★★★★☆ Didn't like Sirius Black
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
JK Rowling
** spoilers for later Harry Potter books follow **
I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban eleven years ago today. It wasn't the first time -- I also read it back around 1999, when it first came out. I'm not sure why I was re-reading it in 2011 -- perhaps I did a series re-read in preparation for one of the movies.
Prisoner of Azkaban is not one of my favorite Harry Potter books. My main problem with it was that I didn't like Sirius Black very much. He's controlling and needy. Also, in later books we learn that he and James Potter, when in school, were big-headed jerks who basked in their popularity, Sirius egging James on in his bullying of Severus Snape. Eventually I got the feeling that Sirius was introduced in book 3 only so that he could be killed off later to provide another loss to motivate Harry.
On the plus side, Prisoner of Azkaban is the book in which Remus Lupin was first introduced. I liked Lupin a lot. He's quiet and doesn't push himself forward, but has more true nobility of character than almost anyone else.