Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Book Notes Blog

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Here's all my thoughts while reading it. For context, I'm on page 62 and I read the first 2 books several years ago but don't remember much of it. I saw the first movie quite a few times, played one of the video games, so I'm going in with a mostly fresh mind.

For context, I'm reading a Canadian copy with the original British spelling/puntuation. So whenever the characters talk, instead of using quotes ("), they instead use an apostrophe ('). Very strange for me, but I'll certainly get used to it. One last thing that I'll mention is that since this is a blog, don't expect some comprehensive summary of the story. Also major spoiler spoiler warning, I'll be sharing any details that stick out.

First impressions

So this book is really British, I know that US copies have changed some of the very British terminology was changed to make more sense to Americans. But anyway, this book is peak 90s, some of the gross out stuff with the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans is very typical of the era.

Along with the obvious tech in which VCRs are mentioned. The books writing has a very childish whimsical feel to it, I've heard people say that the later entries go into more Young Adult Fiction territory, but I really like the classic Scholastic kids book approach and I'm glad that it's going to stay like that in the 2nd book.

More progress

I'm almost at around the end of the Diagon Alley section which does a pretty good job at building lore.

Harry is now at Hogwarts, I wonder if there's a sort of hidden meaning to the fact that the sorting hat wanted him to be a Slytherin so much. I don't really know the details yet of what about someone's personality determines which house they'll be in.

Not sure why Draco Malfoy hates Harry so much that he's willing to try to get him expelled. Also I noticed that in the book, Professor McGonagall sees Harry flying the broomstick and appoints him to be a Seeker for Quidditch instead of Mrs. Hooch. I definitely remember Hooch making Harry a Seeker in the movie. But I guess I'll have to rewatch the movie once I'm done with the book.

Near the end already

So I'm around chapter where Harry and Hermione are in the forest serving detention, yeah I really made progress fast. I still really like the simplistic artstyle. I do wish that the book showed Harry using more spells, which I heard was a common complaint of this entry. I'm curious to see what's Snape up to, since his behavior has been so shady.

Man those centaurs from the forbidden forest are weird. They speak in riddles and space out, ironically, they're obsessed with planets.

At the end

Finished the book last week, while I very much enjoyed the book, I think the ending was a little anticlimactic. No big battle, no casting spells against Quirrel/Voldemort. There's also no explanation as to why Voldemort doesn't have a body of his own except for the possibility that he lost it when trying to kill Harry as a baby. Regardless, it's just the first book. One critique people have for this book is that Harry never casts any spells at all. I think it's understandable since he's used to the muggle world, so using magic is very alien to him. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading Chamber of Secrets next. So I want to thank anyone who read this.