Revisiting Potter

Harry Potter series by J K Rowling

There has been a lot of hype about Harry Potter (again) recently, this time because JK Rowling has written a new story, although it is a play rather than as a novel.  As yet I haven't managed to get tickets to the two part play but I do have a copy of the script on order and I thought I'd reread the 7 novels in advance of this.

The books were a huge part of my bookselling life. The second book had just come out when I started working in a bookshop and as I gravitated to the children's section from the start I read the two books very soon after starting (product knowledge!) and I know I shared them with Mr Norfolkbookworm. We both loved them and both bought into the hype of reading on publication day from book 3 -which incidentally embargoed until 3.45 so that no one would skive school to get the book.  I'm not even sure that there were that many fans at that point!

Since then I was involved in every launch with midnight parties getting every more elaborate and the need to avoid spoilers ever more important - especially when you are at work selling the book and not at home reading it!

However after racing through the books at publication I hadn't really returned to them at all so was looking forward to my mega-reread.

I wasn't disappointed in the main.  Reading them all together I could see how cleverly they were plotted right from the start and just how complete the world Rowling created was.  I raced through books 1-4 (this surprised me as I (mis)remembered no.4 as being very weak) but then really got stuck on no. 5.  After this blip I read the final two really quickly and was once more impressed by the scope of the books, even if I don't like the epilogue to the final book - however this may be important with the new play I gather...

I did wonder if I'd been swept up in the hype of the time, and then nostalgia, with my rosy view of the series but I wasn't. They are, in the main, damn fine books and however much it pains my sister as soon as my nephew is old enough I will be introducing him to this magical world.

Ps - should anyone have a spare ticket the the two plays please do think of me!