#HarryPotterBookNight + 7 things I learned reading Harry Potter

 

In conjunction with #HarryPotterBookNight, today's post is obviously about Harry Potter! 

The series is a big part of my life growing up. I’ve been hooked on the series since I watch the first movies with my cousins.

Okay so this breaks my ‘book to movie’ adaptation rule where I watched the movies before I read the books but I was like 9 and didn’t have a rule back than!

I did however learned a lot of things from reading the series so here are 7 things the series thought me.

Lesson 1: NEVER READ A SERIES OUT OF PUBLICATION ORDER!

I actually started the series with the Bahasa Malaysia (BM) editions as I was weak in the language (FYI it’s now my second language) in primary school and my parents thought by getting me to read it could improve my language skills.

I did eventually read the English editions though my experience with it was very ‘unusual’. Around the time The Order of the Phoenix being released in paperback, I've read the first three books in BM, skipped the Goblet of Fire and immediately read OotP.

 

Haha, looking back to reading OoTP, 11-year-old me was very loss and confused about what in the world of Merlins was happening as I felt like I was missing a huge chunk of a story!

Questions were racing through my mind like why does everyone hate Harry?, wth is this tournament?, who the eff is this Doggery? AND THE LIST GOES ON!

 

Obviously I was missing a huge chunk because I skipped Goblet!

Lesson 2: WAITING GAME

Anyone who read all the Harry Potter books will tell you that waiting for the next book to come out is a waiting game of patience.

For me it was not just waiting for the Half-Blood Prince or Deathly Hollows to be released but its also for collecting the English editions and waiting for my exams to be over so that I can devoured them!

This is no a joke! When my major school exams was over, most of my classmates will run out to the nearest mall/cinema while I’ll run home (okay more of to my dad’s car who will drive me home) to read the Harry Potter Books that have been locked away months prior to the exams.

The moment I was done with my UPSR (primary school exams) the first thing I did was devoured Goblet of Fire and it was as satisfying as finding the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Lesson 3: Different cover same content!!!

When Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hollows were released, I was ‘pre-order at the bookshop’ excited and apparently my mum was too that she ordered two copies when both books were released.

 

Reason why she ordered two? The Bloomsbury UK edition had the ‘Children version’ and the ‘Adult version’ of the covers and my mum thought it was different contents… um…

Imagine the fun I had, explaining to her that it’s the same content but different covers. Anyways no complain as I have double copies of each (though I have no idea where my parents boxed up the Adult edition so it’s not in the pic)

Lesson 4: The beginning of being a bookish fangirl nerd

Harry Potter was one of the first series I’ve read and completed not to mention re read countless times. Its also the first fandom I associated myself with.

While I had a handful of friends to talk/fangirl about the series (Hi Christine, Renjitha and Soraya!!!) IT WAS NOT ENOUGH!

One way or another I found sites like SnitchSeeker (this was prior to me finding or the existence of Tumblr and Instagram) and while I was never active with the forums and interaction, it was fun reading them and seeing all the gifs and pics.

Lesson 5: RAVENCRAW FOR LIFE!

Its funny how my whole family thinks that my favourite house is Gryffindor (don’t get me wrong I still love that house) but over the years of reading the series I’ve find myself associate more to Ravenclaw.

I’ve taken multiple quizzes including the pottermore quiz and most of them I got sorted to Ravenclaw.

And NO it has nothing to do with the character Cho Chang in fact she is probably one of my least favourite characters in the series. However it does have a bit to do with the character Luna Lovegood.

Lesson 6: Memories

 

I have a lot of memories associated with reading the series, the good, the bad and the ugly. Funny thing is that most of them take place in secondary school maybe it’s because there where I find time to read most.

One UGLY memory was when I was reading PoA while crossing this walkway to my class and accidentally dropped the book into the drain! UGHHHH!!! I’m cringing at this as I was walking with my eyes glue to the book! Anyway for some miracle the book survived and it’s still readable.

Another kinda bad memory was when a Prefect wanted to confiscate the OotP I was reading saying it was against school rules to read Harry Potter.

Remember the Lion head on Luna Lovegood’s head? That was what I become, the Lion not Luna.

Bahasa Malaysia 101: Rampas- Confiscate.

 

I kinda went 16-year-old Drama Queen and shouted at her ‘THAT’S NOT FAIR! TEACHER A, B AND C SAW ME READ IT SO MANY TIMES AND THEY NEVER RAMPAS THEM! HECK I HAVE BEEN READING IT SINCE PRIMARY AND WHY NOW YOU ONLY WANT TO RAMPAS THE BOOK AWAY FROM ME?!’\

Yah I over reacted but that’s kinda what will happen if someone takes away the book. For the record my school does not ban Harry Potter so I didn’t do anything wrong.

Lesson 7: Its worth the re read and marathoning 

I am one of those people who re read the series countless times! Heck two weeks prior to the released of deathly hollow I marathon the existing books to pump myself up for the final book and also to refresh my memory of the series.

One thing I love about the series is its re read worthy as every time I pick up the book I find or understand things I didn’t pick up before.

My favourite to re read is OoTP especially anything to do with the professor McGonagall vs Umbridge moments as apparently 11-year-old me didn’t understand the awesomeness of McGonagall sass.

 

So that’s all I have for this ramble post! Discover/ Re discover the magic of Harry Potter and pick up the books!