Sunday 1 March 2015

Februray Reading Wrap Up

February, my month of Harry Potter, has been really productive month of reading for me! It had been such a long time since I read the Harry Potter series and I had been missing it terribly! I had originally dedicated February to just reading the 7 books in the series, but I read them a lot faster than anticipated and got a lot more books read then planned!
These were the books I read in February...
Yep, that's a total of 11 books! Well done me! Amazingly, I have somehow managed to get through a whopping 4256 pages!!! This is about 152 pages a day, which is great for me! I'm still in shock that I managed to read so much... I've come to the conclusion that I unknowingly acquired a Time Turner and spent the extra hours with my books!

Right, on to the reviews!
I have already posted a Series Review for Harry Potter, which you can see by clicking here.
I will review the other books now.

Having read the whole series 24 times now and having watched the films more times than I'd like to think,  I have classified myself as a Harry Potter Super Fan (or Potterhead) for a very long time. I got this book as more of a souvenir, than an information book because I assumed it would be a lot like other books of the same kind, repeating information you can just as easily find online, in the books, or by visiting the Studios. I was so wrong! Despite me having visited the Studio Tour in the UK and the theme park in Florida, watching every documentary on the series there has ever been and reading almost all of the fact books on the series already, this book was packed with information I never knew!
I scoured through every single one of the 531, A4 sized pages, absolutely fascinated by it all! While there was still basic information about all of the characters, animals and settings in the films, which I already knew, there was loads of information on the casting process, how they filmed different scenes and how the different things the four directors brought to the films. I absolutely loved this book; it was far better than I had anticipated and I now feel so much more knowledgeable about Harry Potter (which is really saying something!). The author, Bob McCabe, must have really done his research to produce this and I'll be sure to pick up his other books if he writes anything similar! If you're a fan of Harry Potter and have read the books and watched the films, this is the book for you!


I am lucky enough to own the gorgeous hardback box set of the Hogwarts Library Collection, which is made up of Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
While these books aren't really story books and don't have a general plot, they're great resources of information for any Harry Potter fan! For anyone who doesn't recognise these books from the series, the first two are text books, used by Harry and his friends for research, and the last one is a collection of children's stories; sort of the equivalent of Cinderella and Snow White, but for young witches and wizards instead of Muggle children.

Quidditch Through the Ages is the duplicated version of the book found in Hogwarts' library, much to the discomfort of Madam Pince, the school librarian. It is complete with odd games of 'Noughts and Crosses', doodles, and scrawled in information from the students, which makes it quite funny to read. As the title suggests, it is about the wizarding sport of Quidditch (a sort of football cross basketball, played on brooms). It contains everything you need to know about the origins of the game, how it's played, the different positions, modern day teams and the rules of the game. While some of the information can be found in the Harry Potter books themselves, this book is a great collection of all of the information and includes even more! I really enjoyed reading about the history of Quiddtich and how it came to be. It was really interesting, even though I've read it before.

In a similar way to the first book, Fantastic Beasts is a duplicate of Harry's copy and is filled with his, Ron's and Hermione's notes and scribbles inside. I found it so interesting to read all about the creatures the series didn't elaborate on much. In the books, we hear a lot about Centaurs, Unicorns, Flobberworms and Hiffogriffs, but less about the creatures like Plimpies, Nogtails, and Billywigs!
Like Quidditch Through the Ages, this book was another great insight into the Wizarding World and is great for all Potterheads!

The last book of the three, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, is a collection of five short stories for children of the wizarding world, including The Tale of the Three Brothers, which is included in Deathly Hallows. Not only were the stories really creative and meaningful for children, but Albus Dumbledore's notes on them really helped you get a greater understanding of their significance.
All of the stories were fun and cleverly written (even if The Warlock's Hairy Heart was a little shocking, even for me!), but I think my favourite was The Fountain of Fair Fortune as it was the kind of story I liked to be told as a small child. The morals of the stories were great for children, even those of the muggle kind! I really loved them.


Well, that's February sufficiently wrapped up now. I'm hoping to read a couple of stand-alone novels before re-reading the Divergent series so that I'm all ready for Insurgent's film release later in March. Hopefully I can keep up this great pace!

I'll be back for more reviews soon, but bye bye for now!

Charlotte xxx

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