Last book you bought - or read

and yet there are little things in the early books that seem of little consequence but pop up again in some way in the later books. Like little easter eggs. Not that I remember any such details well enough to give actual examples, but still. I'm pretty sure she did have some sort of plan all along.

I don't doubt that there was an overall plan to the story as a whole, I'm not convinced that it was particularly detailed when it came to structure. The Half Blood Prince, for example, has one scene at the beginning that sets up the ending (and pretty much signposts exactly what's going to happen), but as far as I can recall everything that happens in the middle is basically filler wasting time until the end happens.

But the filler material is what makes the potterverse fun

Like pie. Or pizza. Or basically anything with a filling...

EDIT: Like pillows. Pillows without filling would be very... flat.

The last thing I want to relive is sitting in classrooms being shouted at by teachers and doing homework, even if it's someone else doing it  . Pillows are far more interesting.

Hermione and SPEW was not a very comfortable pillow.

Well OK I don't want to go back to school either, but that doesn't mean I can't stand reading about it. Especially when the library has weirdly acting books and stuff.

And are you saying the elves should remain in slavery, Val?
(Even if many of them wanted to... )

I think that all elves should be freed... at the start of the story so that the ongoing subplot doesn't make the books even more bloated.

I didn't mind the extra school stuff either, it felt much more natural than the movies where they'd often just show one early lesson which would turn out to be very important later.
But I could happily live without Quidditch in both books and movies. The game makes no sense at all (it's as bad as ghost logic!) and it's clear that JK Rowling has never watched any sport in her life.

Nooo! Quidditch is like the ONLY sport in the universe which seems entertaining! Or not. I'd probably not care for it if I was a witch and could fly on a broom myself, but I liked it. And I'm pretty sure the rules weren't exactly meant to make sense

Quidditch is two separate games stuck together with Duct tape. The first game is a kind of Handball on broomsticks where you chuck something past the keeper into a goal to score, which would be fine if it wasn't for the second added game where Harry catches a magic flying thing. Because when Harry catches the magic flying thing absolutely everything that happens in the first game is suddenly completely irrelevant.
Of course I know why she created it this way, as a writer she wants to have complete control of game to allow her hero to always have the dramatic winning moment at the end, but this completely undermines the whole point of all or any sport. Namely the uncertainty, the anxiety, the shifts in momentum, the balance between attack and defense. In sport winning moments can and do happen at any point in the game and it's that kind of tension that makes sports interesting to fans (but maybe not you. ) and poor JK doesn't seem to grasp this concept at all. And that... is why we all have to tolerate Quidditch.

But that's only true if Harry's even playing. Not ALL Quidditch games.