21.Sep.2008 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

FINALLY I finished the book. It took me a LOooOng while. First, the book is just really, really, thick. All 956 pages of it. It hardly fit in my bag and so I tended to not bring it everywhere like the other normal books. It was slow because I read it only at home, where I wasn’t much at. Then I stopped halfway through for one reason or another. You know how hard it is to go back to a book which you have left for a while. So I picked it up again after I finished 9 books. 9 books!

Anyway, it’s good to be at the end of this humongous Potter book. I can’t understand people who read Harry Potter book in just one day (especially number 5, 6, and 7). They must speed-read a whole lot. I also think that the book could’ve been shorter. She really needed an editor.

So in this episode, the main villain is Dolores Umbridge. I guess it’s the first time where the villain is simply a villain. There’s no twist whatsoever to her evil personality.

I re-watched the movie yesterday. Like usual they cut off a lot of stuff, and characters. No Dobby again. Not much stories on Harry and Cho (Well, I don’t like her much anyway. Come on. First Cedric, then Harry, and she went to another boy? Bleh.) No Firenze the centaur. I thought Luna Lovegood is a bit too pretty in the movie. Neville can’t see the Thestral. No St Mungo’s Hospital scene. No Kreacher’s betrayal.

On a side note, I thought the content of the prophecy is too trivial. Nothing we haven’t already known to some degree. Makes you wonder why Voldemort goes to that extend just to get the prophecy. All those preparations and troubles, not to mention the whole year length of waiting and all.

Pages: 956
Rating: 4 out of 5

First line
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet drive.

Last line
Instead, he smiled, raised a hand in farewell, turned around and led the way out of the station towards the sunlit street, with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley hurrying along in his wake.