Reading Goals Behind and Ahead

I always set a few reading goals for myself for the year, just to help me focus my reading a bit.  Since we're saying goodbye to 2021 and hello to 2022, it's time to see how I did with my goals for the past year, then talk about my goals for the coming year.  

(All photos are mine from my Instagram account.)

2021 Goals

Overall Goal

I set myself the goal of reading 55 books in 2021.  I read 110.  WHAT?!?!  That is more books than I've read in one year in my entire adult life.  Including the four years after college but before kids.  I think it's because, every week, my older daughter takes 90-minute gymnastics lessons, my younger daughter takes 30-minute swimming lessons,  and my son takes 1-hour fencing lessons.  Those are nice, regular chunks of time for me to spend with a book.

My Year with Harry Potter

I wanted to reread all seven original Harry Potter books in one year, and I did it!  And it was fantastically fun.

(No question who my favorite HP character is, huh?)

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2021

I set myself the goal of reading 24 books off my physical TBR shelves.  When I hit that goal, I doubled it to 48.  My final numbers: 62 read, 65 unshelved... but also 112 new unread books acquired, so my total number of unread books went from 527 to 512.  Which is progress, but not huge progress.  Still, better than a stick in the eye.

Diverse Reads

I'm working on reading more books by and about people from different cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, and abilities than my own, and I've challenged myself to read 12 such books a year.  That's roughly one a month, though it doesn't always shake out exactly that way. It keeps me mindful of reading about people who are different from me in some way.  I read 15 diverse books in 2021, so I definitely succeeded there.

(These candles are from Northanger Soapworks.)

Sense and Sensibility Read-along

I lead a chapter-by-chapter read-along of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen here on my blog beginning in March and ending in May.  It was incredibly fun!  I'd missed leading read-alongs, even though they're pretty time-consuming, and I may try leading another this summer.  If you've got suggestions/wishes for that, let me know in the comments.

Overall, I am really happy with my 2021 reading!  I would like to have made better progress clearing out unread books... but the fault is in my buying more books, not in my reading, and I did hit my goals, so yay!

(All set to begin new reading adventures!)

2022 Goals

Overall Goal

I'm keeping this at 55 this year.  You never know, I may get weirdly busy or something.  That's a little more than one a week, so I like it.

(Um, yes, I love bookish candles.)

My Year with Irene Kelly

I started reading the Irene Kelly series by Jan Burke back in 2012.  I started with book nine by accident, then went back and read the first three... and then, well, book four was never in at my library branch, and I never remembered to put it on hold so I could get it from any of the other branches.  And then the library got rid of the whole series a few years later.  So I've been hunting them down at used book stores for years, and I finally gave up and got the rest from AbeBooks.  Which means I have all eleven of them now, and I'm going to read the whole series in the correct order.  Four will be rereads, but seven will count for my Unread Shelf Project, so that's a nice intersection of challenges.

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2022

My new goal this year is simply to get myself under 500 unread books on my shelves, and then stay there.  Regardless of how many books I read.

(My bullet journal gives me a reason to buy stickers.)

Disney Origins Bookclub

Some Instagram friends are hosting a year-long buddy read project of lots of things that Disney movies are based on.  Check out #DisneyOriginsBookclub to learn more.  I won't be participating every month, but I want to do at least six of the reads.

Diverse Reads

Once again, I intend to try to read 12 books by and/or about people from ethnicities, cultures, and backgrounds different from my own.

(The couch in our library, where I often curl up with a book.)

Here are some fun statistics:

110 books read, total

35 rereads

11 nonfiction

15 diverse reads

6 read aloud to my kids

6 audiobooks

1 e-book

How about you?  Got any bookish goals or hopes or dreams or plans?

My Favorite Reads of 2021

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl to share the best books I read in 2021.  As has been my wont for the past few years, I have two top ten lists for you today: my top ten favorite new reads and my top ten favorite rereads.

I've linked all titles to my reviews; for some of the rereads, that link goes to whatever my most-recent review of the book may be, as I don't always review rereads, especially if I've reviewed them two or three times before.

