JKR-reading her work is like a comforting hug

She’s amazing. I wish I could write the way she does. The language is wonderful, the characters moving and the plot planning so intricate!

And her integrity and strength - wow.

I do ead the messaging, but I don't do it when I want an immersive read. I've just got a Dorothy Dunnett to read in tandem for immersion.

Shhh! You'll get kicked out of terf club.

I agree with you to an extent. The lumpish bits in HP annoy. She doesn't glitter as a stylist, and the expression "mundane finality" in the final chapter of the final book made me angry. What a wasted opportunity for something great and punchy at the most dramatic moment. Yet I have read and re-read HP, and still enjoy them. Philip K Dick showed that you can write bad prose and still be a great writer if you've got something interesting or important to say, and there is much profundity in HP. And HP is much better written than many of Dick's novels. However, with Strike she has really learned how to write and build character. Terry Pratchett described her as a "competent writer", but she has now gone well beyond that.

Huge HP and JKR fan here too. I relisten to the audio books often. DS1 is reading/listening to the Potter books for the first time and it's a lot of fun seeing him experience it all too.

I read the HP books as they came out. Then read them to my DC. Our routine was to read the book, listen to it on Audible and then finally watch the film.

I love, love, love HP. It's made even sweeter by the fact that JKR is a TERF and stands up for what she believes in.

I thought Ickabog good too.

I enjoy the Strike and Robin books. I love their relationship and the conversations they have with witnesses. JKR's conversations are a delight.

ive just accidentally re read all the strike novels, and was thinking the exact same thing. She’s a worldbuilder. And I love the worlds she builds.

@Treaclemine (also loving yr name) I’d agree with everyone else, if you don’t care about unmasking the villain yourself, then just skip the in—game chats.

++SLIGHT SPOILER++++

There’s an important clue in the chats, and you’d find it useful if you are trying to solve it yourself. Once you know, you’ll appreciate the subtlety of the clue. But you can always skip back to view the chats once you know what’s what

I read the HP books 20 yrs ago and loved them! Last week I noticed The Philosophers Stone free on Audible (till early August! If anyone’s interested ) and spent 2 blissful days listening to it!😄 So well written & what an imagination that woman has!

Love the Strike books & can’t wait for the next one !

I listened to IBH on audiobook. The messaging made no sense!
I kind of let it wash over me and waited for the story to start again

I bought myself Ink Black Heart for Christmas last year, and just skipped the messaging - sorry JKR, I'm sure you toiled over it, but I really enjoyed the book without it.

I'll be buying the new one for this Christmas - I agree completely that it's like a childhood immersive reading experience.

If you're not bothered about trying to "solve the mystery" yourself, @Treaclemine (great username btw) you could skip those parts and I still think it would read ok. You could certainly skim read them.

I'm going to disappoint you here. After liking HP, and the early Strike I cannot be getting on with The Ink Black Heart. No sooner do I get into the flow than there are more pages of that dratted messaging. That is not the way I read things, I've reached ComicCon, but I dread going in again because there's more of the split page stuff. I am impressed that she is able to construct her plotting like this, and call into being people like Cormoran and Robin, but I can't read like that.

I caught my 70+ year old dad reading Philosophers Stone after I lent it to my mum. Although he read the newspaper every day and did the crossword, I’d never ever seen him read a novel. He read the next two also. His only comment when I asked him about it was “I wish someone had written books like that when I was a lad”.

I think the later stories were just too long for him, a bit daunting to pick up for someone unused to reading fiction. But I will always be grateful to JKR for being able to introduce dad to the pleasure of being immersed in a good book.

They take me quite a long time - but that's because I ration them out so as not to finish them too quickly, as I feel bereft when they end.

She does have this skill of making the world feel cosy and immersive even when there's murders going on 🙃

Can't wait for the next one, pre-ordered it ages ago.

DD was completely obsessed with HP from age 10 to 17. She says she's over it now, which makes me sad. I do hope it's not because she's read the crap online.

Totally agree. I remember when my son was ill and he lay with his head on my lap and I stroked (aka scratched) his back and read Harry Potter to him. He was 15 😂

I remember when a new HP was out on the day my children were going on holiday, I asked them whether they would rather a) read the book now and not go on holiday or b) go on holiday and read the book when they got back. They both said they'd forego the holiday - they were desperate to read that book. We went to the bookshop at midnight - it was so exciting for them. (I didn't make them give up the holiday, obviously!)

How lovely for you that you have all the Strike books ahead of you. I’m almost jealous!
I have them all on audiobook and I listen to them often.
Even though they are about murder, the story of the main characters and world building is like a warm hug or a long relaxing bath.

You’re going to love them

Love her books so much, they are so rich. Her characterisations are brilliant - Gilderoy Lockhart and Dolores Umbridge (as well as Snape, naturally) are some of my favourites.

There are SO MANY Umbridges in real life, many Labour politicians remind me of Umbridge... and of course Lockhart is true of many in real life also. People who value fame above all else. Some of the interactions with Harry and Lockhart are hilarious when the latter just can't understand that Harry isn't motivated by fame.

I love Strike too, of course. Off to pre-order.... didn't realise there was a new one due...

Honestly I wasn't that impressed with Harry Potter. Didn't hate it and read the series but found it generic and the writing a bit lumpy.

I have huge amounts of respect for JKR as a person but I think she's a mediocre author.

That said, I'm very grateful so many people do love her books and films because it's allowed her to donate so much.

She is a most excellent writer and woman. I read the first HP when it came out years ago as I always used to read kids books since I was a teacher. It was a rainy night in our camper van and I ended up reading all night with a torch. In the morning I remember telling my partner about this amazing new author who was going to be incredible. I bought copies for all the kids who had birthday parties that year too. I am currently reading all the Strike books one by one as my partner bought me the latest at Christmas which meant I needed to buy all the others too as I have to read them in order.

So yes, love her

I also bought the last Potter book at midnight. Then sat up til 6am to read it to the end! They really were, and are, such an amazing phenomenon. Nothing has lit a fire in children's imaginations like it. And it's still going - libraries still have waiting lists for borrowing the HP books.

The Strike series is excellent too. I'm not really a fan of crime literature but the characterisation is so brilliant in them I am completely hooked.

The last Harry potter book was released from midnight…and it must have been a Wednesday because I used to go to a nightclub on those nights

So 1am found me in adsa buying 4 copies of the book, 1 for me and 3 for friends of mine….one of which i had to leave on someones porch so her husband could read it that night 😀

Neither of my children were keen readers until they found Harry Potter. DS2 pretty much hated all fiction books he tried, though he'd sit and read a cookery book from cover to cover.
Now he's just finished The Prisoner of Azkaban and is champing at the bit to start the next one!

I loved the books as a child, then grew up/out of them**. And like you started reading them to my son when he was about 8 and it was just lovely revisiting. Especially seeing them through his eyes as a first exposure not knowing what was going to happen next (trying to guess who the bad guy was in the first book for instance, and whether or not Snape was good/bad throughout the books). Except now he doesn't want anything read to him that wasn't written by JKR.

** In my 30s I would happily read children's book. But not as a pretentious 16 year old. So I missed the last couple. My loss.

• aargh Read not reached ffs

I reached first 5 to my kids as they came out. Her plotting is insanely brilliant. And they loved her use of Latin and clever anagrams and palindromes.

They were blessed with magical books / films in their childhood. Harry , LOTR and the Toy Story trilogy. She made reading books cool just as the Internet threatened their very existence imo.