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I might have two bookshelves worth of unread books at home, but when I’m longing for something familiar, something I know that I love, I often resort to rereading my favourites. In light of the recent release of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 in theaters, I’ve decided to start from the very beginning and read the Harry Potter books, something I haven’t done in a couple years. I used to reread the series every summer and around winter time so it feels rather fitting to start out the Philosopher’s Stone in late November.

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. This is evident by the fact that it took me two weeks to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (I’m calling it by the original title because the version of the first book that I have is a paper back a friend bought me in England).

What I love about the Philosopher’s Stone is that it’s very simple and rather innocent. There are no real feelings of impending doom that are evident in later books. Sure we get the foreshadowing about Voldemort, and in the end of the book we have our first real experience of what Voldmort can do, but it isn’t yet apparant that there are going to be more books, that Harry is going to go through more than what’s happening in this very book.

There’s a whole lot of innocence in the Philosopher’s Stone that can be attributed to the age of the characters and also to Harry’s first experiences with magic. I  like that we learn them as Harry does. I’m also enjoying recognizing names and facts that are mentioned in this book that come up in later books.

The first time I started to read Harry Potter, I got stuck about thirty pages in. In truth, I was bored. I felt like I was reading a book that may not be going anywhere. I gave up and it wasn’t until a year or so later (about eight years ago now) that I gave it a second try. Let me tell you. Harry Potter is definitely worth the second try.

<3.Melanie.Kristy