leaving all his friends. I would have liked it better if he asked for help or tryed to keep them close. But besides that, i liked it.
 
I have not read Harry Potter beyond the first few pages of the first book, and I’m not going to start now – too little time. My teenaged sons have read the series and enjoy it. I’m fine with that. My question for all is, how do I respond to my brother-in-law, who is not Catholic and claims to be “Christian” – he attends one of those shopping-cart churches – who won’t allow his six-year-old to read the books or see the movies, because he is “Christian”? I suspect he thinks I’m not really Christian because I allow my children to enjoy Harry Potter books and movies.
 
My two boys and I have read the books aloud since the first book and this one was the hardest for us to put down. It moved quickly and I enjoyed the background information that was given. We shared lots of conversation and speculation with regards to this book and number seven. Do we really have to wait two years?

Thanks for the info regarding R.A.B. I’ll go back through Order of the Phoenix.
 
Read it! Loved it! am about to start reading it again from the beginning. my little Harry Potter Habit! Read each book twice.
 
40.png
Linlou67:
I got the book Saturday and finished it Tuesday night. The whole time I was reading it I was so torn between making it last and finding out what happens! I thought it started out good, then got kinda slow. It never lost my interest, though. I thought the last 1/3 of the book was totally cookin’ and I couldn’t put it down. I don’t really know what to think about Snape. I’d love to think that Dumbledore will be back, but would he have shown up in a portrait in his office if he were alive? But I don’t know…he was never awake in it…I’m just afraid that Harry hasn’t learned enough to go on by himself at this point. And who’s left to really teach him anything? He’s gonna need more than luck to get his next job done.

Ya know, this whole Harry Potter thing really makes me laugh at myself sometimes. I’m 37 with no kids and I’m hooked. A man at work who’s 39 (with kids) turned me onto the books, and I’ve got another friend (40), who is sharing the latest book with her two daughters. There’s another guy at work, he’s 30 and he’s read them, too. They’re clearly not just for kids. 🙂
Click to expand...
I felt the same way! i didnt want the book to end, but i had to know what happened! i tried to ration it out, no more than two chapters a night, well obviously that didnt work out, i read as much as i could when i could, book didnt even last me two weeks, but i am gonna read it again, i always read them twice in a row. i cant believe we have to wait two years to find out if Hogwarts will remain open, if Harry, Ron and Hermione will return to school and if Dumbledore is truly 100% out of the picture, i read Dumbledores death scene last night and sobbed like a child for about twenty minutes before i could read anymore. then i had to take a reality check and realize it was just a book, and continued on, just finished this morning. i think that they are amazing literature, and i am a 22 year old wife, and career woman! burned dinner twice this week trying to read and cook at the same time. ah well, maybe the two years will go by quickly…😦
 
40.png
didymus:
Interesting idea. Personally, I never trusted Snape but the ending of HBP bothered me partly because it showed Dumbledore to be an idiot for ever having trusted him, especially with the explanation that Dumbledore gave.

I loved the beginning with the Minister of Magic popping in on the British PM, as if poor Tony Blair didn’t have enough on his plate.

One thing occurs to me. Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and when you think about it the magic in the books is quite inferior to “muggle” technology. Maybe Mr. Weasley, who is a Muggle-technophile can convine the ati-Voldemort forces that they’d be better off communicating by cell phone than owl post 🙂

TC
Click to expand...
I AGREE! thats what irked me about the ending too, it made Dumbledore out to be weak and foolish, and we know he isnt, also this sudden rage and hatred towards Dumbledore from Snape, unexplained and all of a sudden, theres got to be more to this in book seven. Snape was always a creep but to murder Dumbledore, what about all the times he himself saved Harry, and defended Dumbledore? something is up with this. i know eventually Dumbledore had to go, wether it was death or retirement, Harry has to stand alone against Voldemort, thats the prophecy, but for SNAPE to do it shocked me, and to see Draco’s weakness with having to do it! he was frightened he didnt really want to do it, it was strange to see heart and fear in such a little scuzz like Draco Malfoy.
 
40.png
dwyatt03:
I have not read Harry Potter beyond the first few pages of the first book, and I’m not going to start now – too little time. My teenaged sons have read the series and enjoy it. I’m fine with that. My question for all is, how do I respond to my brother-in-law, who is not Catholic and claims to be “Christian” – he attends one of those shopping-cart churches – who won’t allow his six-year-old to read the books or see the movies, because he is “Christian”? I suspect he thinks I’m not really Christian because I allow my children to enjoy Harry Potter books and movies.
Click to expand...
Well, six is really too young IMO. My girls will start reading them at 11 (the age of Harry in the first book).

I highly recommend the book Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger. He talks about magic and the Christian world view as well as the Christian symbolism that is evident throughout the books. I myself was on the fence about HP until I read this book and re-read the HP books looking for the symbolism. I think they’re great stories (not greatly written really, I love Tolkien and these don’t compare) that are very well thought out & the characters are likeable (and unlikeable :)).

