I had... no idea... it was that... good.

Really amazing. I don't agree with every choice Rowling made in the series but I can't really argue against many of them, either. I avoided reading it for years because a) I'm not one for teen fiction and b) I figured it was just more mainstream mediocrity.

Every character is well-rounded, flawed, and after awhile, endearing to the reader. Every plot point had relevence to something later in the series. Everything was scripted out and paced wonderfully. Deaths had real meaning. Even Dumbledore, a character most writers would have written as a one-dimensional kindly mentor, was an incredibly flawed and, at times, frustrating character. Take Kreacher. He could have been cast off as a side-show villain but Rowling took the time to explain this bit-part character's motivation and make the reader genuinely feel for his plight by the end.

Wow. I'm kind of in shock right now. I should have read these things years ago. I had no idea. It's some of the best writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Rowling really does deserve the accolades she has received for this magnum opus.

And I don't really say that kind of thing very often.

I really should reread the series once.

One of the few mainstream properties that are actually good.

How so? I thought the ending was touching and wonderful (though I thought that the centaurs, hippogryphs, etc jumping into the battle at that stage but not before was a little weak). Voldemort's downfall was from his own arrogance. His continual underestimation of non-humans and magic that didn't directly benefit him were his ultimate undoing. While the Elder Wand story was a little meh at the end (mostly the disarming part with Draco/Severus), I think the point was that nothing Voldemort could have done at that point would have saved him. By continually turning a blind eye toward what Potter actually was and how he became that way, no magical items he could find would help him overcome the small fact that he alone had created Potter.

I thought it made sense. All that "death" did was remove the Horcrux from Harry. No one really died at all because of the twice-over bond between the two characters (Voldemort putting part of his soul in Harry during the initial attack and then taking some of Harry for his reformation in Goblet of Fire). Before one of them could actually die for realsie, those bonds had to be broken or the fallen would continue to live on in the other.

The end is not satisfying because Harry doesn't defeat Voldemort in any real way. It's more Voldemort stupidity which kills him. A bit of an anti-climax

I think that shows the brilliance of the series, not diminishes it. Rowling doesn't take the easy road when there is a more interesting life lesson to be learned. The entire series throws in bits about injustice (the house elves, goblins, Sirius, Kreacher, Severus) and how "might doesn't equal right". To have Voldemort fall because of his unwillingness to relent from that premise was a master stroke.

I found it to be a bit disappointing. Sure Voldemort can't understand feelings and all that, but I expected that Harry would really stand up to him. He doesn't even do anything clever to fool him, if he wasn't going to defeat him with power. He even - between the lines - tells Voldemort about the wand and Voldemort just doesn't get it.

Sure evil is defeated by it's own nature. But in contrast, good or Harry doesn't look much more competent. 

As a collection I agree they are excellent, though I am not a big fan of the first two or the fourth book anymore. TBH I think the series actually grew over time in terms of recommended reading age, roughly following the age Harry is in each book, the first two definitely being children's books IMO, with the middle three growing from young to mid-teen fiction, and the last two for older teens and young adults.

I liked the way Harry 'died but didn't die' and the 10 years on epilogue (though found it a little cheesy, and wish it had been cut from the film).
I also agree the wand ownership thing was getting a bit silly at the end with the Dumbledore > Draco/Snape > Harry/Voldemort thing.

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman, I find it on the whole better written with a really interesting back-story (though if you are very religious it could be a little blasphemous)
In the first book The Northern Lights, (for some reason re-named The Golden Compass for the film even though there are only 2 references to the alethiometer looking a bit like a compass in the book) you follow a girl called Lyra  in a world that is still in a form of The Dark Ages, and is a bit steampunky too (major methods of transport being canal boat, train and zeppelin). In this world people all have a dæmon which is seperate from them but is kind of representative of their soul, and takes the form of an animal. You follow Lyra in a trip from her home in Oxford to The North to save her kidnapped friend (or so she thinks).
At the end of The Northern Lights, and then in the first chapter of The Subtle Knife things start moving into other worlds and starts knitting our world into that of Lyra's and what became a kind of hub world... And that's where it gets really good.

The first time I read it I found it a bit of a slow starter (though this could have been because I was 14), but by chapter 8 or 9 I was hooked... and it really just seems to get better and better all through to the final chapters of The Amber Spyglass. It was also the first, and so far one of only two books to make me cry.

I thought having the books grow up with Harry was a really nice touch. It creates a world atmosphere that feels a little more genuine, as if it really was experienced by a child growing into adulthood. But, on the other hand, I can see why you'd never want to read the first two books again. Once you get through them the first time, there is little need to revisit those years.

I have made it through about half of the first His Dark Materials book. I found it mildly interesting but just drifted away from the story for some reason. I need to go back and finish it at some point.