Which 3 of Book One’s chapter titles grabbed your attention?

Which 3 of Book One’s chapter titles grabbed your attention? (3/19/10-4/11/10)

This topic serves as an archive of a thread from the Harry Potter Lexicon Forum as hosted on World Crossing which ceased operation on April 15, 2011. Elanor

Potteraholic - Mar 19, 2010 3:58 pm
Edited May 17, 2010 1:59 pm
It’s been a wee while since we’ve had a poll, so I thought I’d post one and see what happened! However, I was stuck for an idea. So I went to the Lexicon, clicked on the image of Book 1, then clicked on the link to the Reader’s Guide. Voila! A listing of all the chapter titles appeared… which led me to this poll’s question:

Which of Book One’s 3 chapter titles grabbed your attention? (Which did you really like the sound of, irrespective of the chapter’s content)?

1 - The Boy Who Lived
2 - The Vanishing Glass
3 - The Letters from No One
4 - The Keeper of the Keys
5 - Diagon Alley
6 - The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-quarters
7 - The Sorting Hat
8 - The Potions Master
9 - The Midnight Duel
10 - Hallowe'en
11 - Quidditch
12 - The Mirror of Erised
13 - Nicolas Flamel
14 - Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
15 - The Forbidden Forest
16 - Through the Trapdoor
17 - The Man with Two Faces

Feel free to explain your choices, or not. The poll will run for 3 weeks, and the results will be posted on Sunday evening, April 11th, Forum time.

Edited on May 17th to change the thread title from "Which of Book One’s 3 chapter titles..." to "Which 3 of Book One’s chapter titles..." as suggested in this post by John Bumbledore.

legolas returns - Mar 19, 2010 5:06 pm (#1 of 15)
Chapter 1
Chapter 6
Chapter 17

Found these chapter titles intriguing.

The final chapter in particular catches my eye. If you change the wording to The Two Faced Man it would still fit the contents of the chapter. Apparently on the surface loyal to Dumbledore but underneath he is something else entirely.

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Lady Arabella - Mar 19, 2010 5:50 pm (#2 of 15)
Chapter 1

Chapter 3 (When I first read it, I wondered if it mean no letters from anyone, or letters from a mysterious person that wasn't known)

Chapter 17

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Choices - Mar 19, 2010 6:28 pm (#3 of 15)
I would love to be able to answer this without any previous knowledge of what the book is about. Hindsight makes it difficult to answer because I am swayed by what I now know.

One, Nine and Fifteen would probably be my answer if I were without previous knowledge.

Now, it might be One, Eight and Seventeen.....or One, Seven and Eleven......or ????? Mercy, this is too hard. They all sound wonderful to me now.

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Potteraholic - Mar 19, 2010 7:54 pm (#4 of 15)
Oh cool! some responses!

They all sound wonderful to me now. ~ Choices I know what you mean. So... after all is said and done, for survey-tallying sake, I'll put you down for 1, 9, and 15, right?

My choices are: 1, 3, and 12 because they just sound so mysterious and so secretive to me.

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freshwater - Mar 19, 2010 8:58 pm (#5 of 15)
Good idea for a poll, PAH!

I found these titles to be the most intriguing:

chapter 3 The Letters from No One....how could they be from "no one"?

chapter 12 The Mirror of Erised....sounds famous....what is it?

chapter 16 Through the Trap Door....a trap door?!?....where does it go?

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Verity Weasley - Mar 19, 2010 10:03 pm (#6 of 15)
Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 6

To be honest, I don't believe I've ever given the chapter titles that much thought - except when teaser chapter titles were released prior to a book release to give us all something to ponder. In the Bloomsbury editions, there is no chapter list at the beginning of the books, so the only time I saw the chapter titles was as I was reading the book. I never really paused to consider the titles, but just kept reading. However, looking back, these three chapter titles seem to hold the most promise.

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Dryleaves - Mar 20, 2010 2:34 am (#7 of 15)
This was a tough one! Like Verity, I don't think I ever paid much attention to the chapter titles, and if I did, I certainly don't remember!

But I think that I must have been wondering about the title of chapter 3, because for some reason I think that letters from strangers are very intriguing in fiction. (In real life I would probably just find them creepy...)

Then I think chapter 4 as keys open doors to somewhere, and therefore it's very interesting who is keeping them.

And 6 must have caught my attention.

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Solitaire - Mar 20, 2010 3:40 pm (#8 of 15)
Chapter 2, The Vanishing Glass, caught my eye, because I figured it would be a drinking glass, and it would probably vanish in front of Uncle Vernon and make him mad! LOL

Chapter 3, The Letters from No One, intrigued me for the same reasons Lady Arabella and Dryleaves mentioned.

Chapter 16, Through the Trapdoor, interested me because I've always been intrigued by trap doors, secret passages, and hiding places.

