> I suppose there's no accounting for taste. ;-P Seriously, though, you are the only person I know of who's read the book and complained about the pacing. I grant that "Chamber" is the weakest of the four books, but I still think everything that happens is extremely relevant to the plot. The one thing you could say is that the pre-Hogwart's activities, as usual, aren't directly relevant (particularly anything involving the Dursleys), but it's funny and interesting.
>
> And, thinking on it, much of what happens in the beginning will be important later: Dobby, the flying car, running into the Malfoys and meeting Lockheart. Once you get to Hogwart's, I still don't know what you find dull. Almost immediately people, ghosts and animals start being petrified and we're into the mystery of who's doing what.
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> Maybe you didn't find it interesting, Iss, but I think there's a lot happening at all times.

Yeah, and I hate to be the one not "getting it". I think it just appeared to me as I read the story that the first half of the book was merely a string of interesting episodes (which could also be said of much of the first book) that, alas, failed to interest me much. No accounting for taste, as you said.

The turning point for me came when things began to seem less episodic (ex. Nearly Headless Nick's spectral social woes, Draco's bid to join the Quidditch team) and more focused on discovering the Chamber of Secrets. By the end, I saw how some of those earlier elements did indeed set up the main plot, as you pointed out. And even if the early chapters had been there merely to give a little of the "flavor of Hogwart's", that too would be enough reason to justify their existence. But for whatever reason, the early material just seemed very ho-hum to me. Can't really say why.

Iss "would be happy not to see any more Nearly Headless Nick in the later books" achar