I am starting to re-reading Harry Potter for the first time ever. I figured it would be interesting to blog about my thoughts about each book and the series in general right now so that I could compare it to my views after the re-read.
To give you some context here I read the first four books right after one another almost 10 years ago when I was about 13. As for books 5, 6, and 7, I read them as they were released. The movies have also coloured by memory of the books to an extent, ie. I remember movie Luna better than book Luna
If you haven’t figured it on your own by now *SPOILER ALERT*
SS and COS
I’m going to group these together because I don’t have much to say about either one. I’m not particularly fond of either of them and am mostly rereading them for completeness. I always thought of these as the most “children’s” books of the series. This may be because when I read them at 13 I was older than the characters. Yes one or two years isn’t a big difference but at 13 you feel a lot older than 11. After seeing AVPM I’m defiantly going to miss the lack of Quirll and Voldemort scenes. Rereading COS knowing that the diary is a horcrux will defiantly be interesting.
POA
I have nothing in particular to say about this book, I remember generally enjoying it. It was my favourite until I read GOF.
GOF
I am particularly excited to reread this one as it is my favourite of the series. I just love the tri-wizard tournament and the show down with Voldemort. One scene I’m particularly looking forward to rereading is the Yule Ball. I adore the Yule Ball, it is one of my favourite scenes of the entire series. I think that as a 13 year old I really identified with Hermione here and wanted that “Cinderella moment.”
Another one of my favourite scenes happens in this book. It’s the showdown between Harry and Voldemort when the ghost of people Voldemort have killed including Harry’s parents come out of his wand.
OoTP
This was my least favourite book of the series and I am not looking forward to the reread. I don’t understand the purpose of this book nothing of any consequence happens other than the fact that Sirius dies. I don’t get the point of the prophesy but maybe that’s because I assumed from the first book that Harry would have to be the one to kill Voldemort. Also Harry is very emo in this book, VERY EMO. CAPSLOCK!Harry, if you will. I understand that his reaction to Cedric’s death at the end of book 4 is very justifiable but having to read 700 odd pages of Harry’s internal emo thoughts just got annoying. I’m probably going to get some backlash on this but I actually preferred movie 5 to book 5 simply because the movie takes you away from Harry’s internal monologue. Also I hate Umbridge.
Book 5 does have one scene that I am looking forward to reading, however. I’m fairly certain this is in book 5 correct me if I’m wrong. It is the scene where the trio see Neville visiting his parents at St. Margo’s and we learn their back story.
HBP
I don’t remember a lot of book 6 (seriously I had to look up what a horcrux was when I started reading book 7) but I do remember general liking it. Reading about Snape killing Dumbledore now that we know he is good will be interesting. There was also a whole thing that played into the end DH with Draco trying to steal Dumbledore’s wand that I really don’t remember so it’ll be good to re-read that.
DH
Seeing as I read this book only 3 years ago I’m fairly certain I remember most of the major plot points but I think reading the previous books right before reading this book will really help not just with the aforementioned points of the elder wand and horcruxes but also with knowing who more minor characters are and actually remembering their back story. While I did really enjoy book 7 there were also large parts which were also parts I didn’t like so much.
Looking forward to
- The walk through the forest
- Hermonie telling Harry about what she’d done to her parents. Hands down the most emotional moment of the entire series for me.
- Snape’s entire back story chapter (Still? Always.)
- The Hermione and Ron kiss (I’m a shipper at heart)
No looking forward to
- What seemed like the never ending camping. Seriously that shit gets boring after a while
- Harry and Lupin’s fight. I just remember reading it and thinking “I don’t care, there are more important things to deal with than this”
- Harry’s whole distraught-ness over Dumbledore’s dark past. Again this was something that I felt was just taking up space, it had happened like a 100 years ago, Dumbledore had proven himself in the last 100 years and there were more important things to deal with.
General comments
- I’m looking forward to reading book version of Ginny (As opposed to what exactly? It’s not like I can read movie version of Ginny. Work brain, work! It’s 4am as I type this). I feel like the movies have never gotten her character right
- Basically every Snape scene will be interesting to reread based on what we learn about him in book 7.
- I expect to react to certain things differently this time around, particularly with respect to the grieving scenes - My book ordering from favourite to least favourite as it stand right now pre-reread is 4,7,6,3,1,2,5. It’ll be interesting to see if this changes.
Now please excuse me while I go listen to Goin' Back to Hogwarts from AVPM...
Questions for the comments: Have you ever reread the entire series? If not (or even if so) care to join me on my reread? What were your favourite and least favourite parts of the series?