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me and my shadow 813 - Mar 21, 2010 4:38 pm (#9 of 15)
I'm with Verity and Dryleaves... I flew right by the chapter titles, and I guess I haven't contemplated them much... but now I will

Fave Chapter Names:

Chapter 4, The Keeper of the Keys -- because symbolically it has great connotations, i.e., locks and seals to be released by a special person

Chapter 8, The Potions Master -- because it's potions and it's a story about magic and whoever it is is a master! Let's meet him!

Chapter 16, Through the Trapdoor -- because it is very 'through the looking glass' and reminds me of 'follow the white rabbit' -- Let's go!

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journeymom - Mar 22, 2010 3:27 pm (#10 of 15)
15. The Forbidden Forrest, and 17. The Man With Two Faces.

I agree, this is difficult having already read the books. I'm trying to imagine how I would respond seeing the chapter titles for the first time. Both of the above would intrigue me.

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Madam Pince - Mar 22, 2010 7:03 pm (#11 of 15)
Edited Mar 23, 2010 2:37 pm
In retrospect, I think "The Boy Who Lived," "The Mirror of Erised," and "The Man With Two Faces" are the most interesting-sounding chapter titles. But I'm with Verity and others -- I did not even give the chapter titles a glance when the books came out. That's an odd quirk I have always had -- I never have really read chapter titles. When they were pre-released as "teasers," I studied them and speculated on them, but as I was reading? No way. Just get on with the good stuff -- plenty of time later to ponder "What in the world did she mean by that title and how does it fit with what really happened in that chapter?"

Edit: Hey it lets me edit a whole day later! Sorry PAH -- that's Chapters 1, 12, and 17.

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Potteraholic - Mar 23, 2010 4:14 am (#12 of 15)
Edited Mar 26, 2010 12:37 pm
Great! More responses!

I should've made this clear in this thread's starting post. This poll was more about which chapter titles you think sounded good, after the fact of having read them, and not considering what the chapter was about. I've always been interested in titles and how they convey meaning in just a few words. But you can interpret the question any way you want, really. It's just interesting to find out which chapter titles folks like the sound of.

I think we need more poll ideas. Does anyone have one? If so, why not post them here in the thread entitled, "Poll Suggestions - Submit Yours Here"

Edit - Can you please include the chapter # with your choices? It makes it easier to tally up the results, as I don't have to scroll back and refer to the first post to find what the title's number is. (As I don't have them memorized. ) Thanks!

Edit 2: Thanks, Madam Pince! I wonder if there'll be any more votes cast? Only time will tell!

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Thom Matheson - Mar 27, 2010 3:45 am (#13 of 15)
for me it would be 1,4, and 12. As in The Boy Who Lived, The Keeper of the Keys, and The Mirror Of Erised

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HungarianHorntail11 - Apr 8, 2010 10:24 am (#14 of 15)
Wow, Thom - I was just about to post when I read this last and I chose exactly the same as you!

1 - The Boy Who Lived because it offers intrigue 4 - The Keeper of the Keys because I was hoping it offered some answers and also for some reasons I can't say.

12 - The Mirror of Erised because it offered introspection.

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Potteraholic - Apr 13, 2010 5:04 pm (#15 of 15)
Edited Apr 14, 2010 6:18 am
This poll was set to close on April 11th, so I thought I better post the results.

I used the same chart as I did in the header post. The vote results are written in parentheses, in blue. 13 people voted; 12 people picked 3 choices (12 x 3) and 1 person picked 2 (1 x 2) for a total of 38 votes cast. 100% ÷ 38 = 2.63% (approx.)

Here are the results, in order (%s are rounded off):
• Ch. 1 - 8 votes = 21%
• Ch. 3 - 6 votes = 14%
• Ch. 12 - 5 votes = 13%
• Ch. 4 - 4 votes = 11%
• Ch. 17 - 4 votes = 11%
• Ch. 6 - 3 votes = 8%
• Ch. 16 - 3 votes = 8%
• Ch. 8 - 2 votes - 5%
• Ch. 15 - 2 votes - 5%
• Ch. 1 - 1 vote = 2.63%
Edit: 7 chapters received 0 votes: 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14.

It looks like many of us were intrigued by the very first chapter of Harry's story. We had no idea back then what was in store for him (or for us)... did we?
(8 ) 1 - The Boy Who Lived
(1) 2 - The Vanishing Glass
(6) 3 - The Letters from No One
(4) 4 - The Keeper of the Keys
(0) 5 - Diagon Alley
(3) 6 - The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-quarters
(0) 7 - The Sorting Hat
(2) 8 - The Potions Master
(0) 9 - The Midnight Duel
(0) 10 - Hallowe'en
(0) 11 - Quidditch
(5) 12 - The Mirror of Erised
(0) 13 - Nicolas Flamel
(0) 14 - Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
(2) 15 - The Forbidden Forest
(3) 16 - Through the Trapdoor
(4) 17 - The Man with Two Faces