Yeah, everything I heard about post-GoF books didn't make me want to read them. And everyone I know keeps trying to convince me I should. I keep coming back with CoM and say, "It's really good! And more interesting! And more thought-out world-building! And a better magic system!"

That reminds me! I've been meaning to re-read the Young Wizards (I stopped at the one where Kit went away because they fought, or something. I have abandonment issues and didn't want to read about it).

I got the weirdest looks from my writing group when I tried to express my frustration with willy-nilly magic systems. Most of them seemed to think the whole point was that it was willy-nilly, and I kept trying to tell them that it should have rules and a system and logic. They all thought I was nuts...