30 Days of Books, Day 2.

[A book you've read 3 times.]

Flipping difficult.
Flipping, flipping, difficult.
I don't really read books from beginning to end more than once. I'm one of those abhorrent folk who flick through books once they've been read and go for my favourite moments.
Anyway, consulting my bookshelf for the most dog-eared, ruined copy of a book, I have found a book I most certainly know I have read three times over.

And I don't care what America says.
This is the right cover.
*insert immature nyah*

Hands down, this was my favourite Potter novel of them all. I can't quite figure out why, but there's a weird sense of joy I get from it. Maybe it's that, while reading the novels, I feel it's here that Rowling really gets into the swing of the novels, that pure sense of adventure that hurtles through the last five books in a clearer fashion than Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.
Maybe it's the lack of Voldemort. I adore Voldemort (not in a creepy way; I'm not a huge fan of murderers but my writer-side emerges to go "That is one epically designed character" and froth), but there's something refreshing about Harry having to deal with another foe that's not Voldemort, and having to deal with things not being as they seem.
This is the novel that kicks things off for me. Yeah, the Horcrux did appear in CoS, but Pettigrew escaped in this one.

It will happen tonight. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by those who once followed. Tonight, before midnight, his servant will break free and rejoin his master, and with that servant's help, the Dark Lord will rise again, greater and more terrible than ever before...

And from that, Voldemort ran free.

People may howl at me, but for all the beauty that the other novels possess, the intelligence and the respect for reading that are contained in the pages, I feel that this novel portrays them in the most accessible way. You can tell that Rowling understands the importance of words, and you become aware that she's passing those words down to the children who need to understand it as well.
I read this book when I was 8.
I'm still reading it today and being inspired.

For Christians out there who declare that Harry Potter is inappropriate reading, there is no instance where Rowling intends to turn children into witches and magic-folk. I'm a Christian myself, and I see no more problem with this series than with Lord of the Rings, or C.S. Lewis' Narnia series. The world Rowling has chosen to tell her tale in isn't a conventional one, but how else do you teach kids to take notice of things? 
The themes she portrays are no more different than any other YA novel - or adult one, for that sense.
She writes about confusion, about loss, about hurt, about pain.
She writes about friendship, unspeakable joy, and seizing the day.
She shows children that there are tasks that you're called to do, and no matter how big they are and how small you are, you CAN accomplish them.
And above all, it's a battle. About good vs evil, and about good triumphing in the end.
Isn't that what we all want?


Fantastic, amazing, and oh-my-gosh-all-the-sneaky-references-froth.