To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one. ~Chinese saying

Greetings, my friends.

Yes, I have created another blog. I have two already, one for my thoughts and nonsense, and the other for the poetry that I write. This one, however, is where I will record the books I read and what I think about them, and of course, if I would recommend them to you. I probably won't update this blog often, especially while in the midst of college, but I shall do my best. This first post is going to pay homage to a series which became an instant classic when the first book was released --

Harry Potter.

I reread (again!) the entire series in a month, just shy of a month ago. Let me tell you, seven books is a lot to read in that amount of time. But I had set myself a goal of finishing book seven before classes began. Unfortunately, I did not quite meet that goal, but I was finished within the first week of class! Now, I reread this series not only because the first part of the seventh movie is being released in November, but because this is a series which holds such a dear place in my heart. I feel as if Harry Potter and Ron Weasley are my best friends. I don't include Hermione Granger in this merely because I feel as if I am her. In all the literature that I've read in my life, there hasn't been a character I could identify more closely with. Maybe a close second would be Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, or perhaps Jo March in Little Women.
Why is it that stories like that of Harry Potter and his struggles against Lord Voldemort stick out so strongly in our minds? I think it is because in stories like these, good triumphs over evil in the end. The bad guys may win some of the battles, but they don't win the war. That's not the way it works. We as humans want something like this. In spite of all the bad things in our world, we want to know that good will win out. We want to have that hope.
Being a Christian, I do have that hope. It is the hope for eternity, that all that is unclean and "bad" will be destroyed in the end. So many Christians who see the Harry Potter series as promoting the occult need to look more closely. These are not books about the magic specifically; the world the story is set in is magical, but there are clearly defined lines between good magic and Dark magic. This is no different than Chronicles of Narnia, or Lord of the Rings.

My point is, I love the Harry Potter series and the characters as if they were my own friends and family. I can return to Hogwarts School at any time in my mind if I just open one of the books. I think this is what great books are supposed to be -- close friends that we may turn to at any moment we need them.