Tuesday's List: I Rank the Harry Potter Books

With all the times they keep showing Harry Potter movies on TV these days, it might be easy to forget that in years past, Harry Potter was first and foremost a great adventure in reading, widely lauded for encouraging children with this activity.  One day in 2000 I went to my local Books-a-Million for my usual daily flavored coffee, planning to browse around the store.  Instead the place was packed with kids and employees dressed and made up like characters in J.K. Rowling's popular series about the young English wizard.  Why all this hullaballoo? Book Number Four, titled Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, had just been released and the store was holding a big celebration as fans came in to pick up their preordered books.  I did manage to find a seat in the café and, looking around me, decided I'd better get on the Harry Potter reading train.  So that year I caught up on the first four books...and waited for the next one to come out.  Meanwhile, the first Harry Potter movie hit the theaters and I wondered...as I am wondering now about George R.R. Martin's delay in publishing the next volume in his A Song of Fire and Ice "Game of Thrones" series after it was adapted to an HBO series...if the movies weren't holding up the release of Rowling's next book.  Finally, it came out and I kept up with the written series, even going to the final two book parties at Books-a-Million.  And I watched all the movies as well...

I strongly recommend the books over the movies, although the latter did a generally good job at holding to the story lines and portrayed the characters well.  The books had a great amount of background story material that the movies omitted...you miss a lot if you skip them, so I'm glad I first read the books before starting in on the movies.  There were seven in all, and I have my own preferences that I will list below...with a little commentary, of course.  Each book's title begins with the words "Harry Potter and", which I left out of the list.  Oh, by the way, I liked ALL of the books, even my least favorite one...

1 THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (Book 3)
   One of the best time-travel stories I've read, and the Marauder's Map was a brilliant gift for young Potter, a compulsive snoop.  And the mystery of the four animagus Hogwarts students Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs...

2 THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (Book 6)
   Severus Snape's role as the series' wild-card character, the flashbacks to Voldemort as Hogwarts student Tom Riddle, the mysterious potions book, and the introduction of Professor Slughorn, collector of students...

3 THE GOBLET OF FIRE (Book 4)
   Probably the most convoluted of all the Potter tales, the book reveals much, much more than the movie.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione are shown entering adolescence, with their change in personalities and interests.  The Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament,  features only of this book, dominate the story...

4 THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (Book 2)
   Students, a cat...and even a ghost...are found in catatonic states at Hogwarts, and the trail seems to lead back to Harry, who always seems to be at the scene of the crime and has the very suspicious ability to converse with snakes.  The very seedy and sinister Knockturn Alley, right next to the more reputable Diagon Alley, captured my imagination...

5 THE SORCERER'S STONE (Book 1)
   Originally called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it introduces Harry Potter and the secret world of magic, full of wizards and magical creatures and places, that exists parallel to our own and has its own school for young wizards: Hogwarts.  I didn't quite get the ending, though...

6 THE DEATHLY HALLOWS (Book 7)
   All final books in a long series can be a little bit long on explanation and resolution and short on new, innovative material...Rowling made this book a delightful exception to that rule with the three Deathly Hallows.  The resolution of the conflict at the end differs in detail with the movie version, though...

7 THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (Book 5)
   There is a plausible explanation given later as to why Harry Potter is always angrily yelling at everyone in this book...but it began to get under my skin after a while.  Also, the whole premise of Voldemort's plot made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me...what difference does knowing the special prophecy's message make in the struggle between the Dark Lord and the good guys?