New Reads:

1. The Beautiful Ones (PG) by Emily Hayse  -- breathtakingly good book two of Knights of Tin and Lead, a series that's retelling the Arthurian legends in a magical Wild West setting.

2. Swallows and Amazons (G) by Arthur Ransome -- enchanting stories of a wild and unfettered island summer for some siblings and their friends.

3. On These Black Sands (PG-13) by Vanessa Rasanen -- rollicking pirate fantasy adventure filled with romance, mystery, and handsome pirates.

4. Elizabeth and Her German Garden (PG) by Elizabeth von Arnim -- semi-autobiographical epistolary novel that makes me laugh a lot.

5. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (G) by Karina Yan Glaser -- delightful, whimsical, kind-hearted siblings having a Christmas adventure in Harlem.

6. These War-Torn Hands (PG) by Emily Hayse -- marvelous first book of Knights of Tin and Lead with achingly wonderful scenery and archetypical characters that I just love.

7. The Last Fire-Eater (PG-13) by Charity Bishop -- the latest installment of the Tudor Throne series is my favorite yet, mainly due to the feisty, friendly title character.

8. Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend (PG-13) by Robert K. DeArment -- biography of the Old West legend that left me wanting more.  Happily, there's a sequel about his later life!

9. Land of Hills and Valleys (PG) by Elisabeth Grace Foley -- vintage-feeling western that filled me with nostalgia.

10. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (PG-15) by Frederick Douglass -- enlightening, electrifying account of Frederick Douglass's early life as a slave and his escape to freedom.

Rereads:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo (PG-16) by Alexandre Dumas -- my second-favorite book of all time.  It gallops along, and I didn't want it to end.

2. The Blue Castle (PG) by L. M. Montgomery (PG) -- I reread this on January 1 and 2, and I plan for it to be my first read of this coming year too.  Because I completely love it, but I don't want to reread it so often that the sparkle dims from over-familiarity.

3. Shane (PG) by Jack Schaefer -- an unfairly wonderful book.  Unfair because I will never write a book this excellent.

4. Jane of Lantern Hill (G) by L. M. Montgomery -- this might now be my kids' favorite LMM book; I read it aloud to them this spring, and I think they've all reread it themselves a time or two after that.

5. The Enchanted April (G) by Elizabeth von Arnim -- this book refreshes me, and I love that about it.

6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PG) by J. K. Rowling -- my favorite Harry Potter book, which introduces my favorite Harry Potter character!  Just perfect.

7. Sense and Sensibility (PG) by Jane Austen -- I read the annotated version while leading a read-along, and it was such a joy.

8. Little Town on the Prairie (PG) by Laura Ingalls Wilder -- another one I read aloud to my kids, and we all loved it.

9. Trouble is My Business (PG-13) by Raymond Chandler -- none of the these are my favorite Chandler short stories, but they're delicious anyway.

10. North and South (PG) by Elizabeth Gaskell -- I liked it even better this second time through, as I knew about the rushed-feeling ending and was prepared for it.

You can check out my previous end-of-the-year top ten lists on this page.  They go back to 2014!

Did you share an end-of-the-year top ten list?  Drop a link in the comments so I can check it out!

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J. K. Rowling

This is only the second time I've read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I read it once back in 2007, the night was released, which was a wild ride.  And now, I've finally read it again.  I liked it better this time through, though I still agree with my original assessment that it's about a hundred pages too long.  It takes a long time to get going, and I think it could have very easily lost fifty pages of preparation for Bill and Fleur's wedding and fifty pages of nothing happening while Harry, Ron, and Hermione wander around looking for Horcruxes.  

But the last two hundred pages or so are breathtaking in their beauty and perfection.  The way Rowling ties together every character arc in such satisfying, yet surprising ways just makes me giddy.  The Battle of Hogwarts can't be improved on, in my humble opinion.  Especially how Neville runs around attacking Death Eaters with plants in inventive and successful ways.  And Mrs. Weasley.  I always loved Mrs. Weasley, but she became my hero in this book.  She's one of the greatest mothers in literary history.  If you know, you know.

