Book # 50 Harry Potter (Book 2 of 7) - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret by J.K. Rowling

 At first I thought this was going to be a super short entry... because of course I loved Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It may not be the best in the series (actually it might be my second least favorite), but it is still a Harry Potter book. Also, this is the book that introduces my favorite character Dobby the House Elf. There's really no need to describe it because we've all seen the movie or read the book before. I'll give the book an A-.

Reading it for a third time however did make me realize that this book has quite a few criticisms of the British Class system and could only have been written by someone from the Working Class. Maybe I'm only thinking this because I know Rowling's background but let us look at the evidence.

In this volume we really get a better picture of both the Weasley and Malfoy families. The Weasleys are obviously supposed to be loved by the reader. The dad has a difficult middle management job that he works at to support his family, the mom works all day to keep the household running and each of the many kids are lovable in their own way. They don't have a lot of money and the younger kids get everything second-hand. You never feel bad for them, they do have enough, but just barely and it requires constant work. Very middle class and throughout the series the Weaselys are at the very heart of the story. Compare this to the upper class Malfoys. The dad, Lucius, is on the board of governors at Hogwarts, is able to pull political strings to get Dumbledore removed, and hates people that are either somewhat poor like the Weasleys or have Muggle parents. He seems very concerned about peoples' heritage and wants to make that a condition for magic education. His son, Draco, basically copies his dad's opinions and believes that he's superior to everyone else at the school based on the family he comes from. 

Then throughout the story there is much discussion about who is the "Heir to Slytherin". Draco wishes that it was him, while on the other hand Harry hopes that he isn't the heir. Basically both see that position as being a form of royalty and Draco wants it and Harry rejects it. Harry is afraid of this power that is handed down from previous generations while the entire Malfoy family pledges their allegiance to whoever holds this power. So basically Rowling shows that the working class is good, the upper class is bad, and power shouldn't be handed down based on any type of birthright.

Also there is the whole case of Gilderoy Lockhart. The book doesn't say too much about his background, but within the wizarding world he is considered a celebrity and appears to be wealthy. By the end of the story we find out that he is a total fraud and is only concerned with appearances and is actually not very nice at all. Another strike against the upper class.

Then there is Harry Potter himself. He may technically be very wealthy, but he has a very middle class mindset since he was raised by the Dursleys. He feels bad when he sees the Weasleys struggle and wants to help them but doesn't know how to without hurting their pride. Also when he sees that the Slytherin Quidditch team has far superior brooms than the Gryffindor team, it doesn't even occur to him that he could use his own money to level the playing field. Using his fortune to help himself isn't how Harry solves his problems.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Dobby! He's basically a slave for the Malfoys. And at the very end Harry frees Dobby from the Malfoys and Lucius is mad that he's lost an elf slave.

So I wonder if all of this was intended by J.K. Rowling to get a point across or just shows her personal feelings and background.

 One last thing, here's a picture of me visiting Hogwarts at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Book # 50 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Progress Book # 24 of 100

This is the darkest book of the series. I like to just read through it really fast and pretend that I didn’t read the scenes where the characters die in the book. I understand that they are fighting a war against Voldemort who doesn’t care about murder, but this was a mostly happy coming of age story until this book. I still enjoyed reading it but this book is very dark. Harry, Ron and Hermione spend most of the novel on their own, hiding and searching for the final Horcruxes to ensure that once Voldemort is destroyed he will be destroyed forever. They finally learn the truth about Snape in this novel and it’s pretty sad. They also have a big battle at Hogwarts. Despite all the deaths, I did like the ending and was happy it jumped ahead to show that Harry, Ron and Hermione are happy.

I’ll give this an A- 93%

Book #50 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Progress Book # 23.86 of 100

In this book Snape finally becomes the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry is assigned a very important role by Dumbledore. He needs to get a hidden memory from the new Potions teacher Professor Slughorn. With the help of a used Potion’s book previously owned by someone called The Half Blood Prince, Harry excels in the potions and for once does better than Hermione. In this novel Ron gets a girlfriend which hurts Hermione and causes a rift in the trio's friendship.  In the end they make up, but the first big character is lost and it's a sad part of the series.

I'll give this book an A- 92%

Book #50 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Progress Book # 23.71 of 100

In this novel the Ministry of Magic is still refusing to believe that Voldemort has returned and has placed its influence inside Hogwarts by hiring Dolores Umbridge to be the new defense against the dark arts teacher. Dolores is one of the most unlikable characters in this series. She is mean, believes in physical punishment and refuses to teach them anything about defending themselves against evil. The Order of the Phoenix is a society of people that believe Lord Voldemort has returned. They are doing all they can to prevent his rise back to power. It’s the real beginning of clearly shaping good vs. evil. As the year progresses Harry, Ron and Hermione are getting by in their most difficult school year yet as they ready themselves for their end of the year O.W.L. tests. They also create a secret school club called the D.A. (Dumbeldor’s Army) to teach themselves defense charms since Professor Umbridge will not. With the help of the room of requirement and Hermione’s clever use of magical galleons students from three of the houses (no Syltherin’s allowed) the club meets in secret as Harry trains them in defense skills. This book also introduces a new character Luna Lovegood. Luna is weird and different and perfectly happy being that way.
     
