Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Great Start

2008-07-01
A perfect start to a wonderful series. I must admit I read the Chamber of Secrets before I read this novel, but then again I got hooked on Harry Potter by Dobby the House Elf!

HP Audio Book - UK Version

2008-01-13
Item was better than expected. Had an issue on receiving the product and the vendor went above and beyond. I would definatly order from vendor again!!

Amazing, my new addiction.

2007-08-31
Well if you're looking at this product you're probably like me, busy and not the biggest fan of sitting down to read. I've always been a big fan of stories but I could just never find the time to read because of work and when I did I am admittedly an abysmally slow reader. After years of hearing how amazing these books, the Harry Potter series, were and loving every movie immensely it finally dawned on me to see if there was an audio book and there obviously is.

When I first started listening to the series I must admit I was a little turned off because Stephen Fray came across as a little dry and I was beginning to think the audio books weren't going to be much more tolerable than simply reading the books. As new characters are introduced though I was pleased to find that he managed to give most of them a unique personality and even more so that he maintains these personas not just through this single book but all the way to where I am now, The Half Blood Prince. Aside from just their vocal definition Fry also manages to display a diverse range of emotion for each individual character as if there is a separate actor for each character, it's really quite an amazing performance in my opinion. At certain times various audio filters are added for dramatic effect like echo and things of the sort and I guess that's really the only place this audio book comes up short for me is that there really isn't a whole lot to it other than Stephen Fry reading the books. This being my first audio book I can't really compare it to anything but I guess I was expecting at least some music between chapters or maybe some ambient sound effects but I still find the overall experience enjoyable without them.

There are probably hundreds of reviews for the books themselves so I'll keep my opinions on the series short and sweet. I believe the thing that I like most about the Harry Potter series is the overall charm of everything and the connection Rawling maintains to both the real world and real life. She really seems to nail human archetypes and the teenage inner dialogue and I can't help but think there are many pieces of her own children in this book. It showcases such an amazing insight as to the way people think and feel that I really can't help but be awe inspired. Like I said though, I'm not a big reader/listener so I imagine there are better books out there but that really doesn't take away from this series' ability to crack a smile on my face at work. I guess my only gripe is that it sometimes appears as if she has some favorite words or a limited vocabulary or perhaps people in England just find these words more common but there is an obtuse overuse of the words incredulous, glower, and one other that I will add in a couple of hours when I remember it. This obviously isn't a big deal but it can make me cringe a little.

Anyways, I work in science and listen to these all day when I don't have to read for work and I'm actually doing lab work and they have improved my enjoyment at work immensely so they come highly recommended by me. Each book is probably about 18-24 hours long off the top of my head so the whole series should take you a while to get through. I hope you enjoy!

A truly magical tale!

2005-08-03
When I was about ten years old, I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reluctantly: everyone had told me to read it. I hated reading. Never could stand it. No matter what anyone said there was no such thing as a good book. It was always going to be that way too. I opened up the book and read the first page with very little motivation. In order to keep myself reading, I forced myself to read it aloud. As little as I wished to keep reading it, I couldn't put it down, and by the last line of the first paragraph, I needed to continue. The first paragraph itself was so amazing that I reread it two, three, four times. I flipped the page, finally onto the next chapter, and got more and more drawn in. Before long, I was on a magic journey, I was at a London zoo where a boaconstrictor had gotten free from its aquarium, I was purchasing books like Beginner's Transfiguration and One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi at Flourish and Blotts, I was soaring after the Golden Snitch on a Cleansweep 4, I was staring into the Mirror of Erised, and I was sneaking past a gigantic three headed dog named Fluffy to get through a trap door beneath its feet. Less than a year had gone by and before I knew it, I had read this book 40 times. For my eleventh birthday, I was given the second book and became even more obssessed. My friends began to call me Harriet Potter, and I had been given awards for being able to recite the first 200 pages of the first book (I was able to recite the entire book, but I tripped up on a sentence on page 203 and lost the ability to continue).
While not all of you might be as obsessively enthusiastic about this book as I have been, I guarentee that each and every one of you would adore it and all of the books that followed.