I love how the theme of this book is that... you don't have to be perfect to be a hero.  And you can be loved even if you have flaws.  Which is important, because there are no perfect people.  I see so many times these days where people get angry and act all betrayed when they find out someone they've lionized is not perfect.  As if anyone ever could be.  Sorry, folks, but we live in a fallen world, and not one human being is truly, wholly good in and of themselves.  No, not one.  Not you, not me, not Harry Potter or Albus Dumbledore or J. K. Rowling.  And if you can't accept that, you're dooming yourself to a lifetime of disappointment and rage.  Have fun with that.

Anyway.  I did it!!!  I reread all seven Harry Potter books this year.  And I thoroughly enjoyed them :-D  I'd say my biggest surprise this time through is how big a fan of Kingsley Shacklebolt I've become.  I never really noticed him before, but this time he just kept standing out to me as being particularly full of shiny awesome.

Particularly Good Bits:

"I'd say that it's one short step from 'Wizards first' to 'Purebloods first,' and then to 'Death Eaters,'" replied Kingsley.  "We're all human, aren't we?  Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving" (p. 440).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for non-gory torture, lots of death, and some scary imagery.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J. K. Rowling

Whew.  I blazed through this book at about four times the speed of Order of the Phoenix.  Even though I also cry during this one, it didn't have the same sort of dread for me, so I didn't keep putting off reading it.

These books continue to feel extremely timely, with social and political upheaval disrupting ordinary life, dangers encroaching on wary and unwary alike, and so on.  I particularly loved the themes of standing by your friends and offering grace to your enemies.

I feel like this book might have benefited from a little tighter editing -- there were a few places where discussions of feelings seemed repetitive, or when things got reexplained that readers should be trusted to remember.  But not to the point where I got annoyed.  There really is a LOT going on in this book, both tying together threads from previous books and setting stuff up for the next one, and most of it simply is needed!

This is the first Harry Potter book I bought my own copy of.  It was the first one to get released after I was in the fandom, and I planned to get it from the library to read, not buy a copy.  But I was working overnights at Walmart at that time, and it released at midnight one Tuesday when I was at work.  Our store was offering some kind of excellent deal on it, like 25% off the cover price for release day or something, and I ended up buying it on my way out that morning.  And was not sad that I did :-)

Only one book left in my quest to read all of Harry Potter this year!

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

"...I make mistakes like the next man.  In fact, being -- forgive me -- rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger" (p. 197).

"Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth" (p. 564-65).

"I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water.  "I am with you" (p. 578).  (This time through, that line is where I cried the most in the whole book.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for magical violence, a more liberal sprinkling of bad words than I'd remembered (but still not continuous or severe), and quite a bit of time spent kissing or daydreaming about kissing.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J. K. Rowling

It took me a couple of months to read this book.  Not because it is hard to read, or because it's 870 pages long, but because I knew what was coming at the end and I just kept dragging my feet about getting there.  Also, I was loving how much Sirius Black gets to be in this one!  He gets more page-time in it than in the previous two books combined, and I adore that.  So much Sirius.

(Spoilers in this paragraph if you haven't read this book or seen this movie.)  Of course, Sirius is also why I didn't want to get to the end of this.  Because he dies, and it's such a sudden, gut-punch kind of death that I did not want to reach it.  Interestingly, I didn't cry when he died this time.  I cried a little later, when Harry unwrapped the mirror he could have been using all this time to communicate safely and easily with Sirius, but never got around to opening.  The thought of Sirius checking that mirror over and over for months, always hoping Harry would be there, and always being disappointed really got to me.

I will admit, though, that this was a hard read because it felt horribly relevant right now.  A proliferation of little rules to try to control every aspect of someone's lives?  Rules about who can go where and with whom, demands for compliance with things individuals don't agree with, firing people for not toeing every new line drawn arbitrarily in the sand, and a general attack on personal freedoms... no, that doesn't sound familiar at all, does it?  I'm sick of it in real life, and so reading a fictional version of that was not enjoyable.  I like my reading to be a time to experience new things, not be reminded of what I'm currently going through, and that's never been truer than this past 18 months or so.  

