Harry Potter: The Most Magical Books Of All 🦉🏰
Jul 18, 2018My experience reading the Harry Potter series for the first time at 31 years old.
Books #17, #18, #19, #25, #26, #27, #28: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
❤ Harry Potter book reviews from my 50 Books 2018 Challenge!
❤ You can read about my initial challenge progress, and check out all the books I’m reading this year here. I got off track, but I’m back at it now!
Harry Potter
by J.K. Rowling
I absofuckinglutely understand all the Harry Potter madness now.
Background on why I’m just now losing my Harry Potter v-card at age 31:
I just wasn’t interested in reading it when it first came out (more of a Sweet Valley High girl over here), and I don’t watch movies so I’d never heard the story. After a certain point, I thought they were just “kid books” so never made a point to try to read them.
Until… my team at work had me take The Sorting Hat quiz (proud Gryffindor here!) when I first joined them as their manager last year, as most of them had read the books, and it piqued my curiosity into the series.
I was already a fan of J.K Rowling as a human — I admire her philanthropy work, plus we’re both INFJs which makes me instantly bond to her — so I decided now was a good time as ever to dive into this mysterious and magical Harry Potter series that I kept hearing about.
And I was greatly rewarded with a legendary, mythical reading experience.
My 50 book challenge this year was meant to spark my childhood love for reading again, and in leading me to this series, it most certainly has.
I DEVOURED these books, staying up late in suspense, not able to put the book down until I found out what happened to Harry this time around. It has been so much fun getting lost in these stories in this spellbinding world.
Yes, I did get these books from the “Kids 10+” section at the library (hey, I am over 10!), but they in no way are not a magical read for adults alike.
I don’t think I would have grasped and appreciated the incredible magnitude of the life lessons in this book reading this as a child, so I am grateful for the opportunity to read and soak it all in now.
If you’ve never read Harry Potter, no matter what age you are, I strongly urge you to open your mind and read this enchanting series. They are an easy yet extraordinary read and you will not be wasting your time.
If you haven’t read this series since you were a kid, I’d highly recommend giving them a go again. I’m just finishing the series and I already want to read them again!
“You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
— J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling’s writing through all seven books had me in a trance.
The way she intricately wove these otherworldly stories in with the most simple yet extraordinary life lessons is remarkable.
I can only pray to be half as creative as her as I grow as a writer. Each book never ceased to mystify and amaze me.
I feel like I could write an entire muggle self help book using the stories and spells from these books (considering the HP popularity, this has probably already been written, but I’ve been avoiding searching anything Potter until I’m done the series to avoid spoilers, so let me pretend it was my idea first for now).
The Patronus is my all time favorite defensive charm, and something I practice producing daily. Described as “a pure, protective magical concentration of happiness and hope”, I love that Rowling writes it as one of the most powerful defensive charms — as the same concentration on happiness can have similar effects on muggles.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
— J.K. Rowling
→ SPOILER ALERT ←
DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ HARRY POTTER YET! 🦉
Some of my initial reactions and thoughts while reading the series:
- How the fuck do you pronounce Hermoine?!
- Why are the Dursleys such dicks?
- How can I beat up Dudley?
- Will I ever get my acceptance letter from Hogwarts?
- Draco is such an asshole.
- Oooh Ginny loves Harry, can they please end up magically ever after!?
- Hagrid, I need a pet Unicorn.
- Ron and Hermoine are so gonna snog one day when they grow up!
- I don’t trust Snape for shit.
- Dobby makes me sooo nervous!
- OMG HARRY CAN GO LIVE WITH SIRIUS BLACK NOW!!!
- Mrs. Weasley has a heart of gold and I absolutely adore her.
- I hate Umbridge so fucking much.
- There are definitely some muggles with dementor vibes.
- Dumbledore’s Army #4ever
- Harry is brave AF and always getting into trouble and I love it
- OMG NOOOOO SIRIUS! 💔
- How the fuck did Rowling think of ALL of this!?
- LOL Moaning Myrtle 👻
- Ahhh Harry kissed Ginny! Ron didn’t punch Harry! All is the right in the wizard world!
- Will Harry EVER get that memory from Slughorn!?
- Currently reading book #6 (as of July 18th) so I’ll update as I finish the series :)
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
— J.K. Rowling
→ Have you read Harry Potter? I am the last human in the world to be obsessed with this magical world and impatiently waiting on my invite to Hogwarts? How did you feel reading the series? How old were you when you first read HP? What Hogwarts House are you in? Have you read it a second time? Please LMK what you think in the comments, I’m dying to chat more about this series! 🏰🦉
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