I'm game, Morse :D

I'd be up for that

Im in morse! :D

Nice! I credit Ry for coming up with this in another thread!
Anyway, we should start it soon then.

Fine with me.

Can we at least call the book by its proper name please?

Great idea. Finaly an awesome book debate.

Toini01 said:

Great idea. Finaly an awesome book debate.

:D

Can this be a official thread?

Aaaaand it's now an announcement thread. YUS!

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

Captain of Team Edward said:

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

sounds good to me :)

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

Captain of Team Edward said:

aaron said:

Sounds great. I'll be gone for the next few chapters apart from The Boy Who Lived, but oh well. :-S

:( But hey at least you get to enjoy your break in somewhere awesome :D How about you do a catch up post once your back? :D

What's that awesome place he goes to?

Captain of Team Edward said:

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Morse :)

Okay everyone, lets gear up and have this read by Thursday of Friday night? Could we do a once a week due date where we begin talking about the next chapter? What is everyones thought on this here?

Sounds good!
Thank you really! You brought it up the other day.

Wish I could participate, but all my HP books are in boxes until at least March :(

I'm definitely in :D

I'm in too. But i won't post my review of the first chapter till next week. I have exams right now. Are we going to use a standard layout for our little reviews?

My idea of a layout:
"
The good:
(say what you liked in this chapter)
The bad:
(say what you didn't like in this chapter)
Overall:
(What did you think of this Chapter)
Trivia:
(Post trivia about this chapter here)
Movie-version:
(What do you think about the movie-adaption of this chapter/scene?)
"
Is this a good layout for you guys?

I'd like it because it has a structure so it wouldn't be a mess.

I don't like Jo's style of writing in this book. It's very simple and child-friendly compared to the other books.

However, the opening line is perfect:

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

This is effective because we instantly imagine a stuck-up middle-class family who like to keep to themselves:



It is an interesting start to the story, we are told very little, as though we are expected to know what is going on already. There is a lot of intrigue, as well of dread, on Vernon's part. These strange people keep mentioning the Potters, who the Dursleys will not associate with.

What is even more interesting, is at this point in the story, James and Lily Potter are already dead:







And that an attempt has been made on Harry's life:



Vernon is unaware of any of this.

Minerva McGonagall has been sat on Privet Drive all day, Vernon swears he saw a cat looking at a map:

Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and broken, as though it had been broken at least twice*. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

*broken by Aberforth Dumbledore.



The Deluminator, which Albus leaves to Ronald Weasley in his will:

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall"

What is important is that even though McGonagall says that every child will know Harry's name, Dumbledore already realises this. It would be more healthier for Harry to grow up in Hogwarts, or with some magical family; but Dumbledore realises that Harry needs to be away from the wizarding world. It would be too much for him to grow up around people who are aware of what has happened to him, without Harry understanding why he is famous.

"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

This is fantastic foreshadowing for the rest of the series. Hagrid is Harry's first mentor, his first real father figure. Who takes him temporarily out of the magical world [reluctantly] and then brings him back into it again ten years later.

It is an interesting parallel, Hagrid carrying the vulnerable baby Harry in his arms and then sixteen years later carrying what he believes to be a "dead" Harry:

"Good luck, Harry."

Oh I wish I had my books right now! I'll get them soon though :D Great review Firefly! One thing I remember I love in this chapter is when Hagrid says he borrowed the motorbike from Sirius! Some years ago when I started to read PS again I did not remember any of these little details so when I read that part I was like "wow Jo had already thought of Sirius by this time" :P

Indeed but the writing style is so weird in the first chapter.

When I first read that Dumbledore was wearing high-heeled buckled boots, I began to wonder if he was gay or not. I also like the foreshadowing in there about the scar above his knee being a map of the London Underground because this is where Kings Cross is, which is where Harry met him after having been "killed" by Voldemort.

in wooooo