But I did finish it.  I did enjoy it, on a whole.  I'm very much looking forward to the next book, though I have some October reading commitments that mean I might have to put off book 6 until next month.  We'll see.

Mine from my instagram

Particularly Good Bits:

"No, like all young people, you are quite sure that you alone feel and think, you alone recognize danger, you alone are the only one clever enough to realize what the Dark Lord may be planning..." (p. 496).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for a lot of danger and peril, some child abuse and torture, and more bad language than in the previous books, though still nothing strongly offensive to me.

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag (2021)

Yeah, yeah, it's the end of August, so we're past the true middle of the year, but whatever.  I saw this on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness, and again on I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read), and it looked fun, so I'm doing it too :-D  Because I haven't done a tag in like... months.  And I love tags.

I'm linking all titles to my own blog reviews when available.  All pictures are mine from my Instagram account.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2021:  This is very hard because I've read/reread some awesome books this year.  I'll just go with The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas because it was even more wonderful than I was remembering.  For the last couple hundred pages, I would pause reading at least once a chapter just to revel in how much I was loving it.  Which sometimes involved small bounces or squeals of joy, and other times involved hugging the book.  Or taking a deep breath.  Or just grinning a lot.

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2021:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling, which is my favorite Harry Potter book.  Oh, my goodness, it is so delightful!

And, yes, a lot of the reason it's my favorite is because Sirius Black is my favorite character in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Unquestionably.

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to:  Ignite by Jenna Terese.  I had it in my sidebar here as "currently reading," but it wasn't quite the right book for me right now, so I've set it aside for a bit.  I hope to read it soon, though!  It's Christian indie fiction about superheroes!  I'm sure I will enjoy it when I'm in the right mood.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:  The London House by Katherine Reay!  I'm so excited to see what she does with historical fiction.

Biggest disappointment in 2021:  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  At least it was short.

Biggest surprise in 2021:  Probably Caraval by Stephanie Garber, because YA fantasy is not my usual thing, but I inhaled that book in 2 days.  The sequels were good too, but didn't grab me as hard as that first one.  My goodness, it was such a delicious, dizzying ride!

Favorite new author in 2021:  Emily Hayse!  I absolutely adored These War-Torn Hands and want to read more of hers ASAP.  I'm eagerly anticipating the next book in this series, The Beautiful Ones, but I'm also interested in reading some of her previous books, even though they're not westerns :-o

Newest fictional crush/ship: For ship, it's Rue and Robbie in Wait Until Tomorrow by Jenni Sauer.  They were such a sweet, supportive, kind couple!

For crush, well, Declan in On These Black Sands by Vanessa Rasanen was awfully lunchable.  

Newest favorite character: Jack Selby in These War-Torn Hands by Emily Hayse.  My goodness, he was marvelous.  He made me cry, melt, cheer, sigh... all the things.  I can't wait to read more about him.

Book that made you cry in 2021: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling hit me a lot harder this time around than I was expecting.  Not just the death at the end, but so much of the growing-up stuff that Harry, Ron, and Hermione go through made me tear up a lot.

Book that made you happy in 2021: I reread Shane by Jack Schaefer while in Wyoming this summer, and it was glorious.  My goodness, that book gets better and better every time I reread it.  (And yes, I took this photo in Wyoming.)

Favorite book-to-film adaption you saw in 2021:  Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) is probably my answer for "best book-to-movie adaptation" of all time.  I rewatched it this year for the first time in quite a while and it is still magnificent.  I'm considering starting to reread Patrick O'Brian's books once I finish the Harry Potter series.  

Favorite bookish post you’ve done so far in 2021: It's not a single post, but I really enjoyed leading the Sense and Sensibility read-along this past spring!  We had so many good discussions about the characters, storylines, Jane Austen's writing, the era it takes place -- good times :-)

Most beautiful book you bought so far in 2021:  My Seasons edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  It's almost too pretty to touch.  Good thing it came with a protective vinyl sleeve so I don't have to worry about ruining the paper dustjacket!

Books you need to read by the end of the year:  The last two Harry Potter books because I want to reread the whole series in one year :-)  I'm working on Order of the Phoenix right now, but I don't know that I'll finish it by the end of August.  I might, though!  We'll see.

