A short while ago, and a few days after seeing the movie version, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That’s now five Harry Potter novels out of the six released so far and I’m trying to read them all before the final chapter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out next Saturday.

Ever since I first read this four years ago, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been my favorite of the series and I found myself enjoying it even more this time. As well as catching things that seemed totally innocuous on the first reading or two but now seem to have major significance. Of course everyone by now knows about the locket that can’t be opened, that was found while cleaning up 12 Grimmauld Place. But I couldn’t help think about some other things too… like how ...

As of a few minutes ago, my quest to re-read all of the Harry Potter books before the release of the final novel reached another benchmark, as I finished Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.Immediate thoughts after reading this one again: this is the book where the Harry Potter series really hit its stride. A lot of things from the previous novels converge here and the tale begins to take a very, very dark turn. I think that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the Potter books’ equivalent to The Empire Strikes Back, in the sense that right up to the moment when Vader told Luke the big secret, Star Wars was still a fairly innocent fairy tale… but with five words, the tables got kicked upside-down and nothing was the same again. So too is there irrevocable change in the wizard world ...

Just over 48 hours since finishing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a few minutes ago I wrapped up re-reading Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Which is always a pleasure to read because Sirius Black figures so much in its story.

So since I started re-reading all of the Harry Potter books, in preparation for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows nineteen days from now, I’ve now read the first three books in exactly one week! And since Darth Larry was the one who called me out, I can brag that at this clip I should soon easily overtake him, as deep as he already is in Book 4, muhahahahahahaha!!

Something I spotted this time that I never noticed before: when Snape takes over the Defense Against the Dark Arts class he has the students read up on ...

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? ...

On Monday evening I started reading all of the Harry Potter books, in the lead-up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in just over three week’s time. A short while ago I finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, the first novel in the series. That’s about the fourth time that I’ve read that book and if this rate keeps up, I should definitely have the other five done in time for the seventh and final chapter of the Potter saga.

Next up is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is probably my least-favorite of the entire series. But in light of what we’ve come to know of Voldemort in the subsequent books, maybe there’ll be something new that I’ll catch this time in reading it again, in that light. Anyways, I’ll start reading that later today (it’s way early ...