The third book about The Boy Who Lived takes a turn to a slightly darker direction, as Harry, Ron and Hermione get into their third year of magical education at Hogwarts.

PoA is my favourite of the five HP movies that have been released so far.. And yet, the movie pales in comparison with the book. The original canon, the book, contains a lot of background information that is lacking from the movie, even some very crucial bits of information.

The rich detail of the wizarding world and of th... (show more)

The third book about The Boy Who Lived takes a turn to a slightly darker direction, as Harry, Ron and Hermione get into their third year of magical education at Hogwarts.

PoA is my favourite of the five HP movies that have been released so far.. And yet, the movie pales in comparison with the book. The original canon, the book, contains a lot of background information that is lacking from the movie, even some very crucial bits of information.

The rich detail of the wizarding world and of the students' lives at Hogwarts never ceases to amaze me. Rowling truly makes you feel like you're right there with Harry and his friends (and foes), playing Quidditch, eating at the Great Hall, spending time in the Gryffindor Common Room and attending lessons, be it in Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Divination or Care of Magical Creatures. Reading about the various magical school books makes you want to study them yourself, learning the spells makes you want to try them out for real.

While the movies do add some colour to the books -- for example, the movie Snape is much less disagreeable than the book Snape, owing, no doubt, to the sulking rather than malicious portrayal of him by the wonderful Alan Rickman -- I have to say I like PoA even more after reading the book. (show less)

The second book of the seven-book series takes us Muggles back to Hogwarts and tells us a great deal more about Jo Rowling's wonderful, magical wizarding world.

Like Philosopher's Stone, this book contains so much more than the movies.. And as such, it's better than the movies, even though I do like the movies too.

As a first-time HP reader and as someone who's seen the first three HP films like a gazillion times (many more times than the fourth and fifth film), it's been a most squeeful ex... (show more)

The second book of the seven-book series takes us Muggles back to Hogwarts and tells us a great deal more about Jo Rowling's wonderful, magical wizarding world.

Like Philosopher's Stone, this book contains so much more than the movies.. And as such, it's better than the movies, even though I do like the movies too.

As a first-time HP reader and as someone who's seen the first three HP films like a gazillion times (many more times than the fourth and fifth film), it's been a most squeeful experience to read the books and see how much more they contain than the movies. The movie, as a medium, doesn't allow you to get inside a character's head the way a book does, and getting inside Harry's mind is one of the key things in the whole series (I'm only in GOF at the moment, but I assume the same is true with OOTP, HBP and DH).

If there is one single scene in this book that I would have just about died to see in the movie, it's the Valentine's Day sequence. Not gonna spoil it to anyone who hasn't read the book yet (are there still people like that? :-D), I'm just gonna say that if you've seen the movies but haven't read the books yet, READ THEM. You're in for a treat. (show less)