The Magic of Harry Potter and How I’ve Come to Love the Book Series

I admit that I’m extremely late getting to the Harry Potter Party, but I recently began reading the book series. When Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone came out I was a busy single mom of three young children with a ton of responsibilities and reading just never seemed to fit into the schedule. When the movie was released, I took my youngest son to see it and I was in total awe. Sure, it was long, particularly for children, but it was truly magical.

Now that I have more time to read for my own enjoyment I find myself happily gravitating to children’s books and the Harry Potter series was a natural choice. I decided to read the series, in order of course, and have completed the first two books – the aforementioned Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets.

Regarding Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, at first I wasn’t all that impressed with J K Rowling’s writing – that is, the mechanics of her writing. What I do think is she’s an amazing world-builder and that’s what makes this series so phenomenal. Readers become completely engrossed in the magical world of Hogwarts, Magic and Muggles. Sure, there are some glaring plot holes that adult readers might find glaringly obvious, but when we remember that this is a children’s book series these things are easily forgivable. And the author's writing improves tremendously as the series progresses.

There’s no denying that J K Rowling’s success with the Harry Potter series has probably far surpassed anything anyone could have ever imagined. It’s not often that a book is turned into a movie, but an entire book series being spun into a movie series is quite an awesome feat. And let’s not forget that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios continues to break visitor records year after magical year. A clear indication that there's no short supply of Potterheads in the world. Affection for the series shows no signs of waning anytime soon.

Would I recommend reading the series? Absolutely! The books are fun, fast-paced, non-wordy, and spectacularly glorious. Readers can quickly find themselves immersed in the tales of Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of J K Rowling’s characters. If you read for the sheer pleasure of it, then I encourage you to begin the series. If you read the Harry Potter books as a child, I encourage you to revisit as an adult. You’ll be seeing things through an entirely different perspective.