Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

How can more than half of my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends be wrong with this?

I have to get this right. As of this writing, I have 98 Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends. 61 (62%) of them have read J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Out of those who read this, 39 (64%) rated this with 5 stars. 11 of them with 4 stars. All the others gave 3 or 2. Only 2 rated this with 1 star. One of them admitted not being able to finish it. She should not have rated it really since she did not read its entirety. (But she is my friend and it is her right, so why question?)

When the book came out in 1998, I was not yet a bookworm so I brushed this aside. I read only those books that my brother told me to read. He was the bookworm but he would not be caught reading any book being pushed by media hype. However, when Warner Bros. released the film adaptation in 2001, my daughter was 6 years old and I thought that, since there was too much hype, the movie must be good and we would have a memorable time with our first ever father-daughter movie date. I was wrong. She not only got scared because of the darkness inside the movie house but she trembled with fear during the life-size human chess game, in that scene when Ron was sacrificed. We left the movie in that scene with my daughter crying and me cursing it: I will never read Harry Potter .

My daughter is now 15 going 16. She is not fond of movies and she still does not show interest on reading Harry Potter. However, I am now a bookworm and the other week, I was with my 4 Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends and 3 of them raved (two of them, again) about Harry Potter books. Oh well, first-time fathers can make mistakes about first movie date with their daughters, Book 1 is included in 500 Must Read Books and the book must be a quick read. So the following day, I bought my copy.

After 13 years of the book's existence and me ignoring it, did I finally make a good decision of reading it? Are all of those 39 friends of mine in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ wrong in giving this 5 stars? Most of them did not bother writing a review. Maybe those would be too long or maybe they read this when they were not in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ yet. But I am in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ already so I can make this review long.

These are what some of them say:

it was a great book
i enjoyed reading it

For an eloquent reviewer, she must have been too happy to express herself.

Such a great story and creative way of writing. I love Harry Potter.

Yes, I agree about the story being great and J. K. Rowling being creative.

I was secretly wishing I was studying in Hogwarts too! It was silly, but I was simply enraptured by Harry Potter. Honestly, I still am :) It was a great book. I enjoyed reading it

Coming from one of my favorite reviewers in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. I do not share her wanting to be a sorcerer though.

Honestly, I don't know anybody who'd refuse to even entertain the thought of attending a school for wizards.

Another one of my favorite reviewers. That seems to have nailed this. Young people wanting to be in Hogwarts and study sorcery. That should be it! The world seems to be a dreadful place that we would all like to have powers to turn our enemies into frogs, pigs, ride on a broomstick and get the Snitch and earn points (money) for our family!

Oh well, the Bible says that sorcery is Satan's work. The book even used the word Transfiguration as a subject in the sorcery school. Blasphemy.

Just kidding. This is a work of fiction and I am not too old to appreciate it. I was just kidding. To be frank, I tried hard not to like this. I thought that giving this a 1 or 2 will freak out my friends and somehow get votes from those who are, up to now, ignoring this book. I told you so! Why waste your time? . However, unless you are a grumpy old man/woman, there is nothing not to like about this book. I maybe too old for it but hey, talent is talent and J. K. Rowling has it!

My 39 friends are indeed right!