Children's or Adult books doesn't really matter in my eyes, what gets on my tits is that when people talk about the story or characters of these books they do so with such gusto and belief that JK Rowling created something so original that nobody thought of it before? Look at any Manga/Comic/Graphic novel from the past 20 odd years and i sure you would find many similarities.
Oops. You're right, of course. What I should have said was that Rowling may have borrowed from Adrian Jacobs. That was a glaring oversight on my part. I was actually agreeing with you regarding adults who complain about children's books. I went on to discuss the idea that what we commonly regard as "children's" literature was, once upon a time, not necessarily only meant for children. I never suggested that Tolkien was the "bottom line on literature." I referred back to his research on the subject to underscore my point (and yours) that adults can and should enjoy fantasy and children's literature. I further referenced his essay to point out that it's sometimes it's better to just enjoy a story, rather than spend too much time and energy worrying about the source material.
Must be something very irregular about me then, I read The Hobbit when I was 9 after having devoured the Moomins books by Tove Jansson (the first of which were published before LOTR afaik) Not so much a hard read as simply an unrewarding one. And I passed my 11+ but scraped a C for my english o grade, which goes to show...er...nothing really, other than perhaps being unable (or rather, unwilling) to assign metaphors to characters & scenes which is not expected of a primary school pupil but clearly is of an older one. Or perhaps I was just a bit distracted by the things 15 year old boys get distracted by. In my eyes the story is the story rather than the abstract. Shallow of me, perhaps. You like to read or you don't, I guess, but what you get out of it is a personal thing irrespective. What bogomip also suggests, and i agree, is that what JK mostly got right was not so much the plot as the presentation, & of the series there has only been one book that I felt didn't use the right language for the target age group - the half blood prince - because it dealt with death & murder with a fairly infantile language relative to the previous & subsequent book. My boy is still at "Aliens Love Underpants", "The Gruffalo" and "The Night Pirates" at the moment, but I'll be reading HP with him soon enough. On the matter of the films, however, I treat them as different stories because while the screenplay differences are not as marked as, say, Blade Runner, to the original book, nonetheless as the medium has changed so therefore the storytelling has a different depth & some things will always be unable to translate well in the timeframe of a cinema viewing. Though what the night bus scene in prisoner of azkaban added to the plot I have still been unable to determine. Almost as blatantly bad as hitchikers guide where the prefect/dent interplay at the bar was condensed into "so you're not from guildford, then?" If you are not familiar with hitchikers guide, I won't apologise, I'd just recommend you go buy/borrow/steal it, it will make you accept life much better, and it's only a little book too so won't take long to read...the first time....
Yeaaaah... but alot of adults have read the hungry hungry caterpillar... it doesnt mean thats who its meant to entertain. The fact that alot of adults do get joy out of the book is secondary as they were written with children in mind. Now when children have comments on the quality of Harry Potter then im ready to listen, but since your "distain" likely spans from the fact that Harry Potter isn't 100% origonal, doesn't have big words and describe everything in so much detail that your eyes bleed after each each chapter- I have little time for your views* *Though clearly from writing all this have alot of time to argue against them
Yes. The case will get thrown out, though. So technically God will have lost. And God is infallible by definition. So the universe will end.
Im 28 years old, and I have read all of the books. I read them for the most part because I had been in a book lull, and had nothing better to do on my lunch break. I am an avid reader of fantasy and I think I can say with fair certinty that the Hairy Potter books were writen with children in mind. Calling the books drible when you are obviously an adult is silly. Im willing to bet that if you had tried reading them when you were 13 you would be raving and singing praises to HP. If your an adult and you want to read a good fantasy series than try Stephen King the dark tower. If you dont like that than i sugest u stick to non fiction...
If The Dark Tower is the best you can suggest for a fantasy series, I suggest you don't suggest and stick to coloring books.
well, i could suggest The Wheel of Time.... I suggested The dark tower because I just finished it... I could suggest any number of books.... and I suck at coloring.... cant seem to stay inside the lines
try Richard Morgans The steel Remains it blows any other book in the genre out of the water.Especially that long winded cr£p by Tolkien and that utter drivel by rowling.As for stephen King,its not worth using to wipe your a£se.You should Definately read Richard Morgans trilogy of books,Altered carbon,Broken angels and woken furies.I would go as far as saying if you dont like these i'll cover the price of the books.
What I hate about Fantasy, is it takes itself SOOO seriously. That's what put me off Tolkien. I've read everything by Tolkien, including his poetry, and to be honest, it's at best average. You want "serious" fantasy, try Stephen Donaldson's Chronacles of Thomas Covenant. Want just a classic, damned good yarn that hasn't got it's head up it's own arse? Try Raymond Feist's Riftwar Trilogy. I can even recommend George RR Martin, even though I immediately suspect ANY author who insists on using TWO middle initials of being a completely pretentious arsehead... particularly fantasy writers, for obvious reasons.
If we're all suggesting good fantasy books the 'Temeraire' series are good, even if some supporting characters are as disposable/likely to be bumped off as a romantic lead in a Joss Whedon show.
Its also called 13.Most likely to keep the lefty tree hugging fookers from winging,and yes another quality tome by this brilliant writer.
But stop at the hitchhikers guide as the series goes down hill like a Georgian luger in the following books.