If you want a preview of John Granger go to www.hogwartsprofessor.com
 
You might want to listen to a new series of podcasts I produce about ‘The Secrets of Harry Potter’. You can find the podcasts on www.catholicinsider.com, and also in the iTunes podcast directory.

In my Harry Potter podcasts, I explain the mythological and christian symbols and themes in the books of J.K. Rowling. I answer questions like these: why does Harry’s wand contain the tailfeather of a phoenix? Why is Harry’s owl named after a saint? What do Moses, Jesus, Romulus and Remus and Harry Potter have in common? How does the theme of the separation of Church and State play a role in the Harry Potter universe?

In the most recent updates, I comment upon the events in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Obligatory material for any Harry Potter-reading catholic! 😉

Fr. Roderick
 
40.png
catholicinsider:
You might want to listen to a new series of podcasts I produce about ‘The Secrets of Harry Potter’. You can find the podcasts on www.catholicinsider.com, and also in the iTunes podcast directory.

In my Harry Potter podcasts, I explain the mythological and christian symbols and themes in the books of J.K. Rowling. I answer questions like these: why does Harry’s wand contain the tailfeather of a phoenix? Why is Harry’s owl named after a saint? What do Moses, Jesus, Romulus and Remus and Harry Potter have in common? How does the theme of the separation of Church and State play a role in the Harry Potter universe?

In the most recent updates, I comment upon the events in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Obligatory material for any Harry Potter-reading catholic! 😉

Fr. Roderick
Click to expand...
I just wanted to thank you Father, for all your work on your website. It really is a great place for a Faithful Catholic to learn about the allegory and symbolism of HP. I have directed several threads to the catholicinsider for the HP commentaries.

Great stuff!
 
It was great to read the thoughts of you all.

Just a couple here.

**** Warning - spoilers ****

I too thought regarding Dumbledore’s death that it just can’t be. There must be some trick going on. But he’s in the picture and the phoenix sang its song.

Same thoughts regarding Snape though as some of the others here. Maybe he’s not truly on Voldemort’s side and it’s a ploy. I mean, he didn’t attempt to harm Harry. But then I recall him saying something like the Dark Lord want Harry to himself.

My wife came up w/ R.A.B. as being Sirius Black’s brother or something. I don’t recall exactly what she said. But while reading through this thread, I had a thought that maybe that was her Deus Ex Machina (did I spell that right?). I keep think how is she ever going to FINISH this series in one book - there’s too much left. But maybe R.A.B. will have found/destroy most of the other items so that Harry won’t have to - thus cutting down on his research time in the next book.

Things that make you go ‘hmmmmm’.
 
40.png
ElizabethJoy:
I think Dumbledore was protected from Snape’s curse - either a spell he wove before he and Harry went into the cave for the horcrux or by a spell woven over the curse by Snape, himself.
I wish I wasn’t all done with the book. 🙂
Click to expand...
Remember when Harry was in the battle with Malfoy’s mother and threw an avada kedavera spell at her and failed. . . she mocked him by saying it was harder than it looked and that one had to really mean it for it to work . . . Did Snape “really mean it?” Is Dumbledore really dead? I don’t think so. . . remember the Phoenix who rises up from the ashes. . .
 
40.png
kaygee:
Remember when Harry was in the battle with Malfoy’s mother and threw an avada kedavera spell at her and failed. . . she mocked him by saying it was harder than it looked and that one had to really mean it for it to work . . . Did Snape “really mean it?” Is Dumbledore really dead? I don’t think so. . . remember the Phoenix who rises up from the ashes. . .
Click to expand...
I think in this example Harry was fighting Bellatrix, and he tried to use the “Crucio” Cruciatus curse. (One of the three unforgivable curses- Avada Kedavra, Cruciatus, and Imperius) When it failed, she told him it was necessary to really mean it for it to work properly.

(Order of the Pheonix Chapter 36)

But your point is well taken!
👍
 
Yeah, read it. Very good. Sad ending, I’m waiting for the curveball to be thrown in the next book.

Eamon
 
40.png
JMJ_Pinoy:
I’ve been so busy with school, but I finally finished the book yesterday. It was awesome, I loved it! 🙂 My favorite so far, though, is still #6 (Order of the Phoenix)! Dumbledore’s Army was awesome! 😃
Click to expand...
Oops… that was book #5, not #6! :o
 
I have not read the latest book yet, but I am planning to. I have read & enjoyed all the others. Delightful light reading…you know, that is what is best about the HPs, IMHO, that they are something to relax & enjoy.

I also want to say that I have just come from another board where I have been called names, had the Bible quoted at me, & last but not least, accused of being to blame if my neighbors’ & friends children end up goin to hell, because they saw me with a Harry Potter book, & it is so great to be able to come over here! This thread is a breath of fresh air, after what I just waded through.

God bless all here.
 
I read the book, thought it was awsome. I also think that yeah, perhaps dumbldore is not dead, maybe he can be sent back or something like in lord of the rings?

Plus how is she gonna finish it, unless its huge, especially now that harry doesn’t go back to hogwarts. Anyone else think that harry acts like a bit of a looser in the books?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top