Question About Pacing

[justin]

Well, 2 weeks ago I started the first book. Never had read one the books, but finally got around to it. Well, finished the first 4 books in a week. I ordered the 5th book from Amazon and read it in a couple of days (going to school right now). Obviously I really enjoyed the books.

After reading the fifth book, I must say that it was one of my favorites, however I felt like it was kind of long winded. The book really seemed to linger on the agony of the school and Potter. The ending was great, but it just seemed to take a while to get there. I also thought the 4th book seemed a little long as well. Again I really like all of the books (the 3rd was my favorite), just curious to see if anyone else felt this way. The 5th just seemed to be not as well paced. Anyway, maybe it is just because I read them all in such a short period of time. Please let me know what you think.

[Gwared]

I've read a number of comments about the slowness of book 5 but as I read (and write [but not type ]) quicker than anyone I know I didn't seem to notice this. In fact just casually reading PoA took me only a few hours and that suprised me cause I was working at the same time! I believe the end of book 5 was a little dazzling in speed, but I thought the same of GoF too.

[Colin]

I noticed how slow Book 5 was. I think it was because I was in agony about Harrys misfortunes. It was a very heavy book.

[Devinci]

It took me quite some time to finish the 5th book...and I have to admit, throughout the entire thing...I got SO annoyed with all the horrible things that happened to...everyone really, that I felt like having a book burning. *sigh* But, I kept going, and by the end...I felt like it was the best book in the world...(except for a few key elements.......*grumble grumble*)
But looking back on it...it was really long. I think JK just wants to...make people feel important because they're reading REALLY long chapter books! Woohoo!

[Sacred Guardian]

yeah, book five went slow but i still think that it was really good, but once i got to the astronomy OWL, i couldn't stop, i had to read the rest, no breaks

[AccioNiffler]

I found that with book four and five (more so with 5) the first half/thre-quarters of the books went a little slow, but the the end of them sped by.

I think that OotP went slow was because of all the anger and bad things happening. I mean, you just get kinda drained from feeling sorry for people for the first 500 pages or so.

[Lizzy Bennet]

As I am not a mod on this particular forum, all I can say is while I find this an interesting thread (I really do! ), it mentions book 5 quite consistently, and for that reason, I think it should be moved to one of the book 5 areas...I know it may not quite fit into one of the areas, but the risk of spoiling somewhere here is potentially high...maybe not in comments thus far, but it could go that way...what do the mods of this forum think?


~ Lizzy

[AccioNiffler]

Sorry about the book five mention that I made I always have so many windows open while I'm looking at this website that I just didnt realize what I was doing! Like you said, OotP is mentioned frequently in this thread, so I guess I thought I'd just continue with that. I'm sure that no one here intended to spoil anything for others though (by the way, does anyone know when we will be able to talk about book5 freely ).

[Sacred Guardian]

i have no idea, i would assume that it would be somtime after the book is released in all countries, because everyone on the internet has acess to this site

[Ju-DedoH]

Hey, I read the book in 2 days, and I found it really long too, but I think it is because I was waiting (like harry) to see DD

[Rory Pridinham]

I think all the waiting and rumours, theories and ideas we created before the book came out kinda set our expectations too high, and therefore the book seemed not as exciting or well-paced as the other four books. Now, I'm not trying to put down any members of the forum or Rowling herself, but I thought that this somewhat psychological point was worth mentioning. As well, the quote on the back left me hanging..... you know, the one where Dumbledore says "sit down, I'm going to tell you everything"? Every time I picked up the book I was waiting for that part, and it kinda ruined the details of the rest of the book, because it didn't happen till near the end of the book. I feel that's unfair but the publishers probably want the people to read through the entire book (as if we wouldn't) and this abomination had some significance to them. Anyway, The second time I read the book (yes, I have finally finished it TWICE!) it seemed much better paced because I was not expecting anything phenominal or mind-blowing, though some parts are very weighty and deep.

[Broccoli]

I must admit I really enjoyed the slowness of the first 3 books because they gave you time to enjoy the whole romance of the wizarding world. Book 5 is already dark at the beginning, with a lot of things happenning, but at the same time we still have to wait till last chapters for really important events... But anyway I don't find Book 5 slow.

[Marcus Baker]

I agree with Brocoli, i did like the first 3 book's slowness, but i did think the book #4 was VERY slow, and all of book 5 was rather frusterating cuz harry and his friends were the only one who thought Voldemort was back, and uugghhh!! professor Umbridge, the *****!!! She was horrible, and was so arrogent, but i guess it was all of JK's plan, and the ending was good with the OWL's, cant wait till the 6th book to see what NEWT classes he will get into.

[Meg Boyd]

I felt that Book 5 was a bit slow, but not as slow as other books I have read...(arrrggggggghhhh Killer Angels....). It only took me a day to read it, and I was at work and everything, you know? I thought the book was fantastic, although book 3 is still my favorite. I loved the ending, and I thought it set it up perfectly....it put us on edge to find out how everything will fall into place with Voldemort on the rampage, the MoM finally realizing it, Harry's knowledge of (just about) everything, the prophecies, Neville, and of course relationships between certain characters...we are all hanging on the cliff waiting patiently, and that's where the book publishers (and JKR) want us to be...

[Ju-DedoH]

I think all the waiting and rumours, theories and ideas we created before the book came out kinda set our expectations too high, and therefore the book seemed not as exciting or well-paced as the other four books. Now, I'm not trying to put down any members of the forum or Rowling herself, but I thought that this somewhat psychological point was worth mentioning. As well, the quote on the back left me hanging..... you know, the one where Dumbledore says "sit down, I'm going to tell you everything"? Every time I picked up the book I was waiting for that part, and it kinda ruined the details of the rest of the book, because it didn't happen till near the end of the book. I feel that's unfair but the publishers probably want the people to read through the entire book (as if we wouldn't) and this abomination had some significance to them. Anyway, The second time I read the book (yes, I have finally finished it TWICE!) it seemed much better paced because I was not expecting anything phenominal or mind-blowing, though some parts are very weighty and deep.

exactly like me (except I haven't read it twice), but I felt just the same about the Blurb