Happy reading!

Kiitoksia kiala! Kirja oli tupsahtanut ihan yllättäen postiluukusta, olinkin jo pitkään etsinyt B-llä alkavaa kirjaa aakkoshaastetta varten. Harry Potterit olen (viimeisintä lukuunottamatta) lukenut, joten on hauska nähdä millainen parodia niistä on saatu kehitettyä. Kiitos vielä kerran mukavasta yllätyksestä!
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Thank you kiala! The book came in mail all by surprise. I have been looking for a book starting with the letter B, for alphabet challenge, and here I got it! I have read the Harry Potter books (except the last one), so it will be very nice to see what kind of parody they have made out of it. Thanks for this fun surprise!
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From back cover: Warning! This isn't the real thing... It's funnier!
"Stop that movie," Headmaster Alpo Bumblemore said, "or Hogwash is history!" Already overrun by brawling, fetid fans of the bestselling Barry Trotter books, Hogwash is certain to be pulled down brick by brick after Barry's new big-budget biopic debuts. So Barry Trotter, Ermine Gringer, and Lon Measly are hauled out of retirement to face their toughest challenge yet. Not only do the twenty-two-year-olds have to elude packs of rabid fans, outwit Barry's sponging godfather Serious, and vanquish their old foe Lord Valumart, they have to face the most powerful enemy of all: Hollywood!

I guess there is no pretty way how to say it: I didn't like this book. One reason for it may be the fact, that as English is not my native language, I probably didn't recognize some jokes which were based on funny misspelling or twisting names and words around. However I got the feeling I was reading just a very badly written Harry Potter book, since the characters and the plot appeared to be very much like the originals. I don't mean to offend anyone, but somehow I have always known Ron is a kind of moron, Hermione a bit of a sex-maniac and Harry is just a lazy bastard... :-D I haven't read any parodies for a long time and I think after this experience I'll continue that way ;-)
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I'll send the book as a surprise to someone who has Barry Trotter books on her wishlist. Happy reading, and please let us know what you thought of the book!

I received this as a surprise RABCK in the mail. It looks hilarious. Thanks!

edit 13 April 2008: I finished reading this yesterday and then gave it to KateKintail at the meetup that afternoon in Alexanria, Virginia. Though it had its funny bits (I still can't get over the name Lord Valumart), all in all it didn't quite amuse me as much as I'd expected it to. But it kept me entertained while I waited for my car to get fixed, so it was worth reading. :)

Got this at a meet-up today. I've been wanting to read it for a few years now. I've heard it's horrible and hilarious at the same time. I'm thinking of maybe offering it up as a local bookray to the BC_DC group when I'm done reading it :-) I have a couple other shiny books I really should finish first (one's a bookring) but then I look forward to starting this.

Thanks so much! :-)

I've had this on Mount To Be Read for ages, and today I was looking for something else to read for Do Nothing But Read Day and selected this.

First off, I have to say that I'm probably in the top 1% of crazy extreme Harry Potter fans. I drove from Virginia to Boston and back just to see my favorite Wizard Rock group. I drove from Virginia to Chicago and back just to see the Harry Potter Exhibition. I've got wands (plural) and robes and shirts and banners and hundred of dollars in LEGO sets and books and movies and many games and more than $400 of Harry Potter-related music. I'm the assistant organizer of my local Harry Potter meetup group. I'm even trying to start a local Harry Potter Alliance chapter. So I have a certain love for Harry Potter's world and don't like to see it made fun of.

That being said, I thought this was absolutely hilarious and really had no problem with it as a parody. In my opinion, the characters were so far removed (in a super-extreme sort of way) from how they are in the book that I didn't find them insulting (I thought of them as separate entities). Sirius Black is one of my favorite characters, so I thought I'd have a problem with Serious, but I laughed at pretty much every reference to him in the book.

The story itself wasn't bad either. I thought the plot was pretty funny and the layers of reality made me laugh. I really didn't like the ending at all, but I'm not bothered by it. Some of my favorite bits were:

"There will be Barry Trotter wands, robes, mops, figures, board games, stationery, pens, candy, T-shirts, coffee cups, calendars, audio books, stones, trading cards, comics (manga, alternative, and regular), theme restaurants, an amusement park, a video game--and maybe a hockey team, if I can find enough Russians"
LMAO!

Well, you're an adult now. Your adventures are no longer appropriate; what is she going to write, Barry Trotter and the Difficult Tax Return?
I'd read that! LOL

The Fifth book. Barry Trotter and the Order of the Penis, dealt with Barry's stormy puberty and fueled an ocean of inaccurately-erotic fanfic....
*snort* Yeah, I probably wrote half of those.

Barry had sewn a Doctor Whom patch on his Army jacket last year, simply for irony's sake, and while most people Barry's age got the joke, Serious didn't.
Doctor Whom. Priceless.

So it wasn't the funniest thing I've ever read. It was silly and stupid. But I laughed a lot and wasn't offended and that's all I really wanted out of it. So... success! :-)

A few local BookCrossers expressed an interest in reading this, so I'll set this as reserved to see if anyone here wants it next.


EDIT: Lending it to my mother, who expressed an interest in reading it.

The book was funny, with lots of inside jokes, but not as amusing as I thought it would be. I think reading "Bored of the Rings" has spoiled any other parodies I might read. It is the standard by which any other parody is measured!

CAUGHT IN BURKE VIRGINIA USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Taking this to the book club meeting tonight for authorauthor, who previously mentioned (I think) wanting to read this. Enjoy!

Got this from KateKintail and am looking forward to reading it. Looks funny!

I admit that I had my doubts about this one. As I started reading it, I was not impressed by the prevalence of potty-humor jokes. And I'm a great Harry Potter fan and wasn't sure I wanted to see my favorite characters lampooned. But after a few pages, I found myself getting interested, despite my misgivings. While the potty humor was not my thing, some of this is much more clever satire. The plot has plenty of holes -- which the author freely admits and makes fun of, within the text -- but that's all part of the fun. And an evil villain named Lord Valumart? Priceless.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I gave this back to Kate Kintail yesterday, so she can bring it with her to release on her upcoming trip to Hogwash...er, Hogwarts.

Back in my hands. I am putting this in my special releases box so I can release it when I go to Hogwarts this summer. I hope someone at the Infinitus Harry Potter Convention will find it amusing.

I left this in the Common Room during Infinitus, the Harry Potter convention. I put it by the free pamphlets and the message board. I hope a fellow Harry Potter fan found it and will enjoy it!

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