The Harry Potter Challenge

Welcome to the new blog! We are going to use this as a space to talk about our experiences of reading books together - starting now. We are two literature-loving ladies, one a hot-shot scientist studying a PhD at Imperial College London (Lucia), and the other a self-employed crafter messing around with animal fibres and handmade things.

Lucia and I have taken on a new challenge from June 2015. We aim to read all of the Harry Potter books from beginning to end over the course of the next seven months, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. We'll blog about the experience, and this is where you can come to read about it.

Lucia left, Corrie right, Minyi in the middle!
About to go on the Harry Potter Walking Tour of London.

We will naturally have a different perspective on things. While we are both huge lovers of Harry Potter, we have different relationships with the series.

Corrie's HP Story

I found out about Harry Potter in December 1999, when my Godfather's children brought the series on holiday to my home in Kariba, Zimbabwe. The Prisoner of Azkaban had come out a few months earlier, and I devoured the books with extreme joy.

Four months later my family was abruptly uprooted from Zimbabwe, and came to live in England. Although we had a limited budget, my parents obliged me by buying the first three books in the series. I got the Goblet of Fire for my birthday when it came out, and thus started a happy career of receiving Harry Potter books as birthday presents, my birthday happily falling a few days within the release date every year a book was released.

Not only do I have my set of first editions,
but I also have the new illustrations thanks to Lucia

I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a mere 8 hours whilst working in Zambia on a three month placement. I cried several times, and immediately upon finishing it, read it again cover to cover.

This started a long tradition that has not yet died. I acquired the audiobooks when I returned to England, and have since had the books on rotation in my MP3 player or on my phone. The connection that I have with the series as a result of those turbulent few months when we had first arrived here gives me a huge sense of peace and comfort. This has been particularly important as I have struggled with my mental health in recent years - panic attacks were often countered by going to bed with the audio books in my ears.

When Lucia approached me suggesting we work on this challenge, I accepted with joy. To make a change from the over-and-over-and-over pattern of the audiobooks, I will be reading them in physical form. Lucia bought me a full set of the books when the illustrated covers by Jonny Duddle were released, and I'm looking forward to getting started!

June is Philosopher's Stone month!

I hope you enjoy the journey - who knows what will come of it, but I know it will be pleasant whatever it is!

Much love,

Corrie xx

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