On Tuesday, the 31st of July, i started reading Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (1), at a friends house, after they went to bed, and i couldnt sleep. having flipped through a thoroughly empty "do it all" bicycle maintenance book, i went looking for another, somewhat more stimulating - but still light reading - read.

Finishing the meek 200 pager the next day, i was pleased to have read at least the first one, having first peaked my interest into the lore around harry and its admirable complexity and subsequently deciding to move on to the movies, so i could get something in between the minimal excerpt wikipedia provides and the full literature versions originally penned by Rowling. Only, at about the time i got a hold of the fourth movie, and then got a chance to see the fifth in the theatre (the only one id seen on the big screen), i wasnt happy with the prospect of having to wait at least 2 more years to finish the septuplet.

Thus, with my accidental location of the first novel, i some-what begrudgingly set about the task of reading the full story which, mere days before i began, had JUST completed with the publication of the 7th and final chapter. The very next day after i finished the first, i began a 10 day backpacking trip around belgium and holland and, knowing that at least the first and last day would be mostly spent waiting in transit, i picked up number 2. By august 12th, my day of return to this funny little island called angleterre by the french, i had fished 2,3 and 4.

Trying my best to wrest my brain from the series in hopes of finishing my thesis, i failed slightly, succumbing enough to finish book 5 in (an embarrassing) 10 days time. As the next morning of the 23rd dawned - the 26th day of remembrance of my day of arrival on earth - i hastened off to procure book 6 which took me 5 days to finish. sadly, however, i was made to wait a grueling 15+ hours until the book shop opened, at 11am on the day of Wednesday, the 29th - Yesterday.

From about 11 am, until about 7 this morning, i read continuously - baring a few quick meals, and few hours break when a friend stopped by - to finish the novel, in 30 days time, for an average of 4.28 days per book (although, their page counts range from a meager 200 (Philosopher's) to a bulging 950 (Phoenix), so the average doesnt really apply to well.)

Response: I would say that reading them in direct succession, with the biggest lapse between novels being 2 days at the most, has given me a much richer sense of the world rowling depicts, simply because the tidbits and past-references are much fresher in my mind. This was never so much the case as with the last book that, try as i might, i was not allowed to put down; it bears no dog ears.

Generally, the first book is kiddish with the series easily abandoned after words. The second is a transition towards a more complex story arc, with more character development, but could also be a series abandoner, if not rapidly successed by the third. After the fourth, tho, things really begin to kick in, characters having been fleshed out, and the real story being allowed to unfold. Books 6 and 7, like Rowling has said, operate almost as two halves of the same book.

I feel good.