Sometimes I'm wrong. I admit that. Sometimes I am prejudiced and judge things before I have all the facts and this leads me to false conclusions. Sometimes I am stubborn and won't admit it when this happens, but today, in this instance, I am going to admit that I was wrong. I was wrong about Harry Potter.
When the first book in the Harry Potter series was published in 1997 I was 11, the same age as the main characters of the book. So much controversy and confusion was around at the time about whether or not parent's should let their kids read Harry Potter, though, that I never bothered with it. As the following books came out and the Harry Potter obsession increased, I started quietly scoffing all those ridiculous people who would line up at bookshops for hours to get their hands on a copy of the latest book. What I had heard about the books and from reading the blurbs on the back, confirmed in my mind that Harry Potter was really nothing to get excited about. It was like pop music - immensely popular, but without any real talent behind it. Basically, I had judged a book by its cover. And we've all be told not to do that, haven't we?
It wasn't until last summer that I finally joined the hordes of Harry fans. While I was traveling up and down the east coast all summer, I was desperate for audio books to keep me awake while I was driving. Along with all the Sherlock that Rob got me, he also got me the audio book of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. And once I had listened to everything else, I finally gave up and conceded to listening to it.
From the first chapter I was amazed - J.K. Rowling actually had talent. The quality of the writing itself really surprised me, and soon I was engrossed in the world of Hogwarts. But it wasn't until almost the end of the book that I realised just how wrong I had been. Even while listening to the book, I had mistaken it for simply another predictable children's story where only the main character is able to see the villain for who they really are and put a stop to them. But yet again I was wrong, it wasn't the predictable villain at all. And that's when I knew that I would have to get the audio books for all the rest as well. By about the 4th book, I was a fully fledged Harry Potter fan.
And while the movies have been dismally bad in comparison to the books (especially the 2nd and 3rd ones), I now find myself impatiently waiting, almost counting down the weeks, until the first installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (less than two months to go now) and about to buy my own set of all 7 books.
So, now I have learnt my lesson and I decided to gather more information before judging Twilight in the same way as I judged Harry, and I can safely say that, unlike J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Myer has very little talent at writing but has simply stumbled over a storyline almost perfectly designed to make 12 year old girls weak at the knees. But I have have reviewed Twilight before so there's no point going over it all again.
But the question still remains: if we aren't meant to judge a book by its cover, why do they put the blurb there?
1 comment:
The movies have been getting better as they go along too. The latest one has actually managed to be good - which is incredible considering the dismal early movies.
But it's sad to see a series that has stood on its own jump on the 'me too' bandwagon and go 3D.
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