Books I Should Have Read Already, Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone

People find this shocking but I don't read much fantasy. I do enjoy playing fantasy but reading it, not my jam. In college I read all of the Lord of the Rings books and I was permanently scarred by the endless songs in them! More than enough. 

So, when I tell people that I have never seen or read anything Harry Potter related its also a bit of a shock. Note that being "nerdy" or "geeky" is now the culture so why would I have missed out?* Unless I actively was avoiding it. Not everyone reads comics books but everyone has seen the MCU movies, right? Harry Potter has seven core books, major movie, a theme park, spin off movies, and a rabid madcap fanbase. First book came out in 1997 so I was in the exact demographic for this book  back in the 7th grade. What was I reading then? X Wing novels, dear readers. Loads of X-Wing novels by Aaron Alston, Michael Stackpole, etc.

Decades into the HP phenomenon this is all I know about HP

• That episode of The Office where they go to the lake and pick team names
• In college the music school had this both physical and cultural cloister to it. In a campus of brutalist structure here was a concrete, glass and, wood (Yes, wood) amalgam of cubes from a lonely quad. And music school kids called everyone else Muggles. "And that means, what?" I would ask to many puzzled looks. 
• A co-worker once told me she was Hufflepuff and this coworker is very cute so I was "Oh, let me do this Sorting Hat thing" and I so wanted Hufflepuff and then I got Gryffindor. Which at the time I was majorly bummed but now I get it. 
• Quidittch is a sport in the world akin to Blitzball or Calvinball that people have leagues for.
• JK Rowling is now canceled due to her virulent anti-trans stances**

 Note I also have this stubborn penchant of wanting to see/experience things in their original media before the adaptation. Never seen any of the movies, so perfect time to read those books? . Twenty three years later I am still awkward and just read it so, lets go. 

It's fun! Loads of nods to hackneyed tropes on wizards and witches that feel quite fresh and note this is me reading it twenty something years later, after its influence has taken. I mean Harry himself is flat as a sheet of paper*** but the world is something for sure! Feeling both present (the modern day notes o video games, real world locations, trains, and holidays) and also aged and classic it all feels like an "old past." Or something from a parallel world. Lore really carries the day here with the references to ancient tomes and creatures. I now finally get those Jelly Belly beans my son loves where some flavors are gross like booger. And the collectible cards in the Chocolate Frogs? What a nice touch. These are real world super heroes. I want to explore this world more. How do they gather unicorn hair? How do they make the wands from all the wood and fibers? I want to see the Hogwarts greenhouse. More lore! MORE!

Some more quick asides

• Hagrid and Ron Weasely are my mans. I hope they don't die.
• While I chuckle at the name Slytherin (This is like Dick Dastardly), I do appreciate them as sort of this chaotic good like Esper in MTG.
• You go to Hogwarts for like umpteen years become this ace wizard/witch and then...what? Hermoine's parents are dentists, right. It seems like Hogwarts just created career academics. "Study hard, Potter. Then maybe you will get tenure."
• Ending is way too much a dues ex machina. Not even against the idea of someone swooping in and saving the day but the fade to black and then happy days that irks me. We spent five chapters setting up how shitty the Durdsleys were. Can we get a few more pages of the final battle?! 

I have the second book already tabbed so stay tuned!

*I have also never seen/read/watched any Dr. Who or Battlestar Galactica. Blog posts to come?!

**Quick aside and chain of rabbit hole...MTG Twitter is very vocal and like many Twitter cultures circular and insular with "celebrities." Many very vocal MTG Twitter folks are LGBTQ including numerous trans folks. So, that is where I learned about the cancelling JK Rowling and I will admit I have only cursorily scanned the issue but in support I will say all the HP books I got are from libraries or second hand. So, no royalties for her from me. 

***He does grow for sure just that he is more a vessel to keep the story going.