Jenni and I just finished listening to the best-selling book series of all time: Harry Potter.
Jim Dale masterfully reads the seven-volume unabridged audiobook. It’s 4.8 days long (about 115 hours), but we thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on date nights and road trips. We’re sad it’s over.
The series is not without objectionable elements (e.g., the protagonist and his friends tell lies without negative consequences), but overall J. K. Rowling’s story is brilliant, creative, intriguing, and entertaining. Its literary quality is not as exquisite as J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but it isn’t junk food either (cf. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature”). (Some of the movies, on the other hand, may qualify as junk food. Don’t judge a book by its movie.)
By the way, this may explain one of my Facebook status updates a couple of months ago:
If I become a professor at a college or seminary, I may suggest a different title than the typical “Professor of New Testament” or “Professor of Systematic Theology.” How about “Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts”?
Update:
- See my follow-up post, “Rebuked about Harry Potter.”
- Successful Rereading: Maintaining the Magic
- Harry Potter Is Filled with Implicit and Explicit Christian Themes
- Emotional Intelligence
Oh man, I would TOTALLY help endow (with my massive income) a chair for “Research Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
We actually enjoy the movies. The trio of kids are forgettable (although Rupert Grint does have his funny moments), but the quality of the British adult acting talent is borderline ridiculous: Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Brendan Gleeson, Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton, Gary Oldman, Richard Harris (sadly deceased), Kenneth Branagh, etc. And they all perform superbly in their respective roles.