In honor of the sixth movie, and even though everyone has either already read these or decided not to (latter category: you either have no heart or are truly missing out) I want to put these books up for comment. I feel as though I could recite the entire series from heart, having reread it every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and beginning and end of summer for the last nine years–and so the best and worst parts are firmly established in my head.
Best: the slapstick humor of the exponentially increasing letters at the start of the story; the first trip to Diagon Alley; the moment when Harry realizes he can buy all the candy he wants on the Hogwarts Express and gets to share with Ron; the Dickensy scene of former-orphan Harry getting to eat all he wants at the luscious first night feast; the part where Harry thinks he’s getting kicked out of school but instead is selected as Seeker and gets his Nimbus 2000; and of course, the epic funhouse adventure that leads to the final showdown with Quirrell and Voldemort (best part in my opinion: Hermione and the potion riddle, which every time I try to solve it makes me feel like I’m playing that peg-jumping game in Cracker Barrel, which is to say revealing my own stupidity).
Worst: the fact that American publishers refused to let the original book title stand because they were sure (and probably correctly) that American audiences would never buy a book with the word “philosopher” in it, but we love mawkish, dramatic imaginary words like “sorcerer”; the entire part with Hagrid and the dragon and writing to Charlie and getting caught (these chapters take on a depressingly brown color in my mind).
