A Chagrined Review of Harry Potter

I have a confession to make.  Until just this past weekend, I had never read a book from the Harry Potter series.  This may come as a shock to some of you because A) I read veraciously and B) I really like the movies.  The reason I never started them is fairly unremarkable really.  You see when the first book came out I was about 11.  At that age, I wasn’t into reading books geared towards teens/young adults in the slightest.  I wager I have spent more time in that section in the past six months than I did in my entire adolescents.  I was reading well into a high school level at that age and those books simply did not hold my attention.  I do not say this to brag, merely to explain.

My mother is a huge fan of the books however.  I remember her giving me the book to read after she had finished it, I read the first 20 pages or so, and then never picked it back up.  With the release of the new book, I decided to give the originals another chance.  Current me wants to tell young me to not be an idiot and read the darn books.  I devoured Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in a single Friday night.  Then the next day, I put in a request at the library for the next two books in the series.

What I loved most about this book was how smoothly it reads.  I cannot think of another word other than smooth except perhaps seamless.  Even with chapter breaks and paragraphs (you know the standard things in books) one page just flowed into the next.  I read sentence after sentence without pause and suddenly found myself halfway through the book.  As any good bookworm knows, that is the point you just give up all pretext of doing anything else and settle in till you hit the back cover.

A second thing I loved about the book was that while the language was simply, it was vivid.  I found myself picturing things, not how they are depicted in the movies, but embroidered based on the writing.  No small thing considering I just saw the movies this summer so the imagery is fresh in my mind.  I loved the way the ride in Gringotts was described in the book.  I found it so much more amusing than in the movie for some reason.

One thing that did surprise me was how well the book and the movie matched up.  To be honest I was expecting to find a ton of differences.  I have been assured that the farther I get into the series the more that will happen.

In summary, I am kicking myself for not starting this series sooner.  The first book alone has shown me it is worth my time.  I cannot wait to get the next book and dive right back in!

Love and muggles,

Betty