Harry Potter

Good morning! Since I was here last we had a couple of birthdays. My mom’s on the 18^th and Andy’s yesterday. I hope they both had a good one. Joseph’s is tomorrow and is not letting any of us forget.

I took this when going on a foraging walk in New Hampshire on the 9th.

I just finished reading Harry Potter and I can’t stop thinking about all the people who thought the Harry Potter books were so awful when they were just coming out. I avoided reading them for a long time; the first one was published the same year Daniel was born and I didn’t read it until Daniel was 13, three years after the last book was published. I thought it was just a book, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, so I didn’t read any others until after 2011. Even then, the only reason I did is because Daniel said they get better after the first three and I had to find out for myself. Also, I needed the connection.

This is one of Cedric's targets from Scout Camp.

Now, I’ve just finished reading them for the second time. There is a lot more to them than first meets the eye. Thinking about about the people who thought they were so terrible, I realized that many of those people had never read the books themselves; they were basing their opinions on what they’d heard from others. That is the other reason I forged ahead and read all seven books. Guess what I found out? They’re not that bad. They’re not evil. They don’t push witchcraft and wizardry. They are at the very least a good read but beyond that they tell the story of friendship and love and sacrifice and ultimately good overcoming evil.

This is another.

I had heard that they are dark. Well, sure, there are dark times. Do we not face dark times in our own lives? I had heard that they encourage witchcraft. Hmmmm. Well, witches and wizards ARE the main characters but I never got the idea that the author was pushing anyone to delve deeper into that kind of stuff; more that she was using them to tell a story.

This is one of the ones that earned him King of the Range one of the two days he got it.

I’ve now read the Harry Potter books through twice, The Hunger Games books through twice, and the Divergent books once. If I had to put them in order of personal favorites, it would be Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Divergent, but all of them are good. (Ask me about the movies—same order, just in case you wanted to know.) Why do I like the Harry Potter books? Because I see in them similar threads as I do I The Hunger Games and Divergent. Because I think there are little nuggets to be found in all three. Because I do. Just because. And if you can’t understand why, I would suggest that you go and read them.

Not the greatest quality picture ever but these were in the front yard when we got home from somewhere. I just love baby turkeys.

I other news, I watched a movie that dealt with the Liberian Civil War recently and I am not going to comment on that at the moment but I probably will because it deals with things that are of interest to me.

In the meantime, have a wonderful day!