Harry Potter Nerd Alert

A few months ago, J.K. Rowling announced Pottermore, a new interactive reading experience for Harry Potter fans. Then at the beginning of last month, they had seven days of early registration. If you caught the clue before all the spots for that day had filled up, you could get in early and be one of the beta testers for the site.

Anyone who knows me even remotely well knows that I am a Harry Potter fanatic, so you better believe I tried desperately to get into Pottermore early. I would check the site every day as soon as I woke up, and invariably, registration would be closed. Then, on the sixth day, I pulled up the site, and voila! There was a clue! So I answered the question quick and registered before the spots could be taken.

I was so excited. Until I realized that they wouldn't actually let me onto the site until September. I was a little bummed, but I resigned myself to the wait.

Well, this week, the wait was over. I got into Pottermore. And while I don't really know exactly what I'm supposed to do, it seems pretty awesome so far. I haven't gotten this far yet, but I do know that I will get sorted into a House and get my own wand, which is awesome. There is also a bunch of new stuff from J.K. Rowling, like backstory and little insights into why she wrote the books a certain way. This is really why I wanted to get onto the site.

General registration opens next month sometime, and I'm super excited for some of my friends to get online so I can interact with them. Because I know for a fact that at least some of my friends will join me in the HP nerddom that is Pottermore.

So here's to having yet one more thing on the internet to waste my time on. Huzzah!

Being Thankful: Day Eighteen

My thankful post today is going to be a little silly, but I don't care. Because in all actuality, I am thankful for Harry Potter. I know it sounds a little dumb, but I've been thinking about it all day because I'm going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 tonight. I'm so excited. I've never been a really huge fan of the movies, but I have definitely enjoyed the last few, and Deathly Hallows looks like the best of the bunch so far.

I really am thankful for the books, though. It isn't every day that you come across a series of books that you can literally grow up with. Plus, the themes and messages of the books are legitimately good: love, friendship, loyalty, courage. The idea that if you just do what it is you know you have to do, everything will turn out in the end. There are even some gospel themes in the book, such as the veil in Order of the Phoenix, and when Luna tells Harry that the loved ones they have lost are just on the other side, just waiting to see them again.

Plus, how can you not be glad for a book that taught millions of children how fun it is to read? And thanks to the success of the Harry Potter series, the YA genre has been catapulted into mainstream, yielding some rather amazing new authors, such as Maggie Stiefvater and Suzanne Collins (no, I will not include Stephenie Meyer—she doesn't come even close to amazing).

While I will always love the Harry Potter books much more than the movies, I'm super thankful that I get to go hang out with friends and see all the crazy costumes people will come up with tonight. It's going to be awesome.

Chills. I have chills.

This trailer looks AMAZING. So does the other one. Basically, I think the final Harry Potter movies are going to be the best yet by a long shot. With two movies, I would imagine that almost everything in Deathly Hallows (which is my favorite book of the series) will make it on screen. And I can't wait.

I already have my tickets to the midnight showing. And I'll be dressing up. Am I a nerd? Oh yes. But I don't really care.

How did that happen?

There was a time when I was ridiculously anti-social in my current ward. When I would spend every evening in my apartment reading, or watching movies, or watching TV, completely by myself. Occasionally I would do something with my roommates, but for the most part, I kept to myself.

I wanted to make friends, but I didn't know how. I'm not the kind of person who can just walk up to people and start talking and make friends in the blink of an eye, like some people seem to do. So I kept to myself. I made a few acquaintances and talked to a few people at church, but that was about it.

Then my apartment had dessert club, where we had to provide dessert for the ward. People came in, ate, and left, while others came in, left, and mingled. We started a game of Signs with those who stayed behind, and after that, a lot of things changed for me.

I have had something to do nearly every night the past couple of weeks. My roommates and I have been invited to and have invited others to do all sorts of things, like watching movies, playing an assortment of games, going off the rope swing in Mona, going swimming, going to the hot pots in Midway, throwing a birthday party for Harry Potter, and going camping.

