Some 13-year-old series...

I just completed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this afternoon. I started reading the Harry Potter books a couple weeks ago. Up until that time, I hadn't touched them.

I had been told to read the books by several people, some with such sterling credentials as husband, mother and friend. But I refused, due to a flaw in my fundamental nature, which I've taken to calling "arbitrary obstinance." I have a compulsion, sometimes quietly confined to my thoughts and other times stubbornly proclaimed, to not do what I'm told... or sometimes even a desire to do the exact opposite for no particular reason. I suppose I could be kind to myself and say I'm just a "fiercely independent thinker," but that makes it sound like a good thing... and it's certainly not my best quality. Even well-reasoned advice from people I like, love and/or respect, gets this initially rebellious reaction within me. I try to keep it in check, but for some reason it feels so good to cave to it...

So, anyway, I have my little rebellions. Refusing to read Harry Potter was one of them. I had rationalized that I didn't like fantasy books (which is true). I gave the movies a try, and while I enjoyed them fine, didn't feel a particular drive to know more. I thoroughly adored Alan Rickman's Severus Snape (largely the reason I enjoyed the movies as much as I did), but seeing as he was an adversary of Harry's but not the main villain, I figured there wouldn't be much more to learn about him from the books. And I didn't really gravitate to any of the other characters. I couldn't really see myself in any of them.

Well, given my aforementioned affection for Snape, I was finally driven to read the books after I saw the Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie (I had been sorely tempted after Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 1). I was unable to resist reading more about that character. So, I set out the read the series.

Having completed it now, I will begrudgingly admit that I enjoyed the books. But, in defense of the results of my arbitrary obstinance, I think I enjoyed them much more after having seen all the movies. I am the sort of person who flips to the end of a book to see how things turn out before reading it, the sort of person who re-watches movies and TV episodes I enjoyed to try and catch every nuance, the sort of person who reads blurbs on Netflix envelopes or online to know as much as I can about the plot of something before watching it. I don't mind spoilers; I seek them actively. I don't like surprises, but I do like looking for patterns and clues that I would likely miss if I had no inkling of the direction a story will take. Also, I have a horrible imagination, and being able to picture the characters of the Harry Potter universe as the actors who played them made the world much more real to me than it would have felt otherwise.

I still did not find all that many characters who I really felt drawn to in the series, although I have a lot of affection for Remus Lupin. Though I am (as far as I know) not a werewolf, I identified with his quiet, calm and gentle manner and his compassion for the less fortunate tempered by his uncertainty and anxiety.

So, to all of you out there who told me to read them, there. I did it. Eventually.

And to all of you out there who, like I would have, skipped to the end of this post to see what the whole thing was about: I read the Harry Potter books finally. They were fine. I liked the werewolf.