The One With The Challenge: My Favorite Book

The question today was surprisingly easy because the answer shot right into my brain and I told myself, why yes, yes that would be my favorite book. While I read A LOT and have several different favorites and some that come pretty close as being my all time fav (Twilight and Eclipse were very very close but not quite), there is only one book I would call my favorite.

Actually it's a series more than a book but it still counts. My challenge, my rules, right?

The reason why I knew that these books were my favorites was not only due to the fact I have read the entire series more than twice and some books out of the series I have read even more, or that I have also listened to each book on audio book (in fact I am re-listening to one in my car right now) and even own almost all of them in that format as well as hard cover editions of the books themselves. I picked these not just because it is also a series of books that is most brilliantly portrayed on the big screen and I covet the movies as much as I do the books. No, I picked these books because this series is something I can see sharing with my future children, something I will discover new ways to love through their eyes. Something that will bring us together so that we can experience the wonderful world created within the pages.

My favorite books are the Harry Potter series.


J.K. Rowling really got it right when she created this world. She managed to get inside the heads of every child and most adults that love to reminisce about their childhoods and make a series of books that children and parents alike can read and adore. That is not a very easy task. There is not much out there that joins young and old together in harmony. And that is why I think these books are so special. Yes, the story is amazing and exciting and very well written and transfers well in movies so that the ideas in your head comes to life on the big screen. But I think the core root of these books is quite frankly, they got people reading again. Most important of all they got parents and kids reading together.

I had always read for pleasure but after college and the drain of lots of schoolwork, reading was something I let go. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was one of the first books I picked up when I was ready to read again. I had seen it in the bookstore before but it took my mother and father recommending it to me before I actually picked it up to read it. By the time the letters had started flying out of the Dursley's fireplace I was hooked. By book two I knew I couldn't wait to read the rest (when I started reading them books 1-3 were already out) and by book four I was sure this was the greatest series ever written and books 5-7 weren't even written yet. For those releases I was at stores at midnight waiting for the books to be in my hand and would begin reading as soon as I got home. For the final book I took off work and read for two and a half days, devouring every single word of the greatest epic wizard showdown known to man.

Harry Potter, and the resulting films from the series, have created a world like no other. A world I, even as a 20-something well past childhood age, wished I could be a part of. How the trials and problems of growing up are faced along with the added challenge of fighting against evil is so beautifully and effortlessly interwoven. It's witty and sharp and written for kids but really I think adults get more out of how intricate and amazing the stories are woven around each other to make a tapestry of a tale that will stay with me forever. I fell in love with The Boy Who Lived and I can't wait to share him with my future impressionable minds who I hope adore reading as much as I do.

Harry can help us bridge that gap, I just know it.