Sunday, February 14, 2016

Reading Challenge Book 7: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Y'all:

This one took me a little longer than I had anticipated, but that's ok.  I had trouble falling asleep last night, then in sleep I had the noodle dream a dream about Harry Potter.  When I woke up I got down to the business of wrapping up this book before lunch.  Maybe I need to train in Occlumency.


BOOK 7
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
J.K. Rowling

I was warned that this one was a slower start than the others because it takes so much more time before we get Harry to Hogwarts.  Some of the early stuff was really interesting, while other parts did, indeed, drag.  It's interesting to read Harry as a moody teenager, not fully in control of his emotions,clearly going through puberty, and so forth.


I really enjoyed this book, especially once I got around the halfway mark.  I liked that the book expanded upon Neville, Cho, and Professor Trelawney in meaningful ways.  It also revealed things about Snape and James Potter that were hitherto unexplored.  I was actually quite interested to see Harry's faith in his father shaken (but not destroyed) because it humanized the legendary James Potter, gave the reader (and Harry) a reason to feel sympathy for Snape, and helped to ground the story in reality somewhat.

A coworker today asked me if I had decided to plunge through all seven novels back-to-back or if I had followed my first instinct to read other stories in between.  I told him that if all of these stories were set in the same school year for Harry, they'd become boring if read in a row.  Such stories would definitely benefit from buffer stories.  But the series follows Harry & company as they grow up and progress through Hogwarts and life.  It doesn't get stale.

On to the next one!
_______________________________________________________
THE ONE AND ONLY,
MAC III






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