How about you?  Have you had any spectacular reads this year?  Did you do this tag yourself already?  If so, leave a link in the comments so we can read it!

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J. K. Rowling

So, it took me like six weeks to read this one.  Not because it's more difficult (it's not) or longer (it is) than the previous three, but because... I was dragging it out as long as I could, to be honest.  This is the last one that's super fun, before the badness and the madness descends.  This is the last full book where (spoiler alert?!?) my favorite character is alive through the whole thing.  

I do really enjoy this book, which is part of why I lingered over it.  I suspect I'll read the last three much faster because I will not want to savor them, I'll want to get through a pretty big chunk of them quickly.  Kind of like how I read through the Frodo-and-Sam-wandering-around-Mordor parts of Lord of the Rings as fast as I can so I can get back to the parts I enjoy.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for mild bad language, peril of children, and an intense and scary finale.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J. K. Rowling

This is my favorite Harry Potter book.  It's the book that made me a real fan of the series, and it's the book that gave me my favorite character in that universe, Sirius Black.

I love this book so much, I lingered over it and made it last me for days and days instead of gobbling it down like I did the first two.  I would pause at favorite bits and savor them.  I reread my favorite page in the whole series multiple times.  I stopped and reread my favorite two chapters.  I let myself savor the story, the characters, the writing.  It was a glorious reread.

Happy times.

I was very much struck, this time, with Snape's correct assessment of Harry's character flaws.  He says, "famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself.  Let the ordinary people worry about his safety!  Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences" (p. 284).  How right you are, Snape!  Harry really does think he can do just about anything, and so far, he's gotten out of some bad scrapes pretty handily that he wouldn't have really needed to get out of if he hadn't gotten himself into them in the first place.  

This is a common thing in kids books, where kids just ignore the wise adults and go their merry way and solve everything on their own by doing ridiculously dangerous things.  I'm glad Rowling addresses that issue in her series, that she shows that this is NOT a good way to go about things, especially as the series progresses.  Yes, Harry is not an ordinary boy... but he's also only a boy.  And his stubborn belief that He Knows Best does have serious consequences at times.  As Lupin says about himself and his friends at Harry's age, "We were young, thoughtless -- carried away with our own cleverness" (p. 355).  It's a dangerous business, being young and thinking you're invincible.

Part of me wants to just stop here, with a vast array of possibilities ahead for Sirius and Harry, everything hopeful and unknown.  I won't.  I'll keep rereading the series.  But I'm also going to very much enjoy the next couple of weeks before I start book four, of living in this in-between world for a bit.

(Mine from my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Meanwhile, in the rest of the castle, the usual magnificent Christmas decorations had been put up, despite the fact that hardly any of the students remained to enjoy them.  Thick streamers of holly and mistletoe were strung along the corridors, mysterious lights shone from inside every suit of armor, and the Great Hall was filled with its usual twelve Christmas trees, glittering with golden stars.  A powerful and delicious smell of cooking pervaded the corridors, and by Christmas Eve, it had grown so strong that even Scabbers poked his nose out of the shelter of Ron's pocket to sniff hopefully at the air (p. 222).

"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?" said Black, with a terrible fury in his face.  "Only innocent lives, Peter!" (p. 375).

Black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile Harry had seen upon it.  The difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask; for a moment, he was recognizable as the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding (p. 379).  (That's basically my favorite paragraph in the whole series.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some rude humor, mild bad language, peril to children, discussion of executions, and the very scary Dementors.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling

My Year with Harry Potter continues rolling delightfully along!  I basically inhaled The Chamber of Secrets in three days.  I just kept sneaking off to read it whenever I had a few minutes, and that's such a delightful way to live :-)

My plan for this year is to make myself read at least two books between each installment of the Harry Potter series so that I won't just smush them all together in my head.  And to make their joy last longer.  I do love to savor things I particularly enjoy.  And I love to anticipate things -- sometimes the anticipation can be as pleasurable as the actual experience or even itself, to be honest.  So I simply cannot pick up the next book (which is my favorite) until I finish a cople of the books I have going right now, and that is kind of killing me... but also, I'm loving how much I am looking forward to it!

