Lifetime Reading List: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

This post is a little late – inspiration struck on Friday for my short story series and I had to pursue it, and thus ran out of time for this post!

Anyway…

I can’t count the number of times I’ve read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If I had to guess, I venture I’ve read this book at least twelve times since I was introduced to the series when I was seven or eight – I’m now twenty-four. Each time I read it, I find something new to appreciate within the story, or I notice a deeper layer of genius of J.K. Rowling.

As I’ve read this book over the past two days, I realized that this is my first time reading it since I became a mother. I last read the series when I was pregnant with my son after my husband got me a new set of the series for Christmas in 2016. Additionally, this is the first time I’ve read this book since I decided to pursue writing and editing professionally. It’s fair to say I’m reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with a new perspective.

It’s now been long enough since I’ve read the series that, although I remember the plot, I am experiencing the story almost as if it’s the first time I’ve read it and I’m noticing different details. Now, I am appreciating the amount of time Rowling gave the story before she introduced magic into Harry’s life, and I can see the level of suspense it adds – especially given the amount of magic in the first chapter, as Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid leave Harry with the Dursleys.

Harry Potter’s eleventh year is really a sort of “coming of age” in its own right – Harry is finally able to leave (even temporarily) the abusive home he’s known and find who he is and, in its early-most stages, who he is meant to be. The issues he explores – grief, friendship, bullying, academic hardship, and more – are truly universal, and I think that absolutely lands Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone a rightful place on a list of must-read books in a lifetime.

I haven’t often been able to find books that contain a little something for everyone, but Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone hits the mark. There’s trouble at home (Harry’s abuse and Ron’s family’s poverty), there are loving parents (the Weasleys and Hermione’s parents); there’s bullying, in one case that results in friendship (Ron and Hermione) and another in fierce rivals (Harry and Draco); there’s grief and loss, as Harry realizes what he could’ve had, if his parents hadn’t been killed; and there’s adventure, the main plot of the Sorcerer’s Stone itself that really drives the action. But the lessons, truths, and experiences within the pages of this book transcend much further than the main action, and the hero is far from perfect, but lovable all the same.

When I began my quest to complete this 100 Must-Read Books in a Lifetime list, I suspected a few would belong, but many others could be “bumped” for better choices. I had a hunch that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone did, indeed, belong, and after re-reading it, I’ve concluded that it truly does belong on this list.

In two weeks, I’ll be diving into The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a book I’ve read twice and come to very different opinions both times. What conclusion will I reach this time? You know where to come to find out.