As a huge Harry Potter fan, there was no way I was skipping this book, which is essentially a collection of information from Pottermore, the official website dedicated to all things Harry Potter. I’ve read other supplemental texts affiliated with the series, but this feels like the least substantial of them all. The story is a small guide to Hogwarts – how to get there, fun facts about the school and its inhabitants – presented both as general information, and then commented on by Rowling […]
I spent New Year’s Day in Hogwarts.
First of all I have read this book more times than I can count, literally. I know I’ve read this first one at least twelve times because that’s how many copies of it I own, but that is a gross underestimate because many of those copies I have read multiple times (especially the battered paperback I still have from 1999). I also used to re-read every year, and every time a new book in the series came out, so I’ve read this one the most. My OCD […]
I mean, it WAS
So yes, my bingo square for “The Book Was Better” was indeed filled by a better book than a movie, but I tried to make it the fairest fight in the Harry Potter series; I wonder how much better the movies would have been with Alfonso Cuaron behind the camera for all of them. The filmed sequences that stood out for me were Buckbeak’s execution, the first appearance of the Dementors, and the staging of the adventures with the Time Turner, but honestly, this is […]
Better than the Potter comparison
I read this book because I started following Dr. Okorafor on Twitter a few years ago. I don’t remember exactly what made me decide to follow her but I do know that part of it was due to my desire to avoid insularity. That and I’d heard great things about her books. I’ve already read the first two novellas in her Binti series; the third won a Hugo Award this year! Akata Witch, if I were to grossly over simplify, is a different take on […]