Fantasy at it's best. A tale of growth, adversity, self discovery, and magic.

I just bought the first six at a used-book sale and figured I should add them, as these are books I've read multiple times, and will probably read repeatedly in the future. I resisted reading Harry Potter until about book 3 (I had nothing else to read at the time), and I'm glad I finally did. :) ( )

love it!

I have all the first edition hardcovers, but instead of hunting down their ISBN's I'm just quick adding the set and later I'll edit and add in the correct ISBM's from my collection. ( )

Like children and adults everywhere, I caught the Harry Potter bug early and read the first three books in the series early on (though in paperback format, so not that early), but it took me a long while to follow up with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Oh sure, I read about a hundred pages or so in bookstores, but life got in the way for the most past. Eventually, I borrowed a friend’s son’s copies and re-read the first three books and finally got through Goblet of Fire. However, it was not until my vacation last summer that I truly got into obsession mode.

At the time, I read the first four books again in a matter of days – I was eating, sleeping, and reading Harry Potter and nothing else. It was funny to see, actually, a 27 year old so excited about devouring these books. It took me another month to get to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but once I started this particular tome, I had to purchase Rowling’s latest, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in order to read them without interruption. In fact, I read them in a two day period in which time I was completely sleep deprived. In retrospect, the fifth and sixth are my absolute favourites and, like every ten year old, I am eager for the seventh book and conclusion to the series.

When I was growing up in Beirut, I did not surround myself with children’s fantasy. Instead, I was a precocious child who avidly read classical literature. Of course, I read and cherished the ubiquitous fairy tales and novels that are geared for children, but I never read some of the books penned by, say, Dr. Seuss and C.S. Lewis or some such “famous” children’s literature. Instead, my childhood was spent in the loving (and sometimes agonizing) care of Stevenson, Zola, Dumas (père), May Alcott, and others. Therefore, it is no surprise that I find myself reveling in Harry Potter. . . it is like reclaiming my childhood at times, while I am sure I take immense pleasure in exploring the magical world of Hogwarts as an adult who still possesses a healthy dose of childlike innocence.