I find this book SO MUCH BETTER than the first one, which I reviewed here a couple weeks ago.  Of course, it helps that we don't have to spend as much time explaining the wizarding world, though Rowling deftly catches any potential new (or forgetful) readers up to speed on things like Quidditch and the Sorting Hat and why everyone's so scared of Voldemort.  But overall, the pacing in this second book is so much tighter than in the first one.  The mystery about the Chamber of Secrets gets rolling quickly, and the book's tension builds so beautifully to the very thrilling climax.  Having high human stakes for Harry to fight to protect was extremely effective.

Once again, we have characters learning to be kind to people who are different from them, how to be a good friend instead of a wishy-washy one, and how to treat those who some would say are inferior to you.  A huge theme here is the importance of actions versus words.  Good or bad intentions are not as important or as powerful as good or bad behavior.

Also, Dobby makes me laugh a lot.  The whole book does.  Wonderful stuff.

And Mrs. Weasley is #MomGoals.

(From my Instagram account.)

Particularly Good Bits:

Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger (p. 32).

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" (p. 333). (I know that gets quoted a lot, but It's Just So True I Must Mention It.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some rude humor, children in danger, and a pretty creepy gathering of ghosts.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J. K. Rowling

I have not read the Harry Potter books since 2007, when I reread the first six books to prepare for the seventh book's release.  So, I've decided it's high time to reread the whole series, and I'm calling 2021 My Year with Harry Potter.  

I've read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone three times before, which is once more than books 2 through 6 and twice more than book 7, which I've only read once.  The reason I've read this one an extra time is that, when I was a senior in college, I did an internship working for one of my college's literature professors.  I helped her teach classes, write tests, grade tests and papers, and so on.  It was great experience that has helped me a lot in teaching my own kids, my nieces and nephews, and the kids in our homeschool co-op.  I helped primarily with two classes: Poetry and Drama, and Creative Writing.  And for Creative Writing, this was one of the books the students studied.  I hadn't read this before, so I had to quick read it so I could help teach it.

That first time through, I thought it was reasonably clever and enjoyable, but I didn't love it.  I didn't feel any desire to read more of the series, so that was that.  But in 2004, I started seeing trailers for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in the theater, and I just loved how they set Shakespeare's "Double, double, toil and trouble" to music.  Really loved it.  And, well, I quite like Gary Oldman.  So that made two reasons why I wanted to see the movie in the theater.  However, I didn't want to see the third movie in a series in the theater without having read the books first.  And possibly seen the first two movies too, so I'd know what they were doing with the stories.  

So I got the first three books and first two movies out of the library.  I reread the first one and still thought it was okay.  Read the second one and thought, hmm, this is getting pretty interesting.  Read the third one and fell madly in love with Sirius Black and the series as a whole.  Even had time to watch the first two movies before going to see the third.  Then read books four and five.  Told myself I wasn't going to buy book six when it came out, but would wait for the library to get it, and then promptly bought a copy the first night it was available because I worked at Walmart on third shift, and there it was, and I could not resist it.  And put in a preorder for the last one, which is another story for another time.

Well, this is the first time I've reread any of these since the last one came out, so it's the first time reading them with full knowledge of how everything turns out.  I have to say, that makes it really poignant to read all about Harry's beginning, and his faith in Dumbledore, and the way he gets treated by Snape, and so on.  I really liked this first book better this time through than any of the previous ones.  It made me laugh aloud so often, and chortle with glee at how cleverly Rowling was setting things up for even the very last book, already here.  Wow.

I think one of the things I love most about these books is the theme of standing by your friends even when you don't agree with them.  That's an idea we need more of right now -- that you can disagree with someone, but not discard or dismiss them.  That it's okay for friends to have different views and ideas and even beliefs, and that friendship is what lets people be comfortable with those differences.

Anyway, I'm eager to dive into book two, but I have to finish a couple other things first before I can.  Soon!

