Anyone interested in joining me in a group read?
Anyway, thoughts so far on Philosophers Stone. I have read up to the end of "The Sorting Hat".
Very childish writing style initially. It's a little like trying to treat The Hobbit as the first few chapters of Lord of the Rings. The gulf in writing style is huge.
Its hard to reconcile the Dumbledore of later books with the guy who has all the students singing "Hogwarts Hoggy Hogwarts" at the top of their voices in different tunes. Also, its noticable that Harry's first scar pain is when Snape sees him. I wonder if this is because Quirrel (and therefore Voldemort) is present, or if its Snape himself.
Harry has already met and talked to Quirrell without feeling this, so I'll be paying attention to see how its handled in later encounters.Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.
It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell’s turban straight into Harry’s eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry’s forehead.
As an aside, I'm starting to appreciate how well Columbus and his screenwriter translated the book to film. Not quite as slavish as I thought. The really cringy things like the sorting hats song and the Hogwarts anthem were thankfully dropped.
