Harry Potter thoughts Part 2

I must say that I love that Harry Potter series is entirely accessible to younger generations.  I spent a while today talking to Oliver, who recently finished reading the series, and it's just fantastic that the books continue to help kids discover a love for reading.  Without further ado, here's Harry Potter thoughts Part 2 (tee hee, I rhymed).

- Oliver and I were discussing where each book ranks in terms of our favourites.  We both rank The Deathly Hallows as our favourites.  I find that most hardcore HP fans also feel this way.  I haven't yet figured out if this is due to it being the best written book of the series, because it does such a wonderful job of tying up all of the storyline arcs, or simply because it receives a sentimental bonus.  I suspect that it's the first two reasons I listed, but I certainly won't discount sentimentality.  My least favourite book in the series (and don't take this to mean that I don't like the book, because I still hold it in high regard) is Chamber of Secrets, whereas Oliver said Philosopher's Stone.  Personally, CoS felt too similar to the first book and Prof. Lockhart did very little for me as a character.

And he was cast poorly too.  The majority of the female wizarding community is supposed to have a thing for this guy?  Really?  I find this hard to believe.

- Special Mother's Day tidbit: Upon the release of each book, my Mum would read it aloud to my sister and I.  As such, we finished the books after most other people.  This led to me avoiding my friends like the plague until we had finished reading so nothing got spoiled.  Thanks for reading those to us Mum!  As soon as we had finished the books, I would take it and read it through myself as well.  Just thought I'd mention again that I really like these books...

- When I'm at work, I absentmindedly hit "62442" on the register screen a couple dozen times per shift.  One of these days an entrance to the ministry of Magic will appear.  I just know it will.

- I know this isn't strictly about the books, but since I mentioned that the second book is my least favourite book, I should also mention that it's my least favourite movie.  While the book has many redeeming qualities (it introduces Horcruxes for one thing, and the Vanishing Cabinet for another), the movie is just plain bad.  I really don't have anything good to say about it, so instead I'll say bad things about it: it almost ruined Dobby for me because of how badly designed he was.  The Basilisk was awful too.  The entire movie feels as if the director just tried to transition each plot point onto screen with no regard for cohesion.  I could go on, but it would make me sad.

This image is nightmare personified.  If I had paid serious attention to this movie, I probably would have wound up cheering when I read the passage where Dobby died, instead of crying.

- Does anyone else feel that Hermione is a bizarre name?  Objectively, it is.  It wasn't until I got the audiobooks that I realized that her name is pronounced Her-my-oh-knee; I read the first three books through the first time pronouncing it Her-me-own.  The strangest part of that to me is that while I don't think it was unreasonable to mispronounce the name this way, I'm fairly certain that there will be baby girls given her name for the next 20 years or so... And no one will ever mispronounce their name.  Yet people manage to mispronounce mine on occasion.

So I finished the book I was reading today (Neverwhere; good read), which means that I will be starting Philosopher's Stone alongside another book.  Next week's HP thoughts will be focused on Philosopher's Stone, so if you're like Oliver and that's your least favourite, well then, tough luck.

Harry Potter thoughts: Part 1 of many

Here's something that you probably already knew about me:  I love the Harry Potter books.  I have a tradition where every summer I re-read the series, and it's approaching that time of year again, so I've got Potter on the brain (and Hermione, but for other reasons.).

If ya know what I mean.

J.K. Rowling created a series that was so well tied together that I'm not even going to try to have this blog post be tied together into proper paragraphs, because it's a foregone conclusion that I won't do as good a job as she did.  Below are the first thoughts that popped into my head about Harry Potter; it's necessary I limit this to the first things I think of, because if I sat down to compile an exhaustive list of Potter-related thoughts, this post would never end.

- When I was younger, I liked falling asleep listening to something.  I had the first four books on audio cassette (a process that involved borrowing the audiobooks from the library and then my Dad going through and recording them onto blank tapes for me.  Thanks Dad, you're kinda wonderful.  And by kinda, I mean very.) and would listen to them every night.  They took up half a shelf of my bookcase, and were very well used.  I only had the first four because I had outgrown my need to listen to something while I fall asleep by the time the fifth was published.  I listened to them so many times that when I read the first four books, I now hear Jim Dale's voice in my head.

- The first three books were gifted to my sister and I by our cousins when we visited them in London when I was 7.  This was before the series had become a full-fledged obsession in Canada; I remember being surprised seeing a poster in Duthie Books for The Prisoner of Azkaban when we got back home.  I read the back of Philosopher's Stone before we began reading them:

Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy -- until he is rescued by an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel.  The reason: HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!

I remember having thought that the book would be terrible.  I'm pleased I was wrong.

- I'm going to read these to my kid(s) (still years away; having kids right now would be a nightmare.) and it'll be interesting to see how they handle the maturation of the content.  One of the amazing things about the books for my generation was that I aged along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  My reading level and maturity level was mirrored by the novels' content.  The topic of relationships within the books began to crop up as I was reaching puberty.  The fluidity of the content is an important component to the magic these books have in my opinion.  I feel as if it might even be necessary to ration the books for my kid(s) due to their changing content.

- My kids are getting Hogwarts acceptance letters for their 11th birthdays.  I remember wanting one with every fiber of my being, and even genuinely thinking there was a chance I would receive one, so I will be living that dream through them.  Unless they don't like the books, but then they'd be no kids of mine...

- I absentmindedly punch in "62442" on the screen at my work several times per shift.  One day an entrance to the Ministry of Magic will appear...

Like I said, I could go on about this stuff forever, so I'm going to end this post here.  I think that I'll include 5 more Potter thoughts every Sunday because I feel as if I need a regular blog post topic mixed in with all the random stuff.  For now, Harry Potter will be that regular topic.