the glennzb glog: DISCOVERING POTTER... SLOWLY

Not exactly a small child's fairytale. I wonder if he has snoring issues with no nose?

Have you heard of these books? It's a series of novels about a young wizard named Harry Potter. Oh, you have? Everybody has? What do you mean, EVERYBODY? Oh, you mean everybody in the whole world. Right. Them.

Alright, I admit it, I may have been a little late jumping aboard the Hogwarts Express - but only by about 15 years. Don't judge me, there are a few volumes by Dickens I haven't quite got round to yet either, and I understand they were published even earlier.

The point is, I'm finally working my way through the 7 Harry Potter books and you know what?... They're pretty good.

I suppose there may be the odd person out there who hasn't read them yet, people like me who just haven't had the time or the motivation. So this review is for you. All four of you.

Can I start by saying I'm not really a witches and wizards kind of a guy? I'm more of a robots, spaceships, car chases and explosions kind of a guy, which is one reason I've put off my J.K. Rowling experience for so long. Another reason is I thought they were kids' books. I don't know what you consider child-friendly, but reading about somebody hacking off their own hand and then boiling it up in a demonic ceremony to raise their evil master from the dead doesn't really qualify as happy-fluffy bedtime stories in my book.

Perhaps the major deterrent to me joining the massive host of Potter fans before now has been the simple fact these books are ENORMOUS. They go on forever. I'm used to Lee Child and Jack Reacher cleaning up an entire Mid-Western town in 250 pages. When you read a J.K. Rowling, you'd be lucky if Harry's even found his way out of his bedroom by page 250 - and I'm not even kidding.

However, I was wrong about everything. No change there.

These books aren't really about witches and wizards of course. That'd be like saying Stephenie Meyer writes about vampires and werewolves. Like all great stories, they're more about relationships - and the relationships Harry has get pretty complicated. He has cruel adopted parents because his real ones were killed by someone nasty. He has a friend who is a girl but isn't his girlfriend. He has a long-lost godfather who everybody thinks is a cold-blooded murderer. Some of his teachers love him and some hate him. He's bullied. He's reluctantly famous. He's got a questionable hairstyle. You see? Everyday problems any teenager has to deal with. (Except maybe the murdering stuff)

I genuinely believe this Rowling woman could be onto something here.

For the uninitiated, (yes, all four of you) these books read more like a good old-fashioned murder-mystery than a fairytale. We're introduced to a wide and varied cast of characters, many of whom may be suspects in a long list of nefarious activities, some of which we don't even know are going on until it's too late... for Harry.

Book after book, Rowling does an amazing job of building suspense - not just in relation to the plot of each instalment of the series, but there's an overall tension that grows exponentially with every volume. Sometimes you can pick the bad guys, but more often they turn out to be good guys after all and it's really the good guys you should have been looking out for.

For me the thing that really sets these books apart is the dialogue. Always so natural, you can literally hear the voices in your head. Even when they're talking about magic spells, curses, hexes and charms with silly names or potions with mysterious ingredients, the complaints, the insults and the snide remarks all seem so genuine.

This may be because I've made that fatal mistake of seeing the movie before the book. In truth, I've only seen a few of the movies and don't tell me how the last one ends because I haven't seen that one OR read it yet. On reflection, I think it's best to see the movie first then read the source material because, as we all know, the book's always better. However, it DOES mean Harry's only ever going to look like Daniel Radcliffe in my head.

The selection of the 8 movies I HAVE seen always seemed a little drawn-out to me (especially that penultimate one... what was with all the camping all over the place? That went on FOREVER) but now I've actually read the books I wouldn't have them any other way. That's why we're currently enjoying a multimedia Harry Potter retrospective at my house. It plays out like this; Dad reads a book, then we all sit down and watch the corresponding movie again. Good times. Pity I'm such a slow reader - at this point we've only watched three, but I'm nearly finished the Goblet of Fire so you'd better get that popcorn ready.

If you haven't read them, read them. They're not just books, they're proper stories. Everybody in the whole world can't be wrong.