Books in the library....

[Alicia Barker]

Okay, so I've written a couple of the books in the library and so far at least one Professor has written a book. I'm just wondering if anyone has read them or what your opinions are (I'm a glutton for comments, haha). If you'd like, we can keep this thread going so that as the new books get added people can continue leaving comments.

 

[Violet Bellamy]

I think the History of Magic book is great ;-)

I really like them. I think they're very useful. =D

 

[Brian Getathorn XIX]

Violet that's because we contributed to it! two each!

I like the Self Defensive Spell Work, but curious as to whether students might be able to learn from the book itself, as was the case with Hermione Granger with almost all of her spellwork.

 

[Ivy Dalebreeze]

I like that you can now really 'read' what your character would be reading, and I think the size of the books I've seen so far is good. (In that it isn't two paragraphs, but no entire novels either)

I'm curious too about students learning spells themselves, any answers on that would be great.

 

[Alicia Barker]

Hmm....that's an interesting question and I will speak with the Admins about it and let everyone know once we figure something out.

 

[Violet Bellamy]

Violet that's because we contributed to it! two each!

I like the Self Defensive Spell Work, but curious as to whether students might be able to learn from the book itself, as was the case with Hermione Granger with almost all of her spellwork.

Well, duh. =P.

I like the self-defensive spell work too. If allowed, I was going to have Violet learn Petrificus Totalus and Locomotor Mortis this year, for the sake of it. =P.

 

[Mike Gray]

I thought that The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, was fantastic ( This maybe because I wrote it )

 

[Nerissa Flynn-Doyle]

Most are pretty good. If they're references for students doing homework assignments, I think they give just the right amount of information.

Now, ready for the critique?

The only book I have a mild reservation about is Self-defensive spellwork, because it's so short and most of it I could have looked up on the Lexicon. To improve it, I suggest adding site-specific incantations for the spells which have no incantation listed at the Lexicon.

Additionally, many of the spells are cited as having no incantation because they're non-verbal, but when Harry&co were learning non-verbal spell casting they were required to focus on the incantation of the spell (Harry learns Levicorpus by saying the incantation inside his head in HBP), thus this goes against what we know about non-verbal spells.

Now, I realize that this book might have been written in accordance with what the DADA professor is teaching, and I'm contradicting them. In fact, since so many people who posted before me seem to like the book, I probably have. I'd just like to make it clear that this is my personal opinion and that I'm not trying to attack anyone. I know that I can sometimes sound harsh when I critique other people's work so this is a bit of a disclaimer if I'm coming across that way.

 

[Nicolas King]

There aren't really many site specific spells, and HPL would be a good substitute. But this is just for a few spells.
Some of the spells in it can't be preformed for a while, and there is a acceptable spells list posted in the duelling chamber with what spells each year can learn.
Some of the spells listed aren't taught in DADA, and some aren't taught at all until fifth, sixth and seventh years.

 

[Alicia Barker]

Well done and excellent response, Nick! Especially since I am the one who 'wrote' the book and don't have much time to elaborate ;-) .