Harry Potter

Ok, so if you thought that I was a late arrival into the world of blogging, then you are definitely are going to go into a state of shock when I say that I just finished the last Harry Potter book. I started with Sorcerer's Stone and moved up from there. I swore up and down that I would never read the books, and then I got married. The Roni is an avid fan of the series and she was sad that she would not have anybody to discuss the final book with when it came out. So I told her that I would get as far in the series as I could before the release of Deathly Hallows.

Well, in the week and a half before the book came out I got through book 1-4. I stopped after the book came out, because I figured I had missed the deadline, and... well... I had just seen the movie for Order of the Phoenix and it really didn't make a lot of sense to me. The movie just seemed jumbled together. For people that had already read the book (and probably re-read it leading up to the movie) I'm sure that leaving out so much of the book was necessary; It took two hundred pages just to get through the first two weeks of the story. However, the point is that the movie was really just confusing, and I wasn't too keen on reading the book.

Again, enter the Roni. She began to read the book out loud to me any time we were making a trip up to see parents, grandparents or other relatives. This made me see that the book made a whole lot more sense than the movie. So in the past 4 days I finished books 5-7. So here are my favorites of the series.

Favorite Character: Without a doubt, Luna Lovegood. I laughed more at the parts with Luna in them than any of the rest of the books combined. She is such a great character. It makes me wish that I had friends like Luna growing up.

Favorite Villain: I think most people will agree with me when I say Dolores Umbridge. Sure Voldemort is the main bad guy, but he knows he is bad. He takes no joy in hurting others, he does it just for power. Umbridge, however, takes a perverse pleasure in the pain of others, and to make matter worse, she thinks that what she is doing is for the benefit of society. To me, that makes her worse. Plus she is just so easy to hate!

Favorite book: The book that I enjoyed the most was Half-Blood Prince. In that book I was the most involved in the story. The characters seemed to be people that I could relate to. Also, who doesn't like it when Luna does the announcing for the quidditch game?

Least Favorite Good-guy: Hermione Granger. Especially in book 7 when she keeps harping on Harry about occlumency. I just skipped over those parts because I wanted to start yelling at her. And when you want to start yelling at a fictional character, it is time to move on.