I could understand why he did that because after reading the book, I can tell that it is not an easy read for 15-year old non native English speakers. I, myself, had the difficulty reading it to the very end. I don’t know why. I suppose I’m not for these kinds of reads. I was, of course, able to follow the story but I just know that this literary piece has more to it than the story itself and I am not the kind to probe into the meanings of the things in between the lines. In short, I don’t over analyze. When I read a book, I am all for the story and the experience I get while reading it.

“The Great Gatsby” is a modern classic. I’ve read it. I think the story is very interesting but I’ll leave it to the intellectuals to discuss it.

I was so disappointed after watching the movie but I later realized that my disappointment is groundless. What did I expect? I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t read the books. I didn’t even watch the first movie, Twilight. So what I did was, I bought all four books and read them all in the span of six days. After reading the first book I thought about how other people could compare it to Harry Potter!?! I mean, it lacked the richness that HP has. Too few characters, too few conflicts, too few everything…

But I continued reading until I’m done with all the books  not only because I want to get the value for what I spent on them but also because I found some things likeable. The plot is not as fascinating as HP (which is of course not comparable to The Lord of the Rings) but a lot of lines were so well written. I noticed that as the story progresses, the author gets better with how she writes. She added some interesting characters and some interesting twists too. Some of these addition were too much and some were too late that they didn’t make sense anymore.

Overall, I am not so impressed with the plot but I’d give the author, Stephenie Meyer, the thumbs up for being able to write like that—vivid descriptions of the scenes and emotions. I don’t know if I’ll read the Twilight saga again (like I did with HP)…I am not holding my breath for it but I’ll keep them in my collection.

I started reading Harry Potter after I watched the first Harry Potter film sometime in 2001. Yep, I’ve seen the movie first before I read the book but that is good I think because, otherwise, I would have been really disappointed. Books are better than their movie counterpart. I think a lot would agree with me on that.

I became a fan right after reading the first book but I only started buying my own copies in 2005. I got Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in China and I got Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince from a tiny book sale I came across with while walking around in Munich. All the rest I got from our frequent visits here in Austria (note: I was living in China from late 2005 to early 2009). I have to say that I am really late when it comes to owning the copies but I enjoyed them just the same.

To date, I’ve read each book three times already and I could read them all over again. I know that the Harry Potter series ended with the Deathly Hallows but if J.K. Rowling changes her mind and writes a sequel to the last Harry Potter book, I would be delighted and would definitely get a copy.

Why do I like Harry Potter?

I like the Harry Potter series because I believe that it teaches some of our basic values in a subtle, creative and entertaining way. It is easy to understand plus the characters are not stuck in a particular age. I mean, they get old and mature unlike Nancy Drew who’s always 18 years old in all of her books. I used to like Nancy Drew but I sort of grew out of it. In the case of Harry Potter, I don’t think that that will happen to me.