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.