A moment of bookaholic WIN

Returning home from work today on the subway. Of course, just like any other day, I was reading. I was immersed in some fantastic prose by Mircea Eliade and when I finally looked up from my book and looked around me, I noticed that I was surrounded by people reading. As I took the escalator to the surface there were four of us with our books and kindles  one after another carelessly reading on the escalator one more page before we had to walk again. And I felt less alone.

Finite incantatem...

...because I have finished, finally, volume 7 of Harry Potter.

Still infatuated with Hogwarts, especially since I've been sick and feverish lately so I've been having nightmares about my friends in real life being chased on brooms by Voldemort.
It's been difficult to tell reality from fiction in the past few days and even to write this post, though I finished the book two days ago. Also, I have been looking for something "wise to say".

So here it goes, Harry Potter books and why I read them. 

1. Because I was starving for good old children's fantasy, no intellectual strings attached, because I am a child inside out, whatever my ID card says and because I grew up with fairy tales and fiction, though I'd never read anything as big as this.
2. Because Romanian children's books are not as nice/cheerful/interesting/magical or they are missing entirely, in some opinions.
3. Because all my students had read them and I wanted to know what they are talking about.
4. Because I am a mythology-geek and I like to read about or invent my own creatures.
5. Because I wanted to see the movies and I had this fixed idea that I MUST READ the books first.
6. Because I was starving for a world to lose myself in, I was having this sort of alternative to reality mood that I get into from time to time.

On the down side:

•  Not the best written piece of literature I ever read, easy to digest narrative, rather simple linear characters; but then again I did swallow a lot of big people books before and I have to keep reminding myself that this is children's literature.
• Not the most coherent principles behind it; as I said before, I am a mythology geek and I was looking for patterns and theories, but it seemed most of the time that the author was making things up along the way and didn't really have a point to make. 
• The ending was rather disappointing, you don't die because especially because you agree you must die, and everyone lives happily ever after and get married and have children, just to satisfy prepubescent imagination, I just found it too mooshy... (not sure if this is a real word but it's just how it feels to me )

My Favourites:

• Favourite book: The Goblet of Fire,because you get a glimpse of the magic world outside Hogwarts (though not so much after I found out that Edward the vampire played Cedric Digory in the movie...)
• Favourite character: Remus Lupin
• Favourite creature: The Thestrals
• Favourite spell: Probably ACCIO, especially when I can't find the keys in my bag ( though it's been raining like crazy in Bucharest for the past few days and I am really craving for IMPERVIUS)
• Favourite magical object: The Marauder's Map
• Favourite place: Bill and Fleurs Shell Cottage

I wish ...

WARNING: More references to Harry Potter !

The Room of Requirement is a special place at Hogwarts which only appears if you really need it. For Dumbledore, it was a chamber full of chamber pots. I wish it would be possible to  run into one of those when you are kilometers away from home and Bucharest has so little public toilets!

Marauder's Map is a map that shows you where everyone is at any time. Working in a rather big school and everyone being busy all the time, it's difficult to find the people you need most of the time. So this would come very much in hand. And when they found me, they would say :"ACCIO Daiana!"

---

Click on the picture above for one of the most complete websites about Harry Potter. It is based mostly on the books, which I appreciate and also recommended by J.K. Rowling herself.