> Chapter 1: If this book had passed my editor's desk (if I were an editor, mind you), my first act would have been to cut Chapter 1. (Yes, I hear your gasps of horror. Let's just agree to disagree.) It is a glorified prologue, and all the information contained therein is either unnecessary or shown later in the books. I have no idea why they kept it other than to introduce secondary characters. I personally think the surprise of Harry's accidental use of magic (freeing the snake), and then his shock at learning he is a wizard would've had more impact if we had not been "warned" of it beforehand in Chapter 1. And we would have felt Harry's curiosity and the Dursley's fear upon Hagrid's entrance if we had not seen him weeping in Chapter 1. Instead we would have been wondering if Hagrid was, in fact, telling the truth, and if perhaps he was indeed as dangerous as he first appears. (And it still makes no sense to me why McGonagall was there. None at all. Perhaps it is explained in a later book and I've forgotten. I do that.)
> The beginning: I remembered this book as a long but gloriously brilliant novel. What I instead discovered was a quick beginning, and a quick book overall. I kept thinking: the movie was longer than this! I referred to the Scholastic edition more than once just to make sure this Bloomsbury edition wasn't abridged - it seemed so thin! But it wasn't.
>The writing: I don't know if it was because it was the British version, but it read very choppy in many, many spots. I remembered an easy flow, but that's not what I found. A re-reading of the Scholastic edition is most definitely in order. Scholastic has proved quite brilliant in almost all they do - perhaps they "Americanized" the books without my knowledge.
>The end: Again, a lot shorter and faster than I remembered. And again, I think I prefer the movie adaption better.
Overall, I was a bit shocked at just how different this read was from what I recalled. But I believe it is a matter of a language barrier more than anything. When I re-read the American Scholastic edition, hopefully very soon, I believe I will discover a book more to what I remember.
As a note, though, I am a firm believer that books should be read in their original language if at all possible. I close with a very good example why:
>Spellotape: Spellotape isn't, in fact, mentioned until Book 2 (to my knowledge), when Ron uses it to mend his broken wand. But besides being an inventive use of "spell" and "tape," I never truly got the cleverness until reading the Philosopher's Stone, when Harry uses "Sellotape" (which I can only imagine is cellophane tape) to hold his glasses together. Rowling added a simple "p" into the mix of an everyday item, and it became a bit of a British inside joke. Books and cleverness.
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