I Just Finished Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone at 32.

One thing I can say I’m proud of about Harry Potter is that the books were published during my generation. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in the United States in 1997. I was seven years old. I recall all the controversy surrounding the series teaching kids about magic and many Christians refusing to allow their children to read it.

I grew up in the Baptist church but my parents didn’t refuse to allow me and my sister to read Harry Potter simply because I had no interest in reading books at seven years old. Especially 300 page books.

For many people who skipped out on the Harry Potter books at least watched the movies. I didn’t even do that. Well, my wife is a Harry Potter fan. She read the books when they were released and she loves the series so much that I bought her the Harry Potter series DVD set for one of her birthdays. So when my wife binged the Harry Potter movies I occasionally watched them with her but I wasn’t paying attention.

It wasn’t until I went to Universal Studios in Los Angles that I learned about the four houses in Harry Potter by seeing all the kids wearing the different color robes. I was amazed to see kids that were born in the 2000s to have interest in Harry Potter. If they hadn’t read the books then they surely saw the movies. The last film in the Harry Potter series released in 2011. And if that wasn’t late enough to introduce the 2000s generation to Harry Potter then surely the film Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them should have since the first film in the series was released in 2018 and the latest released in 2022.

So I didn’t actually read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I listened to the audiobook which I think gives it a bit more immersion to the story with the British accent and the change of tone of voice for various characters. Audible make the audiobook free until August so I figured there can’t be a better time than now to get into the series.

I must say that I really enjoyed a book that was written for children. There are some life lessons in the book that adults can take from like chapter 12: The mirror of Erised, and how we should live in the present and not get lost in dreaming.

I look forward to listening to the rest of the series and I also plan to watch the movies after I finish each book so I can fully understand what I’m watching.