I pretty much grew up with the Harry Potter books – my friends and I would all go insane when the new book came out and rush out to borrow it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the children that got to buy the books; we weren’t a book buying family. Since then I’ve never re-read the books – I didn’t have copies at hand and there were simply too many books in the world to distract me.
It was only when I realised February 2014 was the month for the Harry Potter Re-Readathon when I remembered that I 1.) really wanted to buy the books 2.) couldn’t remember the last books at all and 3.) needed to stop referencing the films instead of the books. I went straight to my computer and bought the entire collection in hardback and started The Philosopher’s Stone as soon as it reached my hands.
Re-reading this collection took me back to my childhood, I even remembered passages that made me cry the first time I read them (I cried again the second time too!). I loved rediscovering Harry’s story the way it should be told and not the way I remembered from the films.
Admittedly reading these books as an adult is very different from reading them as a child, but it’s no less enjoyable. Yes, they are not literary works of art; in fact there were numerous badly put together sentences. But what J.K. Rowling does best is tell a story, and it’s a bloody brilliant one at that.
Once I finished reading the series, I was asked whether I would keep the books and read them again. The answer is a resounding yes. I might not re-read the entire series in one go, but I will definitely dip in and out of the books whenever I feel like it. I will also probably read The Prisoner of Azkaban every year I love it that much.
A Literary Mind 
Harry Potter is amazing to me every time! It’s been a year since I re-read them, so I might get on that soon!
The movies really reshaped how we viewed the series. Need to simply go back to the books.
I know – I was so shocked at how little I remembered!