Shane Life

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
By J.K. Rowling
Rating: 9 out of 10

OK, I didn’t TECHNICALLY read this book. I listened to it. I got the audiobooks of all of the Harry Potter books and loaded them up on my ipod for this weekend’s trip to Iowa (more on that in another post).

I absolutely thought this book was terrific. I can’t really claim that I read it, but I did put in the time to listen to all 169 tracks on my ipod. (I’m not sure on the actual length…I think it was about 8 hours total). I now understand a little better what everyone has been talking about. I’m sure that the experience is similar when actually reading the books, but I found myself lost in the world of Hogwarts.

Jim Dale provides the narration of the book (apparently for all six of the books that have been released up to this point) and he is fantastic. He provides character and voice to each of Rowling’s creations from Hagrid, the lovable giant, to Draco Malfoy, Harry’s class nemesis, to Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster at Hogwarts. As much as I would like to claim that I read these, I can’t help but think that I would actually rather listen to them and Mr. Dale is a large part of that.

I have long resisted the Harry Potter phenomenon. I’m not sure why. Many people told me that I would love the books…well, they were right about the first one. I’ve added Book 2 to my “Currently Reading” list. I have 3 books on there right now and technically, I’m actively reading all 3. We’ll see what happens. My brain might explode or something.