Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) in Overdue Podcast

Dec 03, 2023 Edward Chamberlin rated it really liked it

Coming back to reread this at a tough point in my life, when I really needed some literary comfort food, so to speak, I was incredibly impressed by how well this famous book held up. Over the years, I'd read it many times, but it has probably been close to 15 or 20 years since the last reread. I'm pleased to say that it was just as entertaining as it was when I was a kid, reading it for the first time. I'll try to write a little bit about my general thoughts of each of these books as I read thro Coming back to reread this at a tough point in my life, when I really needed some literary comfort food, so to speak, I was incredibly impressed by how well this famous book held up. Over the years, I'd read it many times, but it has probably been close to 15 or 20 years since the last reread. I'm pleased to say that it was just as entertaining as it was when I was a kid, reading it for the first time. I'll try to write a little bit about my general thoughts of each of these books as I read through the series again in order, back to back, without going too far in-depth.

Sorcerer's Stone (Philosopher's Stone in the original version) has its own unique identity, since it's the book that started the series and had to do the lion's share of world-building, which is the most important part of any fantasy series. How well I like a fantasy book tends to depend on both the depth and, more importantly, the charm of its inner world. And the one word I kept coming back to after reading this first book is "charm." Its plot and depth of character is nowhere near as complex as the later books, but on a page-by-page level, Rowling's charm is as strong here as it would be a decade later in her lengthier works. The episodic nature of this book contrasts to the more flowing nature of the later books, but it also helps the images and scenes from this book last in my mind through the years. I still remember as a kid actually feeling some fear reading the sequence where Harry goes into the Forbidden Forest.

Maybe not the best of the series, but I still was highly impressed coming back to this. Rowling makes it seem effortless, which I think is the highest compliment I can pay to her writing. It can't be easy to make books that make you want to turn the page this quickly, even when you know what's going to happen next. In some ways, I was spoiled growing up on this, since I've only very rarely been satisfied after reading this fantasy series (the Lord of the Rings is one of those exceptions). ...more

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