This book get an A 94%

Book #89 Possession by A. S. Byatt

Most of the books on this list deserve their reputation as great books... and then there is Possession which I'm not sure how it made it here. Not that it is a bad book. It is actually pretty decent and I'm giving it a B+, but it is nowhere near being a classic. I doubt people will still be reading it a hundred years from now.

The novel has a pretty good set up. One day a young English Literature scholar named Roland,  finds a draft of a sort of love letter by his favorite 19th century author, Randolph Ash, to a mystery woman in the archives of the British Library. This leads him on a quest to find out more information. He figures out the woman is also a notable 19th century poet Christabel LaMotte. He then meets Maud Bailey who studies LaMotte and helps him find a huge stack of lost love letters between Ash and LaMotte. The story partially unfolds through various characters' journal entries, letters between characters, poems by Ash and LaMotte, etc. There are of course other people that want to get their hands on the letters for their own purposes.

Overall the story was interesting but I felt that the use of various types of writings was distracting because I was always conscious that the poems by various characters were really by A.S. Byatt and the writing styles of all the characters were very similar. Plus the way the stories from the past and the present parallel each other are just too obvious. I'd also say that Roland isn't the best protagonist. His character just isn't written deeply enough and I felt no urge to root for him. At one point he literally just runs away from his problems and does nothing.

Since the books is full of English Literature scholars there were many references to other books on the list... we get references to Bleak House, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, Moby Dick, and Don Quixote.

I enjoyed Possession, but not as a classic... just as an average book. B+

Book # 27 The Chronicles of Narnia (Part 7 of 7) - The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

So far I have enjoyed all of the Narnia books and with the last one I was hoping that the series would end on high note and bring a satisfying conclusion to the story. The Last Battle met all of my expectations and was thought provoking and entertaining.... except for one small detail in the end.

The story starts in Narnia hundreds of years after the previous book. A talking ape finds a discarded lion skin and dresses his donkey up in it and begins to tell people that it is Aslan. Using the false Aslan, the ape causes all kinds of problems and starts to wreck havoc in Narnia. The current king of Narnia, his unicorn, Eustace and Jill all band together and try to reveal that this Aslan is an impostor. Then it starts to get weird. Part Book of Revelations and part "end of 2001: A Space Odyssey" weird. And then a bunch of characters from previous books show up... except one. And that is the part that bugged me, and apparently quite a few other people too... like J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman (who wrote a short story that continues that character's story) and Phillip Pullman (who seemed to have partially written His Dark Materials as a counterpoint).  I guess I can't really say much more without giving it away... but it does seem like a cold hearted minor plot point thrown in by Lewis.

Anyway... Overall I enjoyed it and liked how it bookends nicely with The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which basically take themes from Genesis and the New Testament since The Last Battle pretty much takes the Rapture and Anti-Christ from Revelations.  This book and the series as a whole get an A and make it into my top 50.

Book # 48 Remembrance of Things Past (Part 2 of 7)- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust

Surprisingly I really enjoyed the first part of Remembrance of Things Past and was anxious to start volume 2, Within a Budding Grove. The second volume picks up right were the last one left off. The book is broken into two parts.. and it is funny at how little plot there is for something that is over 550 pages.

In the first part the Narrator continues to be in love with Gilberte and manages to work his way deeper into her life. He slowly becomes friends with her mother Odette and after awhile Gilberte drifts away from the Narrator and he very slowly tries to get over her. In the second half, the narrator goes with his grandmother to stay at Balbec a town near the sea. They meet a bunch of people, make friends and the Narrator sees a group of girls going around the town. He eventually gets introduced to them and he falls in love with one of them in particular, Albertine. Then he has to return home. The end.

I'm not sure if this is the kind of book one reads for the plot. It just rambles on and on and the author frequently goes off on tangents and takes pages to return to what he was originally talking about. I found one sentence that was half a page and at least two five page paragraphs. I found the Narrator's thoughts really funny and interesting though (for the most part). At one point he goes on for thirty pages about how he went to go see a famous actress in a play and was totally disappointed but also fascinated and wanted to learn exactly why everyone else thought that she was so great. He also shares his insights into music and art. A lot of the time he seems to be reconciling his initial expectations and feelings about something or someone and what he eventually learns about that something or someone. He also talks a lot about memory and he now interprets older events.

The book is also full of great lines... Since I'm reading a translated work I'm curious how some of these sentences come off in the original French, but I have to give some credit to the translator, C. K. Scott  Moncrieff, for making them sound great in English. Maybe I'll checkout a different translation to see how it compares.

Examples...

"She was the sort of woman with whom shaking hands affords so much pleasure that one feels grateful to civilisation for having made of the handclasp a lawful act between boys and girls when they meet"

"So it is that a well-read man will at once begin to yawn with boredom when one speaks to him of a new "good book," because he imagines a sort of composite of all the good books that he has read, whereas a good book is something special, something unforeseeable, and is made up not of the sum of all previous masterpieces but of something which the most thorough assimilation of every one of them would not enable him to discover, since it exists not in their sum but beyond it."

"In confronting our memory with the new reality it is this that will mark the extent of our disappointment or surprise, will appear to us like a revised version of the reality by notifying us that we had not remembered correctly."

I'll give volume 2 an A.