I haven't been this tired and sleep deprived in a very long time. But I also haven't had quite this much fun in a long time, either.

These pictures are ridiculously inadequate, but I really didn't feel like looking through a bunch of Facebook albums to find more.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I still get really excited when I get to Deathly Hallows, probably because I've only read it four times now. (Ha, only, I know, but that's nothing compared to the 20+ times I've read the first four and the who knows how many times I've read all of my other favorite books.) That also means that I still get a little sad every time I finish it.

As was expected, as soon as I hit the chapter "Malfoy's Manor," I couldn't put the book down until I was forced to last night because it was late, I was tired, and I knew I would be up until at least four if I tried to finish the book. As it was, I still read probably 350 pages last night. Then the first thing I did this morning was finish the book.

Deathly Hallows gets the biggest declaration of love from me. I do indeed have a favorite Harry Potter book, and this is it. I love everything about this book—even the camping parts that so many people were bored by and upset with. It seemed to me that a lot of people held the same opinions that Ron yells at Harry right before he leaves: "We thought you knew what you were doing! We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!" Which I thought was pretty ridiculous of people . . . every reader knew that Harry didn't know where the Horcruxes were. Did they expect him to figure it out right away? The camping scenes where nothing seems to happen made sense. It made the story more realistic, it made it plausible. Sure, Rowling could have let them figure it all out quickly and easily, but how lame would that have been? Very lame, in my opinion.

As you might have noticed, I'm all about realism, even in the entirely fictional Wizarding world. I know that witches and wizards don't exist and that Voldemort isn't real. But Rowling created rules for this world. There are things that can't be done or undone by magic; there are laws that must be followed, and because they're being followed by real characters, the fictional world is able to come to life. It's fabulous, and I love it.

And speaking of real characters, this is where I could go off on the brilliance of Snape's character . . . the fact that as a reader, you hate him because of his hatred of Harry, but you can't fully hate him because Dumbledore trusts him. And even though Snape appears to be a bad guy, and you feel justified, finally, in hating him, a part of you feels remorse because you don't want Snape to be a bad guy. You don't want Dumbledore to be wrong about him. Snape is probably one of my very favorite literary characters because he's so complex. It's wonderful.

Anyway, after that tangent, on to the lists, because I could sit here and write about this book all day if I allowed myself.

The Good: The way Rowling manages to take you through six books' worth of reminiscing in a few chapters, and continues to sneak those memories in throughout the book; Harry's last encounter with Uncle Vernon; Dudley's concern about Harry's welfare, and his gratitude: "I don't think you're a waste of space"; "Blimey, Dudley, did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"; everyone's willingness (well, minus Dung) to become a Harry doppelgänger; Ron and Hermione's actions in order to keep their families safe while they're off doing dangerous things with Harry; Harry, Ron, and Hermione getting the things they were left from Dumbledore; the happiness of Bill and Fleur's wedding (before they're attacked, of course); Hermione realizing that the locket had been in Grimmauld Place; Kreacher's story; Harry's kindness toward Kreacher; Griphook keeping quiet about the fake sword; Harry and Hermione visiting his parents' grave; the monument at Godric's Hollow; Snape's Patronus leading Harry to the sword; Ron saving Harry; Ron destroying the Horcrux; Hermione's anger at Ron when he returns (she's a girl—of course she's going to be mad—plus, it's pretty funny); Ron's story about the Deluminator; Ron's complete concern for Hermione's welfare at Malfoy's manor; Dobby coming and saving the day—I love that little elf; Harry deciding to go after Horcruxes and not Hallows; escaping Gringotts with the cup on the back of the dragon; Aberforth saving Harry from the Death Eaters; Neville—oh my gosh, everything about Neville; everyone in the Room of Requirement wanting to fight and help; Percy coming back (this always makes me cry); the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff Houses standing up between Harry and the Slytherins (this also always makes me cry); Ron opening the Chamber of Secrets and Hermione destroying the cup; Hermione kissing Ron: "Is this the moment? OI! There's a war going on here!"; Harry realizing where the diadem is; Harry and Ron saving Malfoy—twice: "And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!"; Snape's story; Harry's willing sacrifice; the fact that Voldemort's haste to make himself stronger actually weakens him by keeping Harry alive; the one last explanation of everything from Dumbledore; Neville's defiance, pulling the sword from the Sorting Hat, and killing Nagini; Kreacher leading the house-elves (I cry here too); "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"—the best mom moment ever (I laughed aloud the first time I read it); Harry being the master of the Elder Wand; Harry defeating Voldemort; Harry repairing his own wand; the epilogue.

