Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

I recently decided to re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This is as much due to my lack of self restraint as it is to the quality of the books themselves. (Not that the books are lacking in quality, I am just completely unable to resist). The public library’s well stocked rows of several Harry Potter volumes call to me. I just can’t resist putting away the adult fiction for the wonderful wizardry that is Harry Potter.

I don’t know how important it is for me to provide a summary in this case, since I think most people are at least loosely familiar with the storyline, but I’ll do my best. In this first book of the seven-volume Harry Potter series, an orphaned, eleven-year-old Harry Potter discovers he is a wizard and begins his schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, he befriends fellow students Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and encounters the dark wizard Voldemort.

There isn’t much that I can say about the merits of the series that hasn’t been said before, so I’ll stick to a couple general observations. First, I never fail to be impressed by J.K. Rowling’s foresight. It as if she had every detail of all seven books planned out in advance. She has said before that she always knew how she would end the series, but I’ve never heard her quoted as saying that she had every detail planned before she starts. It really seems like she did.

The Harry-Dumbledore relationship progresses wonderfully through the series, similar to that of a real life relationship with a mentor. After the final six books of the series, it is easy to forget how little the two knew of each other at the beginning. This isn’t news to anyone who has read the series, but it is nice to back up and remember the beginning. If nothing else, I hope that by praising the books, I can convince other fans to re-read them, and possibly persuade some new readers to pick them up.