RACE TO THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: The Chamber of Secrets is now closed

Starting with this past Monday night, I have resolved to re-read the entire Harry Potter series, as a lead-up to the release of the seventh and final book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - now three weeks away. Early Thursday morning I finished the first book. And about ten minutes ago I completed the second chapter: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Funny thing: for awhile I've thought that Chamber of Secrets was the weakest of the Harry Potter series by far. Having read it again, in light of everything I know from the subsequent novels... well, I definitely have newfound respect for the second book. There was a lot of stuff that J.K. Rowling put right in plain sight, years before it was picked-up on again. The vanishing cabinet that plays such a major role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? There it was the whole time... along with its sister cabinet. Other stuff that may or may not be important by the time the saga concludes: things about death and ghosts that I caught in the chapters about Nearly-Headless Nick's "deathday party" and why Moaning Myrtle chose to haunt the toilet. There is something in Chapter Ten, "The Rogue Bludger", that made me do a double-take. The Horcruxes? Rowling put them right in front of us too, still way early in the series. This lady is the modern master of Chekov's Rule of Drama. And there were a few other things too that I caught this time, that I might write about as an edit to this post later.

So in less than five days, I've re-read the first two Harry Potter books. Up next is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the one that I've re-read more times than any other Harry Potter book (what can I say but that I'm a huge fan of Sirius Black). I might have that finished by Monday. And that will be the last of the "easy riding" because the next three books after that each weigh in excess of 700 pages at least. And there's now only 20 days left.

But, I've conquered worse. This will get done in time for Book 7 :-)