Is it unreasonable that aged 30 my favourite books are the Harry Potter books?

[DarlingDuck]

I read them all once a year, usually around Christmas

I totally agree with you Joanie

I read "worthy" books and "unworthy" books and enjoy them equally but in a different way.

Noone has the right to criticise someone else's taste in reading.A good book is one you enjoy,one you dont want to put down and cant wait to pick up again.It is a book where you stop sometimes and think.My dh [a retired uni lecturer in English Lit] says ,'A good book reads you.'
I sometimes find myself gently resting my hand on the cover of a book I have just finished and really loved.I re-read my favourites over and over.

Pranma - It's comments like yours which make MN worthwhile .

When I was younger I hated reading the last page of a book in public. I think it was something to do with coming out of the private space and into the real world when it was still totally occuping my brain. Does that make sense?

I consider myself pretty well read, including classic authors such as Austen, Thackeray, Joyce, Woolf, Du Maurier, Chaucer, Tolkien and various Brontes, plus more modern authors such as Andrea Levy, Margaret Atwood and Sebastian Faulks, I even read Shakespeare plays for fun....

...but I LOVE HP! I can't explain why, the triumph over evil, the camaraderie, the refusal by JKR to shy away from including devastating events even though it's a children's book. I was genuinely sad when the last one came out and I can read them again and again.

So no, YANBU. For some reason these books just got under our skin, along with a lot of other people, and my Sunday afternoons have been all the richer for it!

I am a little bit given to snobbery with books (would NEVER read a Dan Brown for eg) but I think it's reasonable to have the HPs as your faves. I constantly re-read Pullman's Dark Materials as I think they are superb and I read quite a lot of YA fiction (although I am an English teacher).

And yy to the bereft feeling that you get when you finish a really amazing book, whether it's high or low brow.

I read Martina Cole sometimes.

I like HP. I've only read them once but I do like them. They're easy and fun.

I love Madame Bovary and read it every couple of years or whenever I become dissatisfied with my life and it reminds me where I could end up if I start seeking solace elsewhere....

I felt completely bereft several years ago when I finished Anne Rice's 'Tale of The Body Thief'.

DD can read and re-read anything she fancies. And she can like it too. So there.

I tend to re-read Jeeves and anything by Evelyn Waugh too LadyMontdore. Plus Nancy Mitford. Also PD James and Agatha Christie.
I regularly dip into '35 Years on the Job', a collection of the work of Patrick Campbell (of Call My Bluff) which I first read when I was recovering from meningitis as a child. I love The Secret Garden too, and reread it occasionally. And even AA Milne.

Other children's books -- love too many mentioned here to repeat, and also want to put a word in for Sharon Creech, 'Love That Dog' and 'Hate That Cat', and the Nicholas series by Goscinny (of Asterix fame) and Sempé. Poles apart but very readable. 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' and 'The Tale of Despereaux' were excellent imo, by Kate di Camillo.

A big thumbs down for the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (DD2 got a loan of the series from a friend) and all its works and promises. What a waste of time the first 25 pages of the first one was. Never got any further. Didn't have to. Have avoided the Twilight thing too.

Right now I am slogging through HP and finding it heavy going tbh. I suggested DD4 and I try to read the whole series to see who would finish first, just to encourage her to read something/anything. I chose HP because DD2 wouldn't get off my case for never reading any of it up to now. However, I think DD4 has been smitten by reading so it's all good.

I still read Little Women, and Little House Books.

I am always sad Jo doesn't end up with Laurie though, they'd have been such a great couple

I love these books as the people are "real" to me, I can completely believe them (and the little house books are of course autobiographical).

Ooh! The Little House Books - I assume you mean Little House on the Prairie etc. They are going on my Christmas wish list. I loved them as a child and want DD to love them. The reason they feel real is that they are autobiographical.

Excellent post Pranma

Nope, some of my favourite books are kids books e.g. Animals of Farthing Wood and Somewhere a Cat is Waiting. (Recommend!) Most of the worst books Ive ever read are adults....

Also What Katy Did, What Katy did Next and I thought a third but name escapes...

Ah what a treasure trove of recommendations, glad I read this thread. Yes I'm def off to look up kidsy books I'd never heard of;Mary Renault, Antonia Forrest, Susan Cooper as well as digging out some more Eliz Goodge, Rumer Godden and the half-remembered Daddy Long Legs.

Re HP,we celebrated 10th Wedding anniv by arranging a whole day's child care to jointly binge the final HP the day (night) it was released.. best wedding anniv we've had... and Stephen Fy's measured tones, balm of a thousand car journeys, have become woven into the fabric of family life.

Tend to read childrens' books last thing at night when want something a bit more soothing than "Room" or "Time Traveller's Wife".. Caroline Lawrence's the Roman Mysteries ticking that box beautifully at the mo. Like the idea of timing anual re-reads to co-incide with Sepember back-to-school-ness.

LeQueen - IMO, one of the greatest, but hardest things a writer can do is create characters who truly come alive on the page. Interestingly, I think YA authors are often better at this then those who write for adults.

Laciccolina I have bad (?) news for you, there are 5 Katie books!

What Katie Did
What Katie did at school
What Katie did next
Clover
In the high valley

I also love the Chalet School books, could go on reading them for ever. (some say I already have)

I can't believe only one person has mentioned The Hunger Games (trilogy) they are fantastic.

Thanks to seeing this thread I have just started re reading the trebizon series and love HP, LOTR and Pratchett etc, so clearly yanbu!