The Bad: Hedwig's death; Mad-Eye falling; George's ear; Lupin's (understandable) cowardice, and his fight with Harry; everything about the Ministry; the Muggle-born Registration Commission, and the fact that Umbridge is over it; Yaxley seeing Grimmauld Place; Ron leaving—yes, I cried, and was so happy when Ron comes back fairly quickly and pretty awesomely; Harry's anger at Dumbledore; Xenophilius Lovegood trying to turn Harry in; Harry's obsession with the Hallows; Harry yelling Voldemort's name; Dobby's death (more crying); Griphook running away with Gryffindor's sword; Fred dying—I cry the hardest here—with tears running down my face; Lupin, Tonks, Colin Creevey, and all the other people who die (the battle pretty much has me in constant tears).

The Ugly: Mad-Eye's magical eye in Umbridge's office door; Voldemort placing Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot's body (ew, gross); Bellatrix Lestrange's obvious enjoyment of torturing Hermione; the way Snape dies and why.

And there you have it—the last of my Harry Potter posts. I hope you enjoyed them. And if you didn't, oh well. At least I enjoyed writing them.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I haven't been up to my usual blogging lately . . . two Harry Potter reviews in a row? Weird!

I am fully aware that I have said this of every HP book so far, but, I love Half-Blood Prince. It is probably my second favorite. The cover is by far my favorite—there's just something about the purple/green combo that I really like.

I absolutely love how this book is completely centered around the home front, Hogwarts. Every other book has been centered on what is going on outside of Hogwarts. In all of the other books, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are focused on trying to figure out what is going on outside of Hogwarts. There is always some ominous force at work that no one quite knows enough about. In Half-Blood Prince, however, we know exactly what is going on outside of Hogwarts. Voldemort is in the open, killing and terrorizing as usual. There is no mystery around that. No; the mystery is what's going on inside Hogwarts. Is Malfoy actually up to something? And if so, what?

I also love that life is sort of normal for Harry. Sure, his meetings with Dumbledore aren't exactly typical, but Harry is going to class, dealing with friend issues, and figuring out how to handle girls. I think that normalcy is what makes the attacks on Katie Bell and Ron, and Harry's attack on Malfoy, so startling. They are in stark contrast to the seemingly ordinary teenage lives the characters are living.

The Good: Dumbledore's visit to the Dursleys; Harry's trip to see Slughorn; the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes; Ginny taunting Zabini at the Slug Club; most things about Ginny—this girl is my hero; Harry winning the Felix Felicis; Hermione Confunding McLaggen; the lessons with Dumbledore—I think learning about Voldemort is absolutely fascinating; Harry "spiking" Ron's drink with lucky potion; Harry taking Luna to the Christmas party; Harry's conversation with Scrimgeour at the Burrow; Apparition lessons; Harry using Felix Felicis to get the memory from Slughorn—though this might have a lot to do with the movie, since that scene is so dang funny; Harry kissing Ginny—yes, I am a girl, and yes, I love this part—I had been waiting for it since book two (and, incidentally, I hated the way they did the kiss in the film; it was so lame! Harry and Ginny better have at least one good kiss in each of the book seven movies or I will be very upset); Malfoy Disarming Dumbledore (since it is such an essential part in book seven) and lowering his wand before the other Death Eaters joined him; Hermione and Ron's complete willingness to go with Harry to find the Horcruxes.

