When I read His Dark Materials my mind caught fire in a way that it never did for Harry Potter. I still haven’t finished Harry Potter — I got up to book 5. I don’t mind the story — I have watched all the movies, but the writing never worked for me on the level that Philip Pullman’s work operated.
I found Philip Pullman’s work both intellectually challenging and emotionally rewarding, and best of all it told a great story. The characters were well-drawn, and you got invested in them.
I won’t lie, I have been saving the volumes of The Books Of Dust, so I can read them all as one. I have had 1 & 2 sat on my shelves for a while. I know people save episodes of shows up to eventually binge watch them, and I am kind of like that with books. I am about to binge through the rest of the Murderbot books that I have waiting in my Audible queue.