Harry Potter
 

Our family has established its Harry Potter policy:


Here's ours. We pre-purchased 3 copies. No one is allowed to spoil
anything
for those further behind. No one is to disturb anyone else's reading, or
sleeping. No one is to neglect other duties.

LOL, my family knew from the moment it was pre-ordered (28th January) that
Mummy (me) got to read it first and then the rest of them could fight over
it when I was done.

I spent all day reading on saturday, had family commitments on the sunday
(DH made me promise to be sociable :) I read it every moment I had and I
finished it last tuesday. The laundry and the other chores got a little
neglected but everyone did get fed! DH and DS are reading in tandem now, DS
reads during the day and in his half hour nightly 'reading time' in bed then
turns it over to DH who reads during the evening. It seems to be working OK
so far.

Jane

Harry Potter
 

Claire Petersky writes:
The book arrived via Amazon yesterday. No one has cracked it open yet.
Please congratulate us all on our self discipline.

I would, but I don't understand the policy. Why is it a good idea to
have a book policy? What are you looking to gain from this?

David desJardins

Harry Potter
 

In article , David desJardins
writes:


I would, but I don't understand the policy. Why is it a good idea to
have a book policy? What are you looking to gain from this?

Plot-equity? I do know how much self-discipline it can take not to read ahead
in a good book. DD#1 would sneak whatever book her class was reading together
home because she couldn't stand the wait for the next installment.

-Marjorie

Harry Potter
 

In article ,
Kevin Karplus wrote:

We haven't got our copy of HP5 yet (still waiting for it to come from
England---we're reading the British editions),

I heard a rumor that they had "unified" the texts in the later books.
Anyone know if that's true?

but I'm not sure that
reading aloud is necessarily the way to tone-down scariness. My
7-year-old son finds scary parts scarier when I read aloud than when
he reads to himself. He doesn't find the HP books particularly scary
though, and he's read the first 4 3 or 4 times each.

Ryan was almost 7 when book 4 came out. He had read the first 3 books
already and had been looking forward to #4. I insisted on reading it
first, and I had some concerns about letting him read it because at the
time he was very insistent on unambiguously happy endings with nothing
seriously bad happening to the good guys, and HP4 does not fit those
requirements. But he was dying to read it. I gave him some spoilers
and he decided he wanted to read it anyway, but have me read the scariest
chapter with him. He did fine with it. Now that he is almost 10, I
am not concerned at all about him reading book 5, which he has almost
finished (I finished first, reading while he was asleep or otherwise
occupied.) For his sake, though, I was rather glad that it took 3
years to get it out.

Now Matthew, just turned 7, is reading book 4. I have less concerns
for him because he is less sensitive than Ryan was at that age. I gave
him the same spoiler warnings and he was unconcerned. He's almost
finished it and when he does, I'll let him read book 5 as well. He is
not quite as HP-obsessed as Ryan, and may choose to wait a bit, as he
did before book 4.

Evan will probably have the advantage of having the whole series published
before he is ready to read them. Since I suspect that book 7 will have
the unambiguous happy ending so many kids crave, I think reading all 7
at once would be less disturbing than reading book 4 or 5 or 6 and then
waiting 3 (?) years for the next installment....

You have to know your own kid, as usual....

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

Harry Potter
 

Robyn Kozierok wrote in :

In article ,
Kevin Karplus wrote:

We haven't got our copy of HP5 yet (still waiting for it to come from
England---we're reading the British editions),

I heard a rumor that they had "unified" the texts in the later books.
Anyone know if that's true?

I finished it about an hour ago: I did notice it referred to looking
in the "boy's bathrooms" when I would have expected them to look in
the "boy's toilets."

Now to read the rest of this thread - I've been too worried about spoilers.
But probably tomorrow.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Harry Potter
 

Penny Gaines wrote in message ...
Robyn Kozierok wrote in :

In article ,
Kevin Karplus wrote:

We haven't got our copy of HP5 yet (still waiting for it to come from
England---we're reading the British editions),

I heard a rumor that they had "unified" the texts in the later books.
Anyone know if that's true?

I finished it about an hour ago: I did notice it referred to looking
in the "boy's bathrooms" when I would have expected them to look in
the "boy's toilets."

We have both the American and British versions of all 5 books. The
British versions are 'collector's items' since two have been
autographed by Rowling herself! However, I've read both versions of
all of the books. Book one had significant changes. Book 2 had a few,
and by book three I think Rowling had homogenized the British/American
slang to include a bit of both to make it less regional in sound. In
Goblet, I don't think I saw any changes at all, and I've only read the
American version of Phoenix so far, although our British version
arrived quite a while back. I'm engrossed in another huge book, the
history of London, and I don't want to put this 1000 pager down to
reread a 900 page book.

The British and American books have different page counts. The type is
smaller in the British versions but the books themselves are much
smaller as well. The paper is quite different, too. And of course, the
cover art is different in both versions.

Marjorie


Now to read the rest of this thread - I've been too worried about spoilers.
But probably tomorrow.

Harry Potter
 

Penny Gaines wrote in :

Robyn Kozierok wrote in :

In article ,
Kevin Karplus wrote:

We haven't got our copy of HP5 yet (still waiting for it to come from
England---we're reading the British editions),

I heard a rumor that they had "unified" the texts in the later books.
Anyone know if that's true?

I finished it about an hour ago: I did notice it referred to looking
in the "boy's bathrooms" when I would have expected them to look in
the "boy's toilets."

Now to read the rest of this thread - I've been too worried about
spoilers. But probably tomorrow.

I know I shouldn't follow my own post up, but...

A couple of posts have referred to the book being 800+ pages long.
Our copy is 766 pages.

As an aside, our copy says it is "First published in Great Britain 2003"
and that is printed in Great Britain.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Harry Potter
 

In ,
chiam margalit wrote:

*arrived quite a while back. I'm engrossed in another huge book, the
*history of London, and I don't want to put this 1000 pager down to
*reread a 900 page book.

OOh, are you reading London by Edward Rutherford? The 1152-pager? :) I
enjoyed that immensely.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

Harry Potter
 

Penny Gaines writes:
Robyn Kozierok wrote in :
Kevin Karplus wrote:

We haven't got our copy of HP5 yet (still waiting for it to come from
England---we're reading the British editions),

I heard a rumor that they had "unified" the texts in the later books.
Anyone know if that's true?

I finished it about an hour ago: I did notice it referred to looking
in the "boy's bathrooms" when I would have expected them to look in
the "boy's toilets."

Far more Britishisms this time around, (or at least non-midwesternisms)
'trainers' for shoes, heh whatever the British word is for 'sweater'
were among those that caught my eye.

Robert

Harry Potter