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A review by kathrynth
Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures by John Granger
1.0
I was so very interested in reading this book. Harry Potter is by no means perfect, but I've always found them to be solid stories worth reading again and again.
But this book was, in my opinion, quite terrible.
First, the author forces his points in a way reminiscent of bad high school literary analysis. Granger has a point to make and, by golly, he's going to make it. He cherrypicks examples and ignores anything that might contradict his point. He forces things into his way of thinking. I kid you not, at one point he's discussing characters whose names come from or mean "red" and he gives Fred as an example because if you remove the letter F you get "red." I'm sorry, but no. That is stretching.
Beyond that, Granger likes to tell readers what they did, do, or would think about something. I found this patronizing, especially since at times his statements are a bit insulting: you didn't see this, dear reader. Also, he refers to Rowling as Ms. Rowling throughout, but other authors don't receive that same treatment, which, in my analysis, makes it seem as if he doesn't consider her a real author. His words show otherwise, but I found this an inappropriate stylistic decision.
There's more I could say, but I don't want to waste any more time on this book.
But this book was, in my opinion, quite terrible.
First, the author forces his points in a way reminiscent of bad high school literary analysis. Granger has a point to make and, by golly, he's going to make it. He cherrypicks examples and ignores anything that might contradict his point. He forces things into his way of thinking. I kid you not, at one point he's discussing characters whose names come from or mean "red" and he gives Fred as an example because if you remove the letter F you get "red." I'm sorry, but no. That is stretching.
Beyond that, Granger likes to tell readers what they did, do, or would think about something. I found this patronizing, especially since at times his statements are a bit insulting: you didn't see this, dear reader. Also, he refers to Rowling as Ms. Rowling throughout, but other authors don't receive that same treatment, which, in my analysis, makes it seem as if he doesn't consider her a real author. His words show otherwise, but I found this an inappropriate stylistic decision.
There's more I could say, but I don't want to waste any more time on this book.