Still GREAT

Now I've read it at least 5 times and it just gets better and better.  I LOVE the HARRY POTTER series!  My question for you is this.....Why couldn't Neville be part of the "inner circle" with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine?  Just as the original 3 are bonded by their fighting and defeating of the troll, aren't they bonded with Neville, too, first when he gets in trouble with Harry and Hermoine and have to have detention with them????  And secondly when he stands up to them and ends up being in a body bind curse???  And he's rewarded for standing up to them and trying to keep them out of trouble!  Doesn't that warrant Neville as an official friend of the original group????  I think it does and I, for one, wish that Rowling had included Neville in ALL of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine's adventures!!!!!

This series, especially the first book, will go down among the great classics and will continue to be read as long as literature classes are taught.  It really does deserve that.  Rowling did a superb job with each individual story as well as with the series overall.  Wow.  Seven books overall and it appears that she didn't make any huge plot errors!  That's HUGE!  Especially considering that she wrote each book as they were being published....so she was writing the next one (if not already 2 ahead) when the previous one was finally released to the public.  Yet she pulled the whole thing off and we, her audience, love it to the point of fanaticism.

I didn't read the books for years....not because I didn't want to, but because James kept throwing away the copies I'd been given.  I'd had 3 different people GIVE me copies of the books and James threw away each and every copy.  Then, finally, my British Lit class a few years ago (2009, I think it was--or was it 2010?) chose to read the book for class.  That time, when I brought home a copy of the book, James couldn't throw it away because it was reading for school!  Needless to say, I flew through all 7 books quickly and turned right around and read all 7 books a 2nd time!  And now, I'm reading the WHOLE series for a 3rd time!  And I love it just as much this time as I did the first time.

One disappointing thing about reading the series is the knowledge that even if I ever write and publish something, it'll NEVER be as GREAT, AWESOME, STUPENDOUS as the HARRY POTTER series.  I guess if I'm shooting for that level of fame, I shouldn't be writing anyway.  The object is to write because I HAVE to write--for myself.  And I do feel that way, but nudging me in the back of my mind is still the thought that I, nor anyone else for that matter, will ever hope to achieve even 1/4 of the incredible world that is HARRY POTTER........


Started May 22, 2012 & Finished May 27, 2012
Read again January 31, 2013
Again:  Begin on Friday, June 28, 2014 & finished on Friday, July 4, 2014