Cavalcade of Awesome

Two days, my friends. Two days and I will have Harry Potter Book 7 in my sweaty little palms. Oh that moment will be sweet. So sweet. Possibly even bittersweet, because I’ll know, that this is it. The end. Now I’m depressed.

Enough of that! Welcome to Part 2 of my Harry Potter book reviews. As you can see below this, I have reviews of Harry Potter books 3 – 6 ready to go. If you missed the first reviews including books 1 – 3 then click right here. If you read those already, then you, my Potter-fied little friend, are ready to move on to the conclusion. Continue below for the 3 books that lead into Saturday’s long awaited adventure.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Goblet of Fire was released in Spring of 2000. I had preordered the book on Amazon and it arrived, I believe, on the day of release. That makes Goblet of Fire the first book I bought on release day. This was also the first book to really get long. I mean this book was twice as long as Prisoner of Azkaban. Also, this was the first book I remember everyone, including the media, go absolutely crazy for on release day. The popularity for the Harry Potter series literally exploded right before this book and it’s probably because the book before it was so gosh-darn good. I didn’t read it right away because I wanted to savor the flavor a bit, and later that year I would begin reading it. This book was good. It was long, and packed with so much information and action that it’s almost hard to grasp the entire situation, but the book was GOOD. The Tri-Wizard Tournament? The Quidditch World Cup? Mad-Eye Moody? Dragons? Are you kidding me? AWESOME. And the end? The battle in the graveyard? Classic. Completely blown away. I’ve read this book several times and I can’t wait to read it again. This book really ups the ante for our hero and the ending really kick starts everything that happens in the next 2 books. The sheer orgy of action and story that falls forth from this book is almost intoxicating and had me itching for the next chapter. Unfortunately, I didn’t know at the time, that the next book would take a little longer to release.

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Potter-palooza continues!!!!

This is it. This is the home stretch to the last and final Harry Potter book, Year 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Will all of our questions be answered? Is Professor Snape good or bad? Is Dumbledore really dead? Will someone else die? Will Voldemort finally be defeated? Will Harry become an Auror? Will he go back to Hogwarts for his seventh year? Who knows? I don’t. I hope at least some of these questions are answered in some form or another. Regardless, there will be no more Harry Potter adventures. I don’t even know if JK Rowling will continue writing books, much less continue stories in the Potter universe. This is a momentous occasion. We are on the brink, and it’s f’n KILLING ME.

Thank goodness I at least had the deliciousness of a new Potter movie (which is FANTASTIC by the way) to tide me over. Now I gotta sit here and wait for Saturday. That should be the theme of this week; Potter-palooza: Waiting for Saturday. In preparation for the momentous occasion on Saturday, I am going to take a look back at the first 6 books in the Potter series. Are you ready? No? Well catch up, people, cause it’s time to roll out.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – The first book was published in the summer of 1997. It would take a year or so for the word of mouth to really get started. Take a glance at the Time magazine cover at the top of this article. It was published in September 1999. I was flying to/from Tampa and saw this magazine in the airport. I was wondering, “Who the hell is this Harry Potter and how did he make the cover of Time magazine?” Word had really been getting around and I was curious. Having just finished a book and nothing left to read, I wandered into the airport book store and browsed a paperback copy of the first book. By this point in time the second book was already published and the third book was just getting ready to come out the following summer. I decided to buy the first book and see if it was any good. Little did I know that this would start a love of the series that was almost embarrassing. This first book introduces you to the entire universe of Harry Potter. You see Hogwarts, Hagrid, Dumbledore and Harry meets Ron and Hermione on the Hogwarts Express for the first time. It’s all new and shiny. It’s a great underdog story because you see how really badly Harry is treated by his aunt and uncle and how he goes from living in a cupboard under the stairs to being one of the most famous wizards alive. I cry every time I read this book (well, every time I read any of these books). Unbelievable start to one of the best series of books I have ever read. If this had been no good, then I never would have picked up Book 2…

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