Oh, and if you don't know, in this book, an orphaned boy named Harry Potter learns that he is a wizard when he turns eleven and gets invited to leave his repressive and abusive aunt and uncle to go attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  

Although it has the word 'witchcraft' in the school title, this has nothing to do with actual witchcraft, black magic, the occult, or Satanism.  All the spells are humorous variations of Latin words, all the potions require pretend things like dragon teeth, and you can't do any magic at all if you aren't born a magical person.  I see no danger of this book teaching children -- or adults -- how to do magic. It is entirely, obviously imaginary.

I do see, however, that there could be a danger of people thinking that because the magic in this series is imaginary and harmless, all magic in the real world is also imaginary and harmless.  The Bible teaches us that there is such a thing as black magic, sorcery, and Satan-worship, and that we are to have nothing at all to do with them.  So I make sure my kids and I discuss the difference between fake magic like this and the stuff practiced by the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, which is harmless make-believe, and the kind of real-life magic that draws its power from Satan and which we must never get anywhere near.

Particularly Good Bits:

Harry felt a great leap of excitement.  He didn't know what he was going to -- but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind (p. 98).

"Always the innocent are the first victims," [Ronan] said.  "So it has been for ages past, so it is now" (p. 253). (In an amazing bit of coincidence, I read this part on the day of the annual March for Life.)

"Me!" said Hermione.  "Books!  And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- be careful!" (p. 287).

"Always use the proper name for things.  Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself" (p. 298).

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling.  "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.  I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom" (p. 306).  (This part makes me cry.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for a couple minor cusswords, some rude humor (looking at you, Peeves), and children in peril.

Looking Back; Looking Forward

Most of the time, I do one post wrapping up the last year's reading challenges and such, and another declaring my intentions for the new year.  However, a lot of my new challenges are just carrying on from last year, so I'm doing them all in one post this year.

A Literary Christmas (hosted by In The Bookshelf)

I said I wanted to read and review three Christmas books for this event, and I actually read six and reviewed five!  You can read them all here.  I'm sure I will participate in this event again next December, as it's always such fun to read and share Christmas books.

(All pictures are mine from my Bookstagram account.)

My Year with C. S. Lewis

I challenged myself to read at least five books by or about C. S. Lewis in 2020.  I read seven, though two of those were Narnia books, so they weren't new to me and I didn't review them on my blog.  You can read my five reviews here.

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2020

I started the year with 537 unread books.  I read more than 50 of them, and yet, I ended the year with 527 books on my unread shelves.  Um, yeah.

The lockdowns did help in that I didn't go to bookstores or thrift stores or library book sales nearly so often, but I bought quite a few books online, and some of those were the fault of lockdowns because I was comfort-buying.  I did finally start to get a handle on how to resist buying so many books, at least -- I am committed now to not buying books that just "look good," but rather to buying ones I already know I want to read.  

My original goal was to read 24 of my unread books and clear off a whole shelf in my bedroom.  Well, I read more than double that many, but I didn't clear off a shelf, so this was a half-success, half-failure.  You can read all my book reviews for this challenge here.  (I did read several that I never reviewed...)

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2021

I'm doing this challenge again this year!  You can learn more about it here at The Unread Shelf blog.  My goal this year is to read 36 books off my unread shelves AND truly clear off a whole shelf.  I have plans to move some books from my library up to my bedroom to ease my crowding problem down there, and I think that will help keep me motivated to NOT buy more books all the time.

Heidi's Lord of the Rings read-along

We are just about finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring together at Literary Adventures Along the Brandywine.  Obviously, we will be continuing this for the next few months, as we read The Two Towers and Return of the King and discuss it together there.

My Year with Harry Potter

I want to reread all 7 Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling in 2021.  I have not read any of them since the last book came out in 2007!  It's high time I revisited that magical world.

Sense and Sensibility read-along???

I am contemplating hosting a read-along of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen here this spring or summer!  It's been a couple years since a led a read-along, and I'd like to get back to it.  I'd be doing it chapter-by-chapter like before.  If that interests you, stay tuned!

Did you have any goals for last year?  Did you meet any of them?  Do you have goals for this year?  Do tell!