I have been reading this book for a long time. A very long time. I picked the book up last summer, and have been making slow progress through it since then. It has been my book that I read on the train here in Germany.
In English, I can read pretty quickly. In German, my reading pace is considerably slower. As a quick comparison the internet tells me that animal farm has a bit under 31,000 words. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone comes in at just under 77,000 (the English edition).
I read Animal Farm in 1.5 hours (that's 344 words per minute).
And I read the English version of Harry Potter in about 2.5 hours.
The German version has taken me months. Admittedly, this is in tiny bursts of 20 minutes at a time. Still, tonight I managed to devote about 1.5 hours of time to reading the last 35 pages of the book. That's a pace that is a third to a quarter that of my English reading rate. Surprisingly, that's lots faster than it was just a few months ago. I'd have been lucky to do even 10 pages in the same amount of time.
I don't have much of a review of the book here. It's Harry Potter. If you accept that magic is possible, and all that goes with it, then the book is a reasonable read, with several major flaws in logic along the way.
If you haven't read the book, then spoilers follow.
The first major complaint I have is with the sport of Quidditch. Not the field, nor the flying, nor even the many balls. My issue is with the scoring. 10 points per quaffle goal is fine. It would be the same as saying that each goal is only 1 point, however, since it's part of the game I agree with. My major disagreement is with the scoring for the snitch. 150 points? For a single ball? Yes, I get that it is supposed to be very difficult to manage. And I get that it is also the signal for the game to end. But to me, the point swing possible with that ball is too great. It means that the only way for the non-snitch-catching team to win, is to be ahead by 16 regular goals.
Given the way the game is otherwise described, I'm hard pressed to imagine a situation where this is possible, short of one team being dead, except for the Snatcher. A more reasonable scoring of say, 15, or 25 points would make the game far more balanced. As it is, the game could, in theory, be won 150 to 0. Which seems like a rather large point spread.
My other complaint has to do with the structuring of the pacing of the book. Yes, the books events happen over the full course of the regular school year. But, they don't need to. There's no reason for Quirrell to wait until the end of the year. He had every bit as much opportunity to take action at the start of the year as he did later in the year. Especially considering the possible use of the Avada Kedavra to get past Fluffy (unless such a curse would be ineffective on something his size).
As well, given the events of later books, it seems to me like Dumbledore is doing things rather stupidly towards the end. When he's called away to London, he decides to go by broomstick. A method of travel he never uses again. Thereafter, in all the books, he travels by some method of instant teleportation. Disapparation, Port Key, or Flue. There's just no need for him to fly anywhere by broom. And even less reason for him not to be able to instantly return to just outside the grounds of the school (or as the final book shows us, to be able to Disapparate directly onto the school grounds - a perk of being headmaster).
Broom flying seems to be a strictly novice way to get around. Especially given the magical ability of the old man.
Anyway, the complaints with the book I can overlook (except for Quidditch, which just irks me). I like the book, I like the setting, I like the characters (at least until hormone-stupid syndrome strikes them). I will probably pick up the next book in the series in German and see how long it takes me to chew through the longer text of that volume.
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