Ok i admit im no J K Rowling fan so im bound to be a bad critic but did anyone else notice that book to be particulary bad?

Nope. Order of the Phoenix was just as good as the first 4. 8)

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Democracy Now! - The lost art of investigative news reporting.

Agree. But longer.

I didn't like the first half of the 5th book as much as the last half.

The last half was good, the hissy fiut that was the first part just anoyed me.

My favorite still is the 4th book. Very good.

I thought she was way too long winded and could have cut her descriptions by half and still be fine. I did not enjoy it as much as the others.

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"Eternal vigilance is the price of supremacy"
------------Mark Twain

"Women are like Voltron. The more you can hook up, the better it gets."

Actually, I did have a similar reaction to all the 'everthing is bad for Harry' stuff. It seemed a bit overdone.

But...my son is 14 and he sort of views the world that way too. :P

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Democracy Now! - The lost art of investigative news reporting.

So I've been holding out, too cheap to buy the hardcover version of Order of the Phoenix and now I'll just have to pry open the wallet and do it. You guys are killing me. :wink:

mmmuuuahahahahahaha!

You ought to be able to get a used copy by now.

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Democracy Now! - The lost art of investigative news reporting.

I never saw the point of returning books or seeling them back. One of my favorite things to do is re-read a old favorite book.


Even tought i have a very good memory for what i read, and even tought i remeber the entire book, i still love to re-read them.

I agree wholeheartedly, Humphrey. The mark of a good book is that I keep it, instead of donating it to some bookfair or unloading it at a neighborhood garage sale. I would be embarrassed to say how many times I've read Tolkien's trilogy, or LeGuin's Earthsea books (which you really must read if you love Tolkien and Rowling.) Earth Abides, Salem's Lot, The Left Hand of Darkness, are all books that have been reduced nearly to shreds by use over the years.

I just checked it out of the local library. Most of the community libraries here in Columbus are linked together and one can go online, reserve a book and it will be sent to the branch of your choice. You can then return it to any branch. It can even be renewed online. I haven't bought any books (aside from school books) in 4 years. If there are more requests then books available then a waiting list is formed and the books out can not be renewed. For this book, the demand was so high that there was a waiting list of over a thousand people before the book was released. I was somewhere in the 400s but still got it in the first week.

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"Eternal vigilance is the price of supremacy"
------------Mark Twain

"Women are like Voltron. The more you can hook up, the better it gets."

I too am a Harry Potter fan, and my belief was that the kids had to study Astronomy, to possibly get them ready for astrlogy, but also because some ingidients, and certain potions have to be picked or brewed based on the phases of the moon, and if you are learning about the moon, why not learn about the solar system.

It could of course just be that Rowling likes astonomy and thus used that as a subject. Before you argue that if she likes it she should be better, not neccessarily, I enjoy it, but the only constalation I can ever make out is Orion.

We may not have seen the importance of the class yet, it may be something we dismissed as trivial that will play an important role later on.

sry im a lil late, but arithmacy is nothing like mathematics as we think of it.... sure it involves adding but its not like math in any other way... http://www.sorcererscompanion.net/arithmancy.html read this and it may help

Abarat by Clive Barker is very good and very weird. I listened to it, but it is worth reading the book because of the cool art. Be prepared for an abrupt ending of the book, but not of the story. Isabel Allende also came out with one for younger readers in the last year or so, City of the Beasts. A good read too.

I do like Harry, but I Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite.

Ha Ha, I read almost every Harry Potter book (except the last one) just before I sat down and read the last Dune Installment (House Corrino)

Nyaahh!

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

*points to self* Harry Potter Fanatic!

OK, say Hogwarts is where you say it is, and it cant be able to see the stars and stuff at night all that well. Well heres the reason why they can see them:

Magic.

Hogwarts is hidden from the Muggle world, in some sort of "bubble" so any Muggle (non magic-folk) go to where Hogwarts is, they see an old, crumbling castle that says "DANGER! No Trespassing!". So, based on the idea of the muggle world not being able to see in, then the students and teachers must be closed off from the Muggle World when they are on Hogwarts grounds. Therefore, it would block out all the artificial light of the Muggle World. Now, students and teachers can exit (Dumbledore has visited London many a time) and therefore they are in the Muggle world, but once on Hogwarts grounds (and im guessin Hogsmeade - the only Wizard Only Town in all of GB) the Muggle world is shut out, and they are in The Magical World. There. It is settled.

Another point though...Hogwarts is described as at least 7 floors, with large cathedral ceilings (the entrance hall is described as you cant see the ceiling!), and the castle itself, the amount of land it covers, its just mammoth, because it has to fit about 1020 people (1000 students (yea the math dont work out, but JK Rowling says so and therefore it is) and about 20 teachers, based on the amount of courses we know there are). So figure, there is the Entrance Hall, and Great Hall, four areas for common rooms and dormitories, and classrooms, storerooms, offices, hallways. All lighted by candlelight. For those who have seen the movies, they will know what im talking about, (ex: (from the movies) http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/163000...30515_hall.jpg - look at all those floating candles

http://i.ivillage.co.uk/uk_en/a_ukpi...athall_186.jpg - not exactly a small room!

