Review #2 of 2023: Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale
Harry Potter was one of my favorite books growing up. I have fond memories of my parents reading me chapters from the first six books as bedtime stories growing up, and reading the seventh one by myself when it first came out, which was probably one of the first thick books I ever tackled. Throughout middle school, highschool, and college it was my default befor-bed audiobook: the comfort of a familiar story helped me to destress from the day and to zone out without losing important plot information, as I had already heard the stories a couple dozen times.
As I have grown older however, these books, and J.K. Rowling’s underlying ideology have soured on me a little, and I no longer get the same comfort from listening to them. This is especially pronounced in the first two books, which we will get to in due time, but is not so bad at other points in the series: I still very much enjoy Prisoner of Azkaban!
Harry Potter for Language Learning
Although no longer comfort reads and listens, my familiarity with the series has found another purpose: language learning. I’m a firm believer in Stephen Krashen’s input…
