Books From My Younger Days: Rereading The Sorcerer’s Stone

Lately, I’ve been reading books that I really enjoyed as a kid, so I thought I might start a little series on them and see how my perception has changed, for the good or the bad.  So, I wanted to start with an easy series: Harry Potter. I’ll just look at the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, here but if this reread of the first-in-the-series young adult book is any indication, I can’t wait to get through the series again.

I know it’s almost cliche but I really enjoy Harry Potter for a lot of reasons and I remember when I first got this book.  My mom, who is a teacher, had been gifted The Sorcerer’s Stone by one of her students and it wasn’t really the type of thing she read so she passed it off to me.  Mind you, I was in my freshman year of college by this time so I wasn’t the original target audience in all likelihood.

While it was a young adult book in terms of the plot complexity, the imagination and the world-building that went into this book is something that still leaves me in awe.  I loved The Sorcerer’s Stone and read it in less than a week.  It was also close to Christmas when I got it so I kindly asked Santa for the others that had been released, which at the time was up to The Goblet of Fire.

Another thing I really enjoyed about the book and the series is that it was the beginning of a reading revival for many folks.  I know there have been some questionable books that have sparked a reading frenzy, which might not be the best of books we have to offer (I’m looking at you Fifty Shades) but Harry Potter created a new world for fans.  Not only that, it sparked the imagination of so many, taught us about courage, the value of friends, and the need to do what’s right even if it breaks the rules. I loved returning to Hogwarts and this book has held up well for me.  I hope if you’ve not read The Sorcerer’s Stone in a while (or even at all) you might join me in rereading this little book that launched a literary empire and allowed us to make friends with a group of young wizards that went on to do great and fantastic things.