Take Your Pick Art Contest. Awards Ceremony page 464!

[Moonblossom]

That's fine, but choosing to avoid something simply because it's popular is as bad as reading it simply because it's popular :/

I actually read Twilight and thought they were hilarious fluff. I enjoyed them in the sense that they gave me something to do for a few hours, but I would not run out and suggest people read them. More like "If you're stuck in an airport terminal with nothing to do for four hours, they provide amusing time-wasting"

Harry Potter, however, is a series I think everyone should try at least once.

As for Wizard of Oz, I found they got asinine and repetitive after the fourth book. The first one was beautiful and orginal, Ozma was interesting and gave a fresh perspective, and after that they were just "more of the same, more of the same".

I also completely ignore Ruth Plumley's contributions, I don't even consider them part of the same series.

[Super Squirrel Boy]

It depends on what you're not conforming to. It's not like I'm getting a tattoo or not getting a tattoo by not reading a series or keeping up with the ever changing fads. I just do what I like unless there's a billion other people already doing it. Only fad I got caught up in was pokemon but I liked it before it was big so it's different. If I were already into Harry Potter before the media got a hold of it I might've checked it out. But now it's too late to get on the band wagon without feeling like I'm just a follower.

[AnimeJet]

I think twilight might make be angry if i really read it, unless i really got myself to think of it as like humor. But it's scary how some take it so seriously.

Another series i put next to HP is probably Narnia. ... Probably because i started reading both when i was like 10 years old. Although i suppose, i literally grew up with Harry Potter (as did all the kids my age) since he aged the same rate as we did XD

[Moonblossom]

Super Squirrel Boy

If I were already into Harry Potter before the media got a hold of it I might've checked it out. But now it's too late to get on the band wagon without feeling like I'm just a follower.

I think that is a damned shame. Maybe when it's still popular and relevant to society in ten years or so, you'll be able to enjoy it without feeling that way. I honestly feel it will endure as one of the great literary series of our age. I will be encouraging my children, if I have any, to read it ten or fifteen years down the road. Along with Lord of the Rings, and Narnia, which yes, was another awesome series.

Jet - I can't say I grew up with Potter, I was eighteen when the series broke XD. But I have enjoyed experiencing them all grow up, both on paper and on film.

[Super Squirrel Boy]

Moony has read the Wizard of Oz?

The last book Baum wrote was compiled of his notes and it left me with a void. He died before he completed it. I'd like to read the books that followed but I'm not sure how to find them. I found the series to be imaginative and I felt like if I were to look out my window everything would be as the land I saw in my mind with a Woozie chasing a bee for honey and a hungry tiger with a conscience roaming the land and Ozma riding across the deadly desert safe on a magical carpet. In its day of being written there was nothing like it and it was the first for many literature feats. That's why I like it. I can put myself there and I read it as if I were one of the boys in the mercantile listening to Mister Baum's voice itself, I could believe that he really was receiving messages from a magical land through telegram.

[keiiii]

Super Squirrel Boy

It depends on what you're not conforming to. It's not like I'm getting a tattoo or not getting a tattoo by not reading a series or keeping up with the ever changing fads. I just do what I like unless there's a billion other people already doing it. Only fad I got caught up in was pokemon but I liked it before it was big so it's different. If I were already into Harry Potter before the media got a hold of it I might've checked it out. But now it's too late to get on the band wagon without feeling like I'm just a follower.

Why does the number of existing fans matter? I like what I like, no matter how popular or unpopular it is. Just because you're checking out something popular, doesn't mean you're blindly following other people.

Fullmetal Alchemist was already very popular by the time I decided to give it a try. I really like it, but that doesn't mean I'm into that series because I want to fit in or whatever. I like it because the plot is strong, the art is great, etc. My appreciation of the series has NOTHING to do with conformity.

Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity is silly. XD

[AnimeJet]

The popularity of something really doesn't affect the quality of the item, it's kind of silly to think if something got popular i can't enjoy it anymore unless you are so afraid that your opinion would be shattered by the weight of expectations, in which case you might need to work on developing a stronger personality? Not sure how that works.

Harry Potter even if i think it's not as intellectual as say Golden Compass i just can't replace with another series because it really felt like a part of my life, since a book came out every year and they were the same age as me and I read them as they came out so when it finally finished it was like, closing the door to a 7-8 year period of my life x_x. I haven't watched the movies though, but my friends might pressure me into watching the newest one rofl

Every time is see the ads on the subway i think dumbledore is gandalf XD

[Super Squirrel Boy]

If you must know I have a low self-esteem and low sense of self. If I do what other people do I lose track of me. Plus other people group me with a set of people. I wear a Wisconsin Badgers sweatshirt in the winter because it was free. People call me a Cheese Head because apparently I must be a Wisconsin fan. What other people think bothers me. I don't want to be associated with the cosplaying Harry Potter fans. Maybe in ten or fifteen years I'll be ready to read the books. I don't know. I'm curious about it but not enough to deal with what people would say about me.

[AnimeJet]

That's too bad, you'll have to learn to ignore what people say though. It's not like they are your boss, and if you carry your self correctly it shouldn't be a problem. I (and i would guess most people) don't make fun of fans unless they make it obvious they are obsessed after all. And if they do, they aren't worth the time, and certainly not worth you avoiding something just to please them.

[Pirate Dirge]

I would think it's impossible to like anything if you do not want to be associated with the more obsessed fans of it. I've always found that not liking something that is popular seems to stem from wanting to be elite and special. If it's popular, it's not special enough anymore. I find the behavior odd, to be honest.

As a DA stamp states: I like what I like even if it's popular.

[AnimeJet]

All about balance. If you never think for yourself and only check out things that other people like you'll miss out on a lot of gems out there that are lesser known. But if you refuse to check out thinks just because others like it, you'll still miss out on great things. 3nodding

[Super Squirrel Boy]

that's probably why I don't have any hobbies. Here is my life in a nutshell

Work, sleep, eat, Gaia, family stuff. I don't read much, I don't watch tv, I get netflix movies but that's part of the "family" time. I don't go anywhere or have any friends of my own. They're all friends of family. I don't pity myself for it cause it's my choice to have no life. I'm stuck in a job I don't like, that's not my choice. But I'm working on it. smile

[Maeryn Pearl]

The reason why the writing in Harry Potter is SO very exceptional is while it is intelligent and well written, even young children can read it and understand exactly what is going on.

Part of the reason it took me so very long to actually read the books (after the 3rd movie had already come out) was because before then, even having watched the movies, I was under the impression it was a childrens book, but around that time even my grandmother had gotten sucked into the series.

I read the book for last nights movie a few years ago... I have not read it since... and I was STILL disappointed about some parts of the movie and THRILLED about others. That is how good the writing is and how good I view the translation to the movies as being... that I was watching and still remembered it happening (or not happening) in the book.

Theres one point, that you know is coming... even if you haven't read the book you just KNOW its coming, they make it that obvious... and it doesn't matter! When it happens you STILL jump!!!! The ENTIRE theater I was in jumped at the same time! it was hilarious.


Plus, while some Ive seen say the acting was bad I only agree on the parts of some of the actors, other actors did phenomenal (including one I have claimed was a bad actor in the past, has redeemed themself in my eyes)



And yeah the thunderstorm afterward certainly made it feel like the death eaters were coming.

[Druki]

brb going to go see Harry Potter

[Super Squirrel Boy]

Wow that does sound like a good kind of book. That's one of the elements that I love about the Wizard of Oz. It is understood by children but isn't just for children. It makes my imagination go wild.