Today’s topic is “ten things we loved about ________”. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be about a single book or not, but I’m going to cheat and go with a series — specifically, the Harry Potter series.

Bur first, a tease…

<Jennifer to Beth> Aren’t you missing the point? Clark Kent doesn’t want to be famous. He doesn’t want people to look at him. If they really look at him, they’d see that he’s just Superman with glasses. Plus, he needs to be someplace like a newsroom, where he’s the first to hear big news. He can’t afford to read “Joker attacks moon” the next day in the newspaper.
<Beth to Jennifer> You make an excellent point. Especially for someone who doesn’t know that Superman never fights the Joker.

“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”
“This is investment advice, isn’t it? You’re personal-bank-ing me.”
“It’s good advice,” she said. (Attachments, Rainbow Rowell)

So, ten things I loved about the Harry Potter series! I was a late-blooming Potterhead: I didn’t read the books until my early twenties, despite the fact that the first book was released when I was twelve (only a year older than Harry in Philosopher’s Stone) and I could have grown up with the series. By happy accident, I found the series just as Deathly Hallows was being released.

(1) The fonts & covers, at least in the American edition. I have three copies of Philosopher’s Stone: an American first edition, a British paperback with original art, and a German hardback version (Und der Stein der Weisen) Of them, I find the American font & layout the most attractive and charming.

(2) The humor. I think it was the humor that first drew me in — from Dumbledore leaving the children with a few more words (“Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”) to the Marauder’s snark at Snape via the map, to Hermione’s “Oh, well spotted” response to Ron’s observation that she was a girl, this series had me consistently laughing despite the frequent dangers and teen drama. And that’s not even mentioning Gred and Forge!

(3) The coincidence of when I read it: I discovered Harry Potter just as I was escaping from a repressive sect and going to college to live my own life, so a new world was opening for Harry and I at the same time. When I visited campus for the first time and inspected my residence hall, I commented in my journal that “It’s not Gryffindor Tower, but it will do.”

(4) Hermione punching Draco.

(5) The Britishness. I know this is an odd thing, but as an American reader with no knowledge of British schools, learning about ‘houses’ and prefects and the like was just as interesting as learning about magic and the whole Voldemort backstory. There are just so many little elements like the Christmas crackers and the train snack trolley that I’ve never experienced which made the HP world new and interesting to me. I was so fascinated by the Quidditch depiction that I tried to get into English football, arbitrarily following Arsenal for a few weeks before deciding that watching soccer was not for me.

(6) The characters in general. This series has so many superb and often complex characters — including the thoroughably hatable Umbridge. I could easily do a TT list just on Rowling’s characters.

(7) This is really more of the movies, but the music & casting choices were fairly brilliant on the whole. The adaptations had their misfires (especially Goblet of Fire), but I enjoy returning to them time and again. It’s fun seeing the kids grow up.

(8) The depth of storytelling — complex figures like Snape, unsimple scenarios like poor Neville trying to stop The Power Trio and getting frozen for it, the details one notices after a second reading that suddenly make the story richer.

(9) The Weasley twins sheer’ chaotic existence. God bless the Phelps twins, they did the boys justice.

(10) The baked-in messages about the power of sacrificial love.