I love all books and reread the, 10 times each as a child, but I just love some of them more.

1- GoF: My favourite, it first showed how huge and intriguing the magical world is. The happy moments with the Weasleys's were the best fluff in the series, Harry's first crush was nice and relatable and I just love huge international events.

2- CoS: What enembee said.

3- PoS: It did what it set out to do magnificiently. Instantly addicted me to this series.

4- PoA: Introduced some of the best or most interesting characters, the plot was superb and self cointained, and gave us great insight on other, estabilished characters. Plus, baloon aunt.

5- OotP: Umbridge is an amazong villain, and I just love hating Harry. DA was a great idea and George and Fred's last fuck you is one my favourite scenes. But Harry getting all emo, specially at the beginning just annoyed. And it just went on and on sometimes.

6- HBP: Not DH.

7- DH: So many dumb moments. So many.

 

OotP - JKR takes the gloves off and kills off one of the most loved characters. As some have said it could have been better if she also killed Mr Weasley.

GoF - Almost as good as OotP but the plan to get Harry to the graveyard was beyond convoluted.

DH - Again, JKR took the gloves off and made the war rather brutal; death camps, loved characters dropping like flies etc. Loses point however for the cheese epilogue, camping in a forest, and RW/HG which I can never see happening.

PoA - Enjoyable and easy to read, begins showing how dark HP will become. Loses point for ill-defined antagonist.

CoS - Enjoyable, lots of world building. Loses points for convoluted lack of death toll.

PS - Convoluted and inept puzzles.

HBP - The plot is basically things that should have been sprinkled through the books rather than piled up in a single boring book. All that relationship stuff for example should have started around book 4 or possibly even book 3. I liked the idea of horcruxes but Dumbledore's idea of giving Harry as little as possible is annyoing as fuck and gives off the vibe of JKR trying to drag out HBP for as long as possible.

 

The first four, in any order.

Then, way, way after them:

5. OotP
6. DH
7. HBP

 

Prisoner of Azkaban/ Sorcerer's Stone/ Goblet of Fire / Order of the Phoenix -> Deathly Hallows -> Chamber of Secrets -> Half-Blood Prince

The first 4 on the list are interchangeable to to me to an extent (less so OotP), but I think this is close enough. Pretty sharp divides between the remaining three.

I really liked PoA; if only because it was the first time I really got the impression that the series was headed somewhere and that there was plot in motion- CoS always struck me as very Monster of The Week-esque and SS was the first work and thus is obligated to have early work weirdness.

SS is the original and a lot of the others just lack that weird sense of wonder that SS never really lost for me.

GoF was a lot better on re-read than the first time; re-reading it again last year not so much but that's because I'm not a teenager and thus have less patience for teenagery, OotP likewise but a bit less so I think; Harry is proportionally more annoying.

DH had more rough spots for me and was right on the line between "a bit longwinded" and "boringly longwinded". After re-reading the book and watching creators over the intervening years between then and now repeatedly fuck up sure things with legitimately terrible concluding arcs, I'm quite a bit more charitably inclined than I was after first read.

CoS I mentioned before, but it really was very Monster of the Week the first time I read it and it's just never worked for me as a reader. I actually liked the movie adaptation much better than the book; only time I can think of that holding true.

Ah, HBP. Ah, HBP. In its defense, when the book finally did get around to being interesting it was actually pretty good! The problem is that by the point it does get interesting I've pretty much clocked out on it every time I felt like giving it another chance.

 

Each of the books has things I can reread endlessly and parts I don't mind skipping over or skimming. But the book I've reread the most is GoF, so I guess that makes it my favorite. I've reread the first one the second most, so perhaps that's #2.

Books >>>> Movies

 

Man, I must be an outlier. HBP and OOTP are my favorite of the books.

 

GoF - Definitely the best read in the series. It gives a spectacular sense of the fantasy and magic of the series and also a good deal of the horror. However, I thought the tournament itself was a little weak. The tasks themselves were great for the champions, but the final two couldn't be seen by spectators, and it was quite obviously a spectator event. In addition, Voldemort's plan was almost hilariously convoluted.

PS - Objectively this should rate lower, however, I first read this as a six year old, and it holds a special spot for me.

PoA - Harry's a hero. We get to see him perform some amazing magic, connect a bit with his past, and in a change of pace, voldemort actually plays no part here, which I rather like.

