Guest Post from Jess Hearts Books on Harry Potter!

Since I was re-reading one of my favourite Harry Potter books for my Favs Fortnight I thought it would be a smashing time to ask the lovely Jess (whom I'm sure you know by know is one of my best friends) to write a guest post about *her* favourite Harry Potter book. Of course she happily obliged and I now bring to you her thoughts on one of her favourite series of all-time.

Welcome to the Library - Jess Hearts Books!

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For Rachel’s favourite fortnight I’m going to be talking about my ultimate favourite series which is probably a lot of people’s favourite - Harry Potter. When Rachel first approached me to do this post asking me what my favourite Harry Potter book was I couldn’t possibly decide because they all hold such a special place in my heart. Before reading the first Harry Potter book I did enjoy reading but Harry Potter was the first book that made me fall in love with reading, that had me obsessed, that made me want to spend every free moment I had devouring a book. I always felt that way about it right from the very first book. 

I can still remember to this day how I first found out about Harry Potter and his world of magic. In junior school we were required to do a half hours reading in the morning during registration and the girl sitting next to me was utterly engrossed in what she was reading I noticed over the following few days that she was reading this particular book at every moment she got, sometimes even sneakily reading it under the table during a lesson.  I remember thinking what kind of book would be so good that you’d risk missing playtime by getting a detention for not paying attention? 

So intrigued I asked her what she was reading and that book of course was Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. I saved up my lunch money that week and went hungry so I could buy my own copy of the book to read (it was fairly new back then and they didn’t have it in the library) and that was it, I was hooked. Every year after that I would eagerly await the release of the latest Harry Potter book. Right from my last summer before high school up until me working and sneaking out to get my pre ordered copy of the last book. 

I grew up with those books, I grew up with the characters as if they were friends, and now I get to relive it all a little bit every year when the new film comes out. It’s played such a huge role in my life and in my love for books as I’m sure it has for many other people. Only a short while ago I bought a brand new box set of the books because my others are that battered from countless re-reading sessions over the years, especially my poor paperback copies of the first 3 books that are hanging in there for dear life!

It’s so hard for me to choose a favourite Harry Potter book. I love The Philosopher’s Stone for introducing this world to me.  I love The Chamber of Secrets for making me start keeping a diary so if I ever died a piece of my soul would live on ( Hey, I was only 13 at the time!) which made me love writing. I love The Prisoner of Azkaban for being the scariest book that I read at that age and feeling really grown up for reading it late into the night and not having nightmares.  I love The Goblet of Fire for making me believe that the hardest of challenges are possible to win. I love The Order of the Phoenix for making me feel like I’m not alone in feeling like an outcast sometimes. I love The Half-Blood Prince for showing me that true friends will always stand by you no matter what, and lastly The Deathly Hallows for showing me that even though the battle may be hard and bloody if you do the right thing you’ll always get the right outcome. 

I learnt so much from these books and learn something new every time I read them. They hold the most special of places in my heart and for that reason no matter how many books I read or how many I fall in love with the Harry Potter series will always remain my most favourite and most cherished books.

Thank you so much Jess for agreeing to do a guest post and I hope it won't be too long until you're here again (both in blog form and real life :P).

I'll be hopefully having my (rather short) review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban up later today along with an equally brief review of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So stick around for those.

Anyway I must dash, I have much to do and not a whole of time to do it in.

LadyV & Jess :D