Hello!
I've just finished reading HBP... I decided to read it in English (my mother tongue is French, I'm Swiss) because I couldn't wait for the translation! As I don't know anyone who has already read it around here, I felt the need to talk to someone and I thought "oh maybe I can write on one of these forum on the internet..." So here I am... Besides, it'll be a good exercice for my English, which, I hope, is not too bad to understand!
So how did I feel about HBP? I think it was just terrific. I loved it (it only took me 3 days to read it). It has everything I want a good book to have: a "natural" style of writing, good characters (Harry has changed a lot since the last book, fortunately!), suspense, unsuspected revelations, a lot of emotion (I'm not talking only about the "love affairs", that made me grin in more than one occasion
, I mean the emotion that rises between Harry and Dumbledore, like a father-son relationship (I like the bit when the weak Dumbledore says he's not worried because he is with Harry... normally that's something Harry used to say about Dumbledore!))...
I actually studied the Harry Potter books at University, and I think book number six is very important to the whole story: finally the action takes place not in Hogwarts, not really physically (although there is a part), but inside Harry Potter himself (he has finally found himself, after the deep wound that left the death of Sirius). That's what I liked most about that book. And - I must be a very naive reader - I didn't guess who was the HBP before Snape told it to Harry! (I actually thought it could have been Voldemort himself, knowing he's also half-blooded).
How will I be able to wait 2 years to know more now? Seems impossible
Oh by the way, "Pattenrond" is how Crookshanks is called in the French translation.