It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about me.  Whether it’s something I’m loving at the moment, my sweet family, or just one of my quirks!  So with the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child earlier this week, I thought I would let you guys in on a little secret.

I love the Harry Potter books.

In my opinion, JK Rowling did such an incredible job writing these books in a way that children and adults can’t help but continue reading the story.  And her imagination and vocabulary??  Y’all.  It’s amazing.  Not only does she create an entire world of characters, animals, shops, candy names, spells and a sports game (I never would have come up with the word Quidditch on my own.  Not in a million years.) but she uses the term higgledy piggledy in one of her books.  Why do I even know this word, you may ask?  Well, in the dictionary I had at home and used through high school, it was one of the guide words at the top of a page so I flipped by it countless times growing up.  I’ve read a good many books in my life and have NEVER seen this word anywhere other than my dictionary and now one of the Harry Potter books.

I’m not going to tell you how many times I’ve read and/or listened to each of the 7 books because honestly, I lost count ages ago.  And at this point, my favorite thing is to listen to them in the car because with a toddler at home and a business to run and a husband I enjoy spending time with, reading on the couch hasn’t happened in quite a while.  Jim Dale narrates the books and it’s like listening to a multi-cast play but it’s just one man!  Plus, who doesn’t love listening to British accents for hours on end??

Anyway, years ago when I was traveling a lot, I began picking up copies of Harry Potter in various countries.  I only ended up with a couple different languages, but I did manage to get 4 of the British covers over the course of several trips to Canada.  In the photo below, the top left is the British cover (and title) for the first book.  The top right is the third book in French.  The bottom left is the fifth book in Ukrainian.  And the bottom right is of course the seventh book from the States.

I’ve read each of the British versions I own.  I can’t even attempt to read the Ukrainian one!  And every once in a while I pick up the French one to read a page or two.  I haven’t read a full French novel since college so it’s a bit of an undertaking to think about doing that right now!

All of my American copies are paper back and have creases down the spines.  And I love seeing them so worn!  I’ve seen each of the movies several times and went to the midnight premier for almost all of them.  Ben and I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal on our 1st anniversary trip to Disney and I LOVED every second of it!

If you’ve made it this far in this post, you must be a Harry Potter fan too :-)  But if you’re not, that’s really ok!  Whatever your beliefs on the books and how they might relate to your faith, if you think they promote witchcraft, or just think it’s not a good subject to put into your head, that’s completely fine.  But hear me when I say that if you enjoy a good fiction novel, if you appreciate creativity and entertainment, if you like getting lost in a good book on a rainy day, then these books are amazing.

Happy Wednesday, friends!