Tuesday 27 May 2014

Book 66 of 2013: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

On Boxing Day I realised I was going to need some reading material that would keep me going until the end of the year. It's one of my (many) weird little quirks that I don't like to end a year on an unfinished book. There's something about getting up on the 1st of January and starting a fresh book, or maybe it's not wanting too much baggage from the year before. Whatever the reason, I needed to find a book that I could either read quick enough to move onto another quick read before the year was out, or that I could take my time over and so drag out until New Year's Eve.  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets it was.  
 I've lost track of the number of times that I've read this. I first read the first four when I moved to Scotland and I like to reread them fairly frequently. Earlier in the year I'd read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for my course so this seemed like a good excuse to start rereading all the others.  Of all the books Chamber of Secrets is my least favourite. I like it more now that I've read the later books - particularly Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows - because it obviously links closely to those books and so I can appreciate those more on these rereads. I'm not sure exactly what it was that made me dislike this one. Even on this reread I couldn't pick out what it was that annoys me about it. It just does.  That said, it's really clever the way that it links to the future book. I love to pick out the one line references to things that don't crop up again for another five books. It just shows how much thought and planning went into this series. It's not until going through them on later rereads that you actually pick up on them all.  I do like the way that this book is kind of a mystery, with the kids trying to solve the mystery of the Chamber. All the little clues are given to help follow along with them as they try to work it out. The problem is, there's not really a sense that they won't do it. You know that they're going to get everything worked out in the end because they survived Voldemort in the last book so this time it should be a breeze. I like that this is the final book to follow this pattern and after this one the characters really start to mature.  I think that two of the things that do bug me with this book is Professor Lockhart (who I like a lot more once he loses his memory) and Dobby's hamfisted attempts to get Harry to stay away from Hogwarts. Again, I like Dobby later in the series so I think it's just this actual book.
I did manage to get it finished before the end of the year, at about 10pm on New Year's Eve in fact, so I was able to start a new book at the start of the year. I was particularly impressed because I hadn't done much reading over the Christmas break so I had to read roughly half the book within the space of bout six hours. I did it with time to spare!

8 comments:

  1. I need to re-read this one. My nephew, who has severe social anxiety, loves listening to these books on tape. He is often listening to them when I come by to visit.
    Thank you for paying a visit to Crazy Town In Looney Land.

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    1. I would love to get the audiobook versions of the Harry Potter books. I've heard bits of them, read by Stephen Fry, and I could quite happily have him reading me bedtime stories every night.

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  2. I have reread this book many times as well. My son started reading them over the summer last year and so far this one is his favourite.

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    1. I'm glad he's enjoying them. It's great to see the stories being taken up by new readers. :-)

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  3. Can't be mid-book on December 31st? That's an interesting quirk.

    It's interesting that that one book annoys you. I wonder why. By the time you figure it out, I bet the book will grow on you and become one of your favorites.

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    1. I'm a quirky sort of person. ;-) There used to be a time when I didn't like to end the month on an unfinished book. I'm getting better.

      I recently read another review of it and I suspect that my reason for not finding it quite as enjoyable is because it spends a lot of time rehashing ground that was covered in the previous book.

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  4. I'm the same, this was my least favourite for a long time, but I don't mind it so much now. Like you said, it's so much more interesting reading it after I've read the rest of the series. So much foreshadowing!

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    1. People seem to fall into one of two camps on this one, they either really like this one or it's the least favourite. But since I've read the whole series it has grown on me a lot more. :-) Like you said, all the foreshadowing!

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Let me know what you think. :-)