Hogwarts from the outside: http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3...ogwarts300.jpg

and finally, an ariel view of the castle, to show is size in land area: http://yacht.zamok.net/DV/Potter/Pos...s/hogwarts.jpg )

Taken from these, you can see that to fit a whole Astronomy class on top of a tower would be kinda hard since they come to a point. Although theres one tower in the middle that looks like theres a flat roof, or in the upper right corner there seems to be a flat roof where the class final test could be held. My point: With a castle of that size, brightly lit with candles, wouldnt the light of the school itself drown out some stars if they are on the roof, when all the light is shining underneath them? The light would be shining upwars, so to get the best view, theyd have to look almost directly at their zenith, but in the book, they are moving their telescope all around. I think the light of the school would DEFINATLY play a role.

BUT I must say that there is GOOD astronomy in OotP! When Ron is doing his astronomy homework, and Hermione checks it, and says stuff along the lines of "No, Io is this moon of Jupiter! Europa doesn't have these charateristics!". So props to JKR for including that! =D>

Finally someone who understands what I do. My parents and sister cannot comprehend why I re-read books. When they see me doing so they interrupt me and ask me what is the point of reading it because I know the storyline already.....the same goes for movies. You know sometimes you're just thinking and your thoughts stray to a book you read...and you feel to read it again. Only bad thing about this is that when you borrow books from people/library you can't exactly go get the book

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I'm tired of being enclosed here. I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears: but really with it, and in it. I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all.

I do the same thing...right now I'm re-reading a book about the history and construction of the Lunar landers...and I'm enjoying every page of it.

I think you'll find that lots of folks do this.

Yep, as I said above, I've got lots of books that have been read, and reread, and reread, and reread ad nauseum. A good book does not lose its appeal when you've read it once. It gets better with repeated readings.
The first time through you may race through, eating it up like candy. Subsequent readings allow you to appreciate all the nuances and savor every bite.

Having just finished High School here in Scotland, I have to say that I wish we had been able to take Astronomy! Hogwarts doesn't really seem to teach 'normal' subjects - even the history is focussed on wizarding history - which I find strange, since I would have though that the wizarding community would be involved in some of the more muggle-oriented history (ie which king was on the throne, what parliament was debating, etc).

The pupils don't start Hogwarts until they're of high school age, so they were probably taught the basics of english, maths, etc at home - or else, like Harry, they grew up in the muggle world and went to primary school.

About the 'what can you see from Scotland?' sky-wise debate...
I live in Dunfermline, just north across the river Forth from Edinburgh, in a quite secluded spot.... and I can see nothing in summer! I have to wait every year for winter to have any viewing at all. One of my old teachers - who is astronomy mad - used to say the same.
If it's that bad down here, I don't know how Hogwarts could teach pratical astronomy in summer. It's already been mentioned about the amount of candles, though Harry does notice the light from the main entrance when the doors are thrown open and the Umbridge crew go after Hagrid - which suggests that it must have been quite dark, at least from Harry's perspective on top of the tower.

(As a by-the-by, everyone I know assumes that Hogwarts is in the north of Scotland. Here in Britain (since I assume there are a few non-British on the site, and I don't know if they were published elsewhere!), there were two books written for a charity (Comic Relief) by JK Rowling: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (with Harry's handwritten notes), and Quidditch Through the Ages. In Fantastic Beasts, mention is made of the Acromantula, a massive spider-like creature, with a note that rumours suggest there is an Acromantula colony in the north of Scotland. Harry's notes say that he and Ron confirmed this. Assuming that Aragog is the acromantula, it would seem to confirm, once and for all, that Hogwarts is in the north of Scotland.)
(Get the feeling that my friends and i actually sat down and worked it out?!)

Yikes! Sorry, didn't know twas going to be that long!

Einsteinsreject

welcome to the board!!!

lol, thanks! only just discovered the site and board, looks like the things i go on about all the time (i kinda like nitpicking everything!)

have to say, jk rowling including any astronomy in hp is quite amazing, but i thought she would know how bad the sky-watching is in scotland, since she lived/lives here! :roll:

ah well, guess we cant ask for miracles! (though i wont mention the time travel plot from hp &amp; the prisoner of azkaban...! :wink: )

einsteinsreject

Ah, go ahead and mention it! This board thrives on that sort of thing. And welcome to the BABB!

Can't do Astrology if you don't have some basis in Astronomy. Gotta know what Saturn looks like before you can find it to tell what house its in.

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But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed while others reap and sow in his stead. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion