I Discovered Harry Potter!

So it's 2012 and apparently I haven't blogged in almost 3 months. Ouch. Oh well. I aim to do better this year. But more on my resolutions later.

So yeah, I'd never read Harry Potter. Nor have I seen the movies. I decided long ago that I wouldn't watch the movies until I read the books.

I bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in 2009 (I think) and it languished in my huge to-be-read pile. One of my resolutions this year (I'll blog about them all later) was to read outside of my preferred genre of romance more.

Since I'd been meaning to read HP forever and I had the book, it seemed like a logical place to start.

Here's what I knew before cracking open the book (I'd deliberately kept as uninformed as possible as to not ruin anything).

1. Harry is an orphan.

2. Hogwarts is where he goes to become a wizard.

3. His BFFs are Ron and Hermione.

4. Ron has freckles and people were really upset that Movie Ron is freckleless.

5. There's some character named Voldemort.

I'm pretty sure that's it. Or, at the very least, that's all I can think of right now.

Oh, wait. I think Ron and Hermione hook up at some point in the future. I think anyway and could be so wrong, but I'm going with it because it amused me that Ron dislikes her at the beginning.

Oh, also, actually, I was a little surprised that it took a while for Hermione to join the gang just because they're always presented as a trio at the movie premieres. Which I guess they are once she joined the gang.

As you can tell, my HP knowledge was severely limited before I cracked open the book. I was ripe to be surprised. And I was!

1. The book had a lot of humor in it, which, for whatever reason, I wasn't expecting. I laughed more than once.

2. I got a wee bit annoyed with Harry when he first got his letter. J. K. Rowling had taken great pains to describe his crazy family and how they gave him nothing and wanted him to have nothing, so he waltzes back into the kitchen and opens the letter in front of them! Really,  Harry?

3. My word - it took forever to get to Hogwarts. I was past page 100 before that happened.

4. I was a victim of my own expectations. When he did get to Hogwarts, I kept waiting for something BIG to happen. He would have mini-adventures, but everything would be okay by the end of the chapter. Which was fine. This "criticism" has more to do with me than the book.

5. Sometimes, I would have preferred to be in Harry's head more. Maybe I wish there was more dialogue instead of just telling us what was happening.

6. With that said, I'm in awe of Rowling's imagination. All the stuff she came up with was amazing! She created a whole new world with its own language, rules, and even games. She laid the groundwork for six more books, and did so effectively. I'm sure it wasn't easy, but she made it appear effortless. I was enthralled and kept turning the pages.

I think it goes without saying that I'm looking forward to the next books.

P. S. I love Neville!