Punch on: Open thread 11/01/10

Lauren says:

05:47pm | 11/01/10

I remember this day, logging onto my account as “WickedLoz” at The Leaky Cauldron and finding out that “SHE HAS FINISHED IT! IT IS DONE!”

Then followed an argument between countries that receive Bloomsbury editions and America which receive Scholastic editions over whether this marked the 10th anniversary of Philosopher’s (Sorceror’s in America) Stone. The Americans were wrong.

And of course the other online debates: Is Harry a Horcrux? Snape good or evil? Heron (Ron and Hermione) or Harmony (Harry and Hermione)? Who will die? What’s so important about Lily Potter? What will we learn about Dumbledore?

And then there were all those FanFictions that were published illegally as the ‘real deal’. Good times.

I read Deathly Hallows 13 hours straight, it was impossible to put down. I truly am a Potterhead.

yas says:

12:37pm | 11/01/10

i grew up with this series; the first book coming out the year i moved to Australia when i was about 10. it took me three years to have enough language skills to stomach the first installment; i related to the idea of being the unusual outsider who belonged to another world and was displaced and discriminated in the reality in which they found themselves. i went on to follow the book series almost religiously, relating to every struggle and growing pain the characters seemed to suffer with me and my real world. it was also a great inspiration to read more, and now, less than a decade later i am a self confessed bibliophile who is never without a book or magazine, considered well read by my peers and in command of one of the most difficult languages in the world (yes, English is not easy, trust me!). sure, they were perhaps too long, not endorsed by the Vatican, and there are many better works of literature;  but what they inspired transcends all such criticism. either fantastic creativity and it’s potential for providing an escape and amusement; or the potential for literature to capture the attention off an entire world of children across 60 or more languages; or even the idea that an idea conceived in a day dream on a random train ride could lift a struggling woman from poverty into one of the wealthiest indaviduals in the world. i Also liked the babysitters’ club. Judge me!

Liz says:

07:57am | 11/01/10

Good,it’s a great series but could have done with a good editor.J.K.Rowling has done wonders for kids who weren’t reading,hopefully they’ll now move on to some of the better writers around like Eirlys Hunter and her trilogy ‘Finn’s Quest’.