Books #34-40: The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Okay, I know this is kind of cheating to include these books AGAIN in my book list. I have read them maybe three or four times just in the four or five years I've been writing on this blog. (But of course, this blog is purely for my own benefit and I do love looking back to see what I've read and when.) I don't know how many times it's been before that--but I do know that I read the first one MAYBE 100 times in my pre-teen and teenage years. I got the urge to read through the series again after reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (surprise, surprise), which was fun to read and all but not quite the same investment and satisfaction as the full novels. And since it wasn't written by J.K. it really isn't the same thing at all. I haven't had the energy to do much serious thinking lately--I'm deep into the first trimester of pregnancy and throwing up regularly and all I've wanted to do is lie down and not move--so these books were the perfect escape for this month. And for that same reason I'm not going to go to all the work of writing a separate review for each book.

I am always blown away by how Rowling successfully builds her world. My favorite chapter in all the series is, I think, when Harry goes to Diagon Alley for the first time and sees what being a wizard is all about. The details that Rowling includes--like the ingredients in the Potions shop and the name of the ice cream shop and Harry's ride to his vault in Gringotts bank--completely suck you in and make you feel like you are walking along with Harry seeing all these mind-blowing things with him. And the great thing is that Rowling does this again and again throughout the series whenever Harry encounters a new element of the wizarding world: going to Hogwarts for the first time, visiting the Burrow, at the Quidditch World Cup, at the Ministry of Magic and the wizarding hospital. Every one of those chapters isn't essential to the plot of the story--she could suffice with some basic description and skate along to some more action. But it's so important that we can wander along with Harry, wide-eyed and amazed, and feel like we're experiencing it with him. I think that is some of the real magic of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling.

It's amazing to read these again and again and to notice new things about the series and how it develops. The first three books, for instance, are clearly of a different caliber than the last four. You can tell that Rowling is a younger, different writer, and that the overall plot hasn't been developed as fully at that point. It's really in the fourth book where the full story of the series comes to fruition, where you can see where things are going, where Rowling clearly has developed a backstory to Harry's young life and Voldemort's goals. I can see why some people (like my brothers) never made it past the first two books and didn't care to finish--the last four are much more interconnected (although I do LOVE LOVE the ending of the third book with the Time-Turner--it's AMAZING every time). I am going to try and convince my brothers to read them again and to get past the first few books--although now that the semester has started for them, it's probably futile until next summer. I truly think that you are missing out if you haven't read these. It's such a good action story, but it's so, so much bigger than that as well. Like a true fantasy story, it's about good versus evil and how one person can make choices to do good. It's emotional and it's moral and it has an satisfying climax to the series, and somehow Rowling managed to answer every question she raised in the series before she finished it. I love many, many, many books, but these are some of the ones that I can always come back to and never be disappointed by (like Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables). Thank you for helping tide me over the throes of morning sickness this time around, Harry. I'm sure I'll be back soon enough!