Which book from the Harry Potter series is your personal favorite?

What I thought would happen, Chamber of Secrets is still my favorite where most people don't care for the book, that is cool though

@randomhero666: I actually didn't even notice it when I wrote that. Definitely no pun intended there :)

Regarding the movies, there's no contest there. Azkaban is the only decent one of the bunch.

blatantly obvious? well excuse me, mr. master of literary analysis, but I did not.

congrats on being smarter than me? I'm not sure what your point is other than to say that you're too smart for harry potter.

@dudeglove said:

And the context you did it in was being an asshat. Though being an asshat is fine when looking in the face of the reaction to the series; these books are for kids and people who want a bit of fun and literally nothing more.

I've only read the last one, I should probably read the others.

It's been a long time, but I remember really loving Prisoner of Azkaban

I've only seen the movies, but out of those, I have to go with Deathly Hallows. I'm a sucker for epicness/endings. Plus, I actually liked all the interpersonal drama during the camping portions.

Prisoner of Azkaban. The story is genuinely interesting, it reads nice as a stand-alone, the pacing is pretty good and it isn't saddled with all the relationship bullshit that plagues the latter books - while Rowling is a good writer, her teenage drama is barely readable (which is why I really hated The Half-Blood Prince). The Order of the Phoenix is a close second - I enjoyed reading what is essentially a deconstruction of the previous books, since Harry is, at this point, old enough to understand and be worn out by old the bullshit that happens and basically develops PTSD.

Prisoner of Azkaban, both the movie and the book.

Um, no. I'm sorry, but the only asshat here is you. And Animasta for getting all bent out of shape for nothing.

The first one? I only read the first three and a half books in the series.

I liked the third one the most. To be completely honest, though, I've only read the first four. Goblet of Fire killed my enthusiasm for the series. I thought the movie version of that one was better than the book and decided to just stick to the movies from then on.

Half Blood Prince. Which just so happens to be the worst of the films imo.

i've only read philosophers stone. after which i felt no compulsion to continue the series further, sorry guys.

Prisoner of Azkaban is my personal favorite. I really like Sirius.

Order of the Phoenix. I fucking loved hating on Umbridge as I read along, and each new "Educational Decree" always psyched me up for some reason. It was just a great long running fight against authority in that book, and it was where the characters became much more self sufficient, the relationships between the characters solidified, the conflicts really got rolling, and the overall themes of the series really came into their own. It's my favorite of the films, as well.

The one where there's magic.

I only read the first four, but that was twelve years ago so I don't remember the specifics of any of them.

Prisoner of Azkaban for sure.

Half Blood Prince. It was like Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter combined. It was also the first book I couldn't stop reading and completely drew me in.

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I only read the first four and it was ages ago, but the 10 year old me liked Goblet of Fire the best!

I love Goblet of Fire. It was the first really big one and the structure was quite different due to the Triwizard Tournament.

This exactly. When I read them, I read them mostly back-to-back and I remember enjoying Goblet of Fire the most at the time. But, honestly, I can't recall why or what story was about. I also remember being disappointed in the movie. The size of the books increased with each subsequent volume but the movies still needed to be around 2 hours so stuff got cut. At the time, I remember that stuff being the most interesting, whatever that stuff was.

I've retroactively stopped liking Harry Potter. I wish it would have ended while I was still younger and had the same standards as I did while reading 1-4.

I'm pretty sure I either liked Goblet or Chamber the most back then. But the last three came too late and didn't do enough. :/

Azkaban. I listened to most of the unabridged audiobooks on various flights, the ones narrated by Jim Dale are fantastic.

Azkaban. I listened to most of the unabridged audiobooks on various flights, the ones narrated by Jim Dale are fantastic.

Going to college and being exposed to the number of fangirls has kind of ruined Harry Potter for me, despite having read all of the books. There's only so much obsession I can take before I go "Have you literally read ANY other lengthy fantasy series of the last 20 years?" And then they mention The Hunger Games and I wonder if I'm just talking about literature to the wrong people (I am).

That being said, I think Goblet of Fire was probably the last book in the series I enjoyed without reservation... though I was also like 8.

Going to college and being exposed to the number of fangirls has kind of ruined Harry Potter for me, despite having read all of the books. There's only so much obsession I can take before I go "Have you literally read ANY other lengthy fantasy series of the last 20 years?" And then they mention The Hunger Games and I wonder if I'm just talking about literature to the wrong people (I am).

That being said, I think Goblet of Fire was probably the last book in the series I enjoyed without reservation... though I was also like 8. Books 5 and 6 are pretty weak, and while 7 closes the series with some dignity, in retrospect I really hate all of the "chosen one", Harry is a special snowflake BS that the series sort of revolves around.

Either Goblet or Chamber of Secrets.

I really enjoyed prisoner of azkaban, kinda surprised to see goblet at the top, its the only one I haven't ever finished lol. I get to the end of the quiditch part at the beginning and stop, because the quidich part bored me out of my mind. (ignore those deleted messages, this like triple posted for some reason)

@arbitrarywater said:

I think it's strange that you would really dislike that element of the series, because that cliche is played with pretty intelligently and it's explained pretty well by the end of the series that all the "chosen one" stuff is just total bullshit that isn't actually real. Voldemort was just crazy and paranoid, and through his own ignorance kept playing out the prophecies that didn't have anything to do with "destiny" at all. Harry ends up having to be the one to kill Voldemort only because Voldemort is the one that insists on killing him, and the final Horcrux thing was a complete accident on Voldemort's part.

I'm curious why you think 5 was pretty weak, though. For reasons I said above I thought that was one of the better turns in the whole series and did a better job setting up everything that would lead to the end of the series better than any of the others.