In thinking that adults who are over excited by Harry Potter need to get a life?

ahh yes its past the 12 o clock watershed,I'm off to the leaky couldron

Jonah - it's never too early for gin!

I tell you when I fell out of love with HP. It was when all the hype and merchandising got to work. The stories used to be a brilliant escape from real life. You got on the hogwarts express and left privet drive a long way away. But now the whole bloody creation has been pulled into land-of-muggle and it's no longer an escape. Kids aren't free to use their own imaginations when reading it.

ooops i'm new to all this
could be a bit early for gin!!

i love harry potter and his fiendishly wizardly charms

YABU - they are harmless fun

I wouldn't say they were a bad read. You have to remember that, despite what lots of adults maintain, they are children's books therefore won't have the depth and complexity of characters, etc, that you'd find in an adult book. If you want badly written, try the Lemony Snickett Series of Unfortunate Events. My nephew urged me to read those as he said they were as good as Harry Potter. The stories were okay but the style of writing irritated me and the characters were downright annoying! Not a patch on Harry Potter.

You are probably right. I suppose what gets me is that the books are good enough to make me read them (v. clever plots and a nice conceit) but bad enough to be a disatisfying read (thin characters, leaden prose, derivative.
It's not that I am jealous of someone younger than me you has got migghtily successful and rich doing somethin I'd like to do but haven't the talent for! Oh, no!

Whomping willow may well have been inspired by the willow in Tom Bombadill's forest (prefer 'inspired' to 'rip of' ) but I'm sure I've come across attacking trees in other books. Isn't there one in an Enid Blyton book? I'm sure I remember something from my childhood reading but it is more than 30 years ago so the memory is a bit vague! Not much in literature is new or unique these days.

Point taken, mummydospells, but what about the whomping willow: a direct rip-off of the willow tree in Tom Bombadill's forest. Either rip-off or 'homage'.

If they would only allow Ralph Fiennes (sp) to have his own face as Voldie, every woman in the non-wizarding community would switch to the dark side.

I think a lot of middle-aged men have been shuffling uncomfortably while waiting for Emma Watson to "become legal". Much as they did 5-6 years ago with Charlotte Church.

I would like to go and buy the book on Friday night but I'm 29 weeks pg and have been told that I'm being silly. I will go and buy it on Saturday instead. I went to get book six at midnight and, along with all the other people waiting outside Smiths, was subjected to a lot of abuse by drunken idiots yelling 'You sad gits, Potter's gay hur hur hur' etc. Which was fun.

So, yes you are being unreasonable telling people who enjoy the books to get a life, but at the same time I suspect all of us fans know we are being rather daft about it...

PSC, Tolkien didn't invent wizards, double-agents, short people or defeated baddies returning to fight again. You can hardly say JKR plagiarised Tolkien just because both of them wrote books of the same genre. Tolkein's style is undoubtedly more sophisticated but, at the end of the day, they're both fantasy books so I can never understand how some people (not you necessarily!!) praise Tolkein as a literary genius yet dismiss JKR.

I'm definately over excited about Harry Potter...not keen to get a life where I am too busy with adulty things to be childlike. What a dull idea

Agree with earlier poster about sexiness of Daniel Radcliffe. It feels so very very wrong, tho, to fancy Harry Potter.

I haven't read a one but a good story is a good story ain't it?

YANBU. And can I raise again the issue of JRK's accidental plagiarism from lord of rings:
The Dark Lord (Sauron/Voldemort) has been defeated in the backstory. He is 'less than spirit' and can only return if he can get the Ring/Philosopher's stone. A short person (Harry/Frodo), aided by a wizard (Gandalf/Dumbledore) must prevent him. The short person's scar aches when the Dark Forces are near -- for example the Ring Wraiths/Dementors which take all happy thoughts from you.
Frodo/Harry and his pals encounter a willow tree which thrashes its roots about in an attempt to kill them.
They also encounter a treacherous double agent -- Wormtongue/Wormtail.
Anyone spot any more?

YABU. I have a life but it's a pretty crap one at the moment so I'm looking forward to losing myself in Harry Potter for a few hours relief from stress. A good bit of escapist fantasy is exactly what I need right now. It gives a lot of people some much-needed pleasure - don't knock it!

It makes a good story but I very much doubt it's true. I'm sure she knew the broad sweep of the series, but every nuance and sub-plot? Get away. I don't know a single writer who works like that.

It's like that story about her being an impoverished single mother writing in Edinburgh cafes - sounds good, but when you dig deep there is a little more to it.

UD

So incredible that it could almost not be true. Hmm.

It's important to take pleasure in the small things in life as well as the big ones.
YABU.

I find it incredible that all the plots were planned in advance, including all the nuances. No adding of a plot line that doesn't quite fit in just to make the story flow better. I'm a real fan and yes, I probably do need to get a life!