The Bad: Seeing Snape make the Unbreakable Vow (yes, even though I know he's a good[ish] guy); Snape becoming the D.A.D.A. teacher; Katie Bell touching the necklace; Ron getting poisoned—I almost had a heart attack the first time I read that part; McLaggen joining the Gryffindor Quidditch team and being so infuriating; Harry's obsession with Malfoy—I just hate how he almost lets it get the better of him; Harry attacking Malfoy with Sectumsepra—as much as I dislike Malfoy, I never wanted Harry to do him serious harm; Harry freaking out about the fact that Snape was the one who overheard the prophecy; seeing Dolores Umbridge at Dumbledore's funeral.

The Ugly: The mere idea of a Horcrux—using the murder of an innocent person to encase a part of the soul in an inanimate object is just creepy; the Inferi in the cave—I think Inferi are the scariest, creepiest, and most horrifying things Rowling came up with for Voldemort to use—if that's not evil, I don't know what is.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I know a lot of people who complained about this book because a) it's pretty freaking huge and b) Harry's super moody through the whole thing. I didn't mind either of these things. I love Harry so much that I would have been happy with a 1,000-page book—in fact, that's what I was secretly hoping for when book seven came out.

As for Harry's moodiness, let's take a little look at what this poor kid has gone through: He witnesses a fellow student's death, which would be traumatizing enough. But on top of that, he witnesses Voldemort, the most evil and most feared wizard in history, return to full power. Umm, scary. Then he is forced to listen to Voldemort monologue about murdering his parents and about how much he wants to kill Harry. Then Voldemort tortures and nearly kills Harry, a situation from which Harry only narrowly escapes. Then he has to go back to the Muggle family that treats him like dirt, and where he gets absolutely no news from anyone, including his very best friends, who seem to be leaving him out of all of the festivities. Then he has to fight dementors, for which he is nearly expelled. Then he learns that no one believes his story and that everyone thinks he's a delusional show-off and that the Ministry of Magic is doing their best to discredit him. Then he goes back to Hogwarts, where he is supposed to feel at home, to find that his fellow students are afraid of him and that the school is coming under the tyrannical reign of Dolores Umbridge, which means that his one safe place in the entire world has been taken away from him.

Whew, that's quite a list. I think I'd be a little moody, too.

Harry's moodiness makes him real—it makes him believable. Rowling is too good of a character writer to allow Harry to be just as carefree and glib as he was before. It wouldn't have made sense. If Harry had seemed to have no lasting effects from everything that he was going through, I would have hated this book. As it was, I loved it, because I love everything about real, deep, complex, true-to-life characters. Character development is my favorite part of pretty much anything I read.

The Good: The whole opening sequence of Harry fighting the dementors and then having to explain everything to the Dursleys—the juxtaposition of the wizarding world colliding with the Dursleys' gleaming kitchen is fabulous; the war against Grimmauld Place; Luna Lovegood; Dumbledore's Army; seeing Lockhart in St. Mungo's; Harry's exclusive interview with Rita Skeeter; the way the students hide The Quibbler from Umbridge; Professor McGonagall standing up for Harry's ambition to be an Auror; the fireworks: "A sparkler floated past the tower, still resolutely spelling out the word POO"; Fred and George's exit: "Give her hell from us, Peeves"; the way the teachers don't do anything to help Umbridge; seeing Umbridge taken away by the centaurs; Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and Luna's willingness to go with Harry to the Department of Mysteries; Dumbledore showing up and saving the day; the members of the D.A. jinxing Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle; Harry's reception party and Moody threatening Uncle Vernon.

The Bad: The incredible frustration of the way Fudge treats Harry at the hearing; Sirius's anger at Harry for not being as reckless as James was; all of Umbridge's lousy Educational Decrees; Harry, Fred, and George getting banned from Quidditch; Harry's fear that he's being possessed by Voldemort; Grawp; Harry's vision of Sirius getting captured by Voldemort; Kreacher lying to Harry; Sirius going through the veil.

