A Look Back At The Boy Who Lived: The First Three
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Having just put down my now years old copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there’s no better time for me to pen my thoughts on the saga which greatly influenced not only my childhood but many many others as well.
I started re-reading the long tale of Harry and the Wizarding World way back in July. Starting back on the Dursley’s doorstep alongside Dumbledore was brilliant, I was drawn straight back in, despite any doubts I may have held prior to reading about how well the books would hold up to my taste now, which has evolved a lot as I’ve aged in the years since I last read these books. I needn’t have feared at all, as only nine days after that fateful moment when Hagrid landed down in Privet Drive on Sirius’ flying motorbike, I was closing the book, having just read about one of Neville Longbottom’s first decisive moves in a series of many as he won Gryffindor the house cup.
Now nine days for a book as short as Philosopher’s Stone (no, it isn’t Sorcerer’s) may be a snail’s pace for some, but I was amazed at how quickly I’d read it. I only started reading again around three years ago after a rather long hiatus and it was to my knowledge, the first time after that break in which I’d read a book in such a short time, which says more about the quality of the writing than I could!
It really attests to the quality of the book that despite having read it and seen its film counterpart countless times over the years, still I just could not put it down. Following Harry through his first year at Hogwarts was a joy and meeting those familiar faces all over again made for a great reading experience. It is no surprise that as soon as I put it back on my shelf, I instantly drew out the book next to it and turned over the cover which showed a rather content Harry and Ron cruising through the British clouds in Arthur Weasley’s blue Ford Anglia. Even though I knew the story back-to-front, I couldn’t not be excited to embark on Harry’s second adventure.
Starting with Dobby’s sharp introduction — which was somewhat longer than I remember — showing us a glimpse at the wider wizarding world, we soon find Harry being welcomed to the Burrow for the first time. Like first seeing Hogwarts in book one, visiting the Burrow for the first time all over again was a real treat and this was only further built upon with our introduction to Molly and Arthur Weasley. As far as fictional families go, the Weasleys are easily up there with my favourites — admittedly being red-haired, I used to dream about being one of the brothers myself, hoping a blue Ford Anglia would pull up to my window in the dead of night and whisk me off to the Burrow. Now, sadly for primary school-age me, that never happened but I wouldn’t be writing this if it had!
Having seen the films a lot more recently than I’d read the books, they were my main source of reference before this summer, hence, I went into Chamber of Secrets cautiously, as one should when going into the real chamber! I am of the opinion that Chamber of Secrets is one of the worse films of the bunch and had reservations about parts of the plot as well as Ginny’s character throughout this book. Just like my fears for the previous book, I was proved wrong yet again and whizzed through this book, following Harry on his journey to rid Hogwarts of the Basilisk and Riddle in yet another nine days and found myself, less than three weeks after reading about Harry’s parents’ deaths at the hands of Voldemort, finishing Harry’s second year with him, and watching him go home to the Dursleys, still angry that he’d tore the bars off his window in a flying car.
With Prisoner of Azkaban being my favourite film of the series, and having been so for a rather long time, I had fewer fears about this book than the previous two. Unsurprisingly, I flew through it and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Both Lupin and Sirius’ characters were always some of my favourites — I remember it blew my mind when I found out lupus was Latin for wolf — and I was sad to close the book, though I was also looking for the Quidditch World Cup to come.
However, that will have to wait for another blog post as I get together my thoughts on the next few books. If you’d like to keep up to date with what I’m reading at the moment (as this has been on the back burner for a little while now) feel free to follow me on Goodreads! And I know this wasn’t a traditional review, but I hope you still enjoyed it and will be back for more!
(This should have been done a lot sooner; I’m making a promise to myself the next won’t take as long as this!)