CoS - Twelve year old kills a fifty foot snake. If you want more, it has a quality mystery element to it, and unlike most of the later books, there is no obvious solution or stretching of the imagination to see where the characters draw their conclusions.

After this I don't really like where the books went.

OOtP - It's darker, yes, but not to the point it really should have gotten to. There is supposed to be a war brewing and a heinous dark lord out for blood. But up until the end of the book, nothing bad really happens. Umbridge is almost comically evil, and becomes hard to read because you can predict exactly what she's going to do. Harry is so angsty it hurts, and it hurts to watch him be a total idiot.

HBP - Same idea as OOtP. Darker atmosphere, but nothing meaningful really happens. Additionally, the main character seems to have ignored a major turning point in the previous installment, and seems to have not changed what so ever. Also, a terribly written romance that could have been done so much better.

DH - This was just way too much Deus Ex.

 

1. Goblet of Fire - what's not to like? It strikes a nice balance between the light-hearted adventure of the preceding books and the war plot of the later books. Voldemort's plan doesn't strike me as particularly convoluted, just kind of risky. What's convoluted about Crouch Jr. rigging the tournament and the cup being a portkey? Rather simple by Voldemort's standards actually.

2. Half-Blood Prince - I really and truly didn't care for this book at all as a teenager, but it works a lot better for me as an adult. For all that it's the focus of most of the complaints about this book, the romance isn't unbearable or overemphasized. Much like Prisoner of Azkaban, this is a filler book in the overall plot and therefore it can devote a lot of time to detail and characterization - Slughorn, for example, is a great and rather fleshed out character even though he really only features in this book. HBP is also really the only time we see the characters as older teenagers in the "normal" Hogwarts setting of the early books - Harry's all screwed up in the head and Umbridge is on the prowl in OotP and they're on the run in DH, but this book is a welcome self-contained interlude in the style of the early books. Indeed, it is in a lot of ways consciously a more mature parallel of CoS, playing with many of the same concepts, themes, and plot elements while twisting them around. I have always particularly liked that Draco is actually up to something this time. Additionally, though it doesn't have too much bearing on the book, the film adaptation of HBP is by far the best.

3. Prisoner of Azkaban - I don't have much to say that hasn't been said many many times since this book came out. It does pretty much everything right, though I do wish it was a bit longer.

4. Order of the Phoenix - Brought down by repetition, first and foremost. The length would be justified if it was more varied and if Umbridge were more interesting; she's fun to hate but overall not very threatening or deep.

5. & 6. Chamber of Secrets & Philosopher's Stone - I have a hard time rereading these books because they're targeted at a lower age bracket than the rest of the series. I think they'd be top of the list if things had been different and the books had been more detailed from the start.

7. Deathly Hallows - Retcons, plot holes, deus ex machina in excess, noble self-sacrifice as the resolution, and an epilogue written in the CoS/PS style. Apart from the subplot of Dumbledore's dark and mysterious past, which remains fun and interesting the whole way through, it just isn't very satisfying as a final book.

 

CoS - Basilisk, period.

HBP - I was waiting for Dumbledore to die by this point. "Severus, please" was cool. Normal teenagers. The concept of that book was awesome. Inferi in a cave, Liquid luck, Crabbe and Goyle as girls...what more do you want? Would have been no.1 had it been Daphne Greengrass instead of Ginny Weasley. She could have helped him oust Draco as well.

POA - Sirius Black became one of my favorite characters after nonjon's The Black Comedy. This would have been no.1 had that rat Pettigrew not escaped.

DH - I liked the action and mystery in this one. At least, when I read it for the first time.

PS - I cried when I read this for the first time. Yeah, and I am not ashamed. That Mirror Scene was...I'll have to watch the movie again tomorrow.

GOF - The tasks disappointed. Rest was well. Jbern wrote it much better.

OOTP - I hate Umbridge. I hate Umbridge. I hate Umbridge. Even while reading the book, I could hear the noise of a chalk piece screeching on some poor blackboard. This was a chore to read. And Sirius got killed.

Overall, Harry Potter is responsible for a lot of problems in my life. But I love this series nonetheless. It's a drug. Smokin'.

 

3, 1, T.2 & 4, 5, T.6 & 7