The Ugly: Every single little thing about Dolores Umbridge—I don't care if she's a fictional character—I still hate her (and I hate it when she shows her ugly face again in book seven); Molly Weasley's boggart; Harry's vision of Arthur Weasley getting attacked by the snake; Ron catching the brain.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I love Goblet of Fire, probably because it's darker and a bit more mature. I love that the books grow up with Harry, and this one is where that growth really becomes evident. This book is another one with a major twist that Rowling planned beautifully. You never would have guessed it while reading the book, but the revelation doesn't leave you thinking, "Wait, what? How does that add up?" There is so much depth to this novel, and the way it is framed by the Triwizard Tournament is brilliant.

The Good: The Weasleys' arrival at Privet Drive ending with Uncle Vernon throwing china knick-knacks at Arthur; meeting Bill and Charlie; the Quidditch World Cup; "I like a nice breeze 'round my privates, thanks"; learning about the Unforgivable Curses; meeting the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; Harry beating the Hungarian Horntail and Ron talking to him again; Harry's nervousness about asking someone to the Yule Ball; Dumbledore's complete faith in Harry; "You fail to recognize that it is not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"; "What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does"; Harry giving Fred and George his Triwizard winnings.

The Bad: Harry's name coming out of the goblet; Ron's silence toward Harry (I always have to read the 92 pages where Ron isn't talking to Harry in one sitting because I hate it so much); Rita Skeeter and all of her ridiculous articles; Harry's incredibly stressful near failure at the second task; Cornelius Fudge's refusal to believe that Voldemort has returned.

The Ugly: Everything that happens after Harry touches the Triwizard Cup: Cedric's death; Voldemort's temporary body; bone of the father, flesh of the servant, blood of the foe; the duel—Voldemort is a grown man who is torturing a fourteen-year-old boy—how sick and twisted is that?; Voldemort in general—I know he's not real, but he's still one of the scariest and most brutal villains I have seen—it's quite brilliant how Rowling manages to make him feel believable even though his complete lack of conscience is so extreme.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This book has to be one of the most well-written and well-planned books that I have ever read. J. K. Rowling should be a mystery novel writer with how well she set up the twist at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban. It is at once completely unexpected and entirely plausible. As I read the novel this time around, all I could think was how much planning it must have taken to plant all of the little clues that led to the end revelation. It's absolutely brilliant. And Rowling wrote it in just a year, which is ridiculous.

Prisoner of Azkaban also sets up so many events that drive the rest of the series. Without Pettigrew's escape, the next four novels wouldn't have happened. Voldemort wouldn't have had a servant to help him return to full power, and who knows if he would have ever regained power again. As much as I hate the fact that Pettigrew gets away, it was an essential part in Harry's journey toward destroying Voldemort for good.

The Good: Really, what's not to love about this novel? Harry getting his first ever birthday presents; Harry blowing up Aunt Marge; Stan Shunpike and the Knight Bus; everything about Remus Lupin; Defense Against the Dark Arts classes; Fred and George giving Harry the Marauder's Map; Harry getting the Firebolt; Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup; Ron and Hermione standing firm with Harry, even to the point of giving their lives for him; Lupin and Black telling their story in the Shrieking Shack; "You're both mental"; the introduction of the idea that the dead we love are never far away: "In a way, you did see your father last night. . . . You found him inside yourself."

The Bad: Malfoy taunting Buckbeak, getting attacked, then milking his injury for all it was worth; Harry and Ron's anger at Hermione—seriously, that poor girl is always the odd man out; Snape's complete refusal to even hear Sirius out because he's still so consumed by his school-boy grudge.

The Ugly: Ron's leg snapping as Sirius pulls him into the Whomping Willow; Snape's incredible fury when he finds that Sirius has escaped.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Holy moses, three posts in one day! That's some kind of record for me, I'm sure. I guess I just have a lot to say today.

