'In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He Who Must Not Be Named has returned to this country and is once more active. "It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive and among us again," said Fudge.' These dramatic words appeared in the final pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the midst of this battle of good and evil, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with Voldemort's power and followers increasing day by day ...
In rereading Rowling I find that I skip a lot of things. Possibly they need to be included because it fully forms the world, but once I know them, elaborate setting descriptions and character descriptions and the minutia of Harry's thoughts and feelings, then I don't need it anymore. I read a lot of the dialogue and the scenes I find most interesting.
The good thing about this book is that there were a lot of interesting dialogue and scenes to go back to. Most of it made it into the film, which indicates how well the filmmakers did in the translation. The things unique to the book I enjoyed are more of the memories (especially the Gaunt memories), Dumbledore's conversations with Harry as they go in and out of the memories and the aftermath of the Astronomy Tower. Interestingly, I felt really bad for Snape at the end as everyone was vilifying him.