I finished HP 2, so it is time for my second review. I'm sure nobody really cares, but I have fun writing them. Chamber of Secrets is probably my least favorite Harry Potter book, though that's not to say that I don't still enjoy it. When I first read the series (when Goblet of Fire had just come out), I remember thinking about how Chamber of Secrets seemed like a bit of a tangent. Books one and three were all about trying to thwart Voldemort's return to power, but it seemed like book two was its own separate story. I guess it's true that if Tom Riddle had taken all of Ginny's soul he would have been back, but it just didn't feel the same as when Voldemort returns in book four. Then, of course, Half-Blood Prince came out, and the revelation that Riddle's diary was a horcrux suddenly made Chamber of Secrets much more pertinent and important. What Harry does in the Chamber is one of the most important things he does in the course of the story. It is the first time that Harry moves toward permanently destroying Voldemort.

The Good: Ron, Fred, and George coming to rescue Harry from the Dursleys; Harry's first stay in the Burrow; Harry beating Malfoy at Quidditch despite having a broken arm; Ron's bravery in following the spiders; the Ford Anglia saving the day; Harry and Ron discovering that Moaning Myrtle was killed in the last attacks; Harry and Ron visiting Hermione and putting all the puzzle pieces together; the teachers ganging up on Lockhart just to get him out of the way; Lockhart getting blasted by his own Memory Charm; Harry defeating Riddle and the basilisk and saving Ginny with Fawkes's help; Harry discovering that he pulled Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the hat; the introduction of agency as a main theme: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"; Lucius Malfoy getting blasted down the stairs by Dobby.

The Bad: The Dursleys hitting an all-time abusive low; Dobby sealing the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters; Snape finding Harry and Ron after they crash the car; the rogue Bludger; the dueling club fiasco; Harry finding Justin Finch-Fletchley and everyone thinking Harry did it; Aragog and the spiders.

The Ugly: Everything about Gilderoy Lockhart, but especially his willingness to attack two twelve-year-old boys for the sake of saving face; Draco Malfoy saying it was a pity Hermione hadn't been killed by the monster; Harry getting covered in slime, blood, and ink—I'm not sure why, but the description of Harry wiping slime and blood off of his glasses grosses me out every time.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

As I was searching for a picture of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to post on my blog, I came across this awesome little blog. I spent about half an hour perusing her incredibly well-written posts and promptly forgot to copy the picture of the cover and post it to my blog.

Anyway, I was reading her Harry Potter posts, and I decided that I was going to do something similar and review the books that I love so dearly. This just might get me to look at them a little differently, which could be refreshing when considering how many times I have read this series.

I really love Sorcerer's Stone. There's just something so fun about the very beginning—before the crazy fanatics and the movies and the hype; before J. K. Rowling was richer than the queen; before Harry Potter was a name everyone knew, whether they'd read the books or not. Harry's naivete about the wizarding world is such a fantastic way to pull the readers in and make them care about what Harry is discovering. As readers, we learn as Harry learns, and we grow as Harry grows throughout the series.

The Good: Uncle Dursley singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and jumping at small noises; Hagrid telling the Dursleys that their "great puddin' of a son" doesn't need more food; Harry's first trip into Gringotts and Diagon Alley; Harry discovering he's a natural on a broomstick; Ron knocking the troll out with its own club: "Oy, pea-brain!"; Neville trying to fight Crabbe and Goyle; Ron's sacrifice on the giant chessboard; Hermione figuring out the potion riddle; "Alas! Ear wax!"; Dumbledore handing out the extra points at the end of term to give Gryffindor the House Cup.

The Bad: Hermione's overwhelming bossiness at the beginning; Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback—I hate that stupid dragon; Harry getting treated like an outcast after losing 150 points—hasn't the poor kid been through enough? (Well, obviously not, since there are six more books to go.)

The Ugly: Quirrell drinking the blood of a dead unicorn; Voldemort's face sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head—I mean really, how creepy is that?

Can't Wait!

I'm not the biggest fan of the Harry Potter movies. I am a complete and utter fanatic when it comes to the books (I read them at least once a year, often twice--I've totally lost count of how many times I've read them), but the movies just never really appealed to me. But this one--this looks absolutely phenomenal. I'll be in line for the midnight showing. Sorry the video's a little cut off...that's the best I could do.