I read all 7 seven Harry Potter books in 33 days

I don't know if I have ever read so much in so short time. I just liked the books so much.

Table of contents

Pages per day

Here's a table of my reading progress for my own amusement (books published by Bloomsbury, 2014 editions):

There were 33 total days instead of 35 because I started the 4th and 6th books on the same day as I finished the previous book.

Lines per page

The 4th book's text felt smaller than the first three books' text, so I had to check:

1. 28 lines per page
2. 28
3. 28
4. 33
5. 34 (!)
6. 33
7. 33

So my "pages per day" comparison table is flawed, meh.

Fun fact: the 5th book is the longest (800 pages), but it also has the most lines per page, so it's really a thick book.

Thoughts and spoilers

🚨 Spoilers below.

Easy English, weird words

The books were easy to read, but there were also many weird words; shows that Rowling's favorite school subject was English (it was mentioned at the end of one of the books).

Some new-for-me words that I still remember (these are far from the weirdest words though):

• exasperated (maybe not a new word for me, but I had trouble remembering what this means)
• kissing gate
• palomino
• pensieve
• tabby cat

Consistent point of view

Everything revolves around Harry. If something happens or has happened elsewhere, it's explained from Harry's point of view; e.g. Harry has visions, or someone retells a story for Harry.

So, the point of view is always consistent, which makes the books feel coherent.

I noticed that the last two books break this rule a bit; they have non-Harry points of view in the first chapter(s). (I checked and the 1st and 4th books start from different points of view too.)

Biggest plot weakness

Some wizards and witches are totally isolated from the rest of the world (from the Muggle world). Feels silly.

Most boring scene

The 4th book (the Goblet of Fire, the one with the Quidditch World Cup) has long descriptions of various kinds of tents. So boring to read about fancy tents!

Most anxiety-inducing scene

When Harry, Ron and Hermione impersonated Ministry of Magic employees and infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, my heart was pounding hard, and not in a good way. I don't know why. I guess I was afraid that they were exposed, but I don't know why it was so uncomfortable.

The robbing of Gringotts Wizarding Bank was a similar scene and also anxiety-inducing, but not as bad. Possibly because I had already endured the Ministry of Magic scene.

Both scenes are from the 7th book (the Deathly Hallows).

Silly things

• Why did Harry, Ron and Hermione have to wear the locket Horcrux at all?! Would have been better to keep it safe but not wear it.
• Why and how did Dolores Umbridge survive from the centaurs' wrath?
• Harry and others survived many times from very tight spots at the very last minute/second. Typical, but maybe the survivals could have been less obvious or something like that.

My favorite character

Dumbledore because he had so wise things to say.

My buddy Oskari made an interesting general point: a great discussion in a book can be very short, but it's possible that the author has worked on the lines for a long time (several days or even weeks).

Best girl

I was rooting for Harry and Cho Chang; a shame it didn't work out.

I guess Ginny was OK too in the end. Props for her for the funniest joke:

Funniest joke

The Weasley twins were often funny, but the single funniest joke was in the 6th book (the Half-Blood Prince), chapter 25:

The fact that Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley seemed to interest a great number of people, most of them girls, yet Harry found himself newly and happily impervious to gossip over the next few weeks. After all, it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time, rather than because he had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark Magic.

'You'd think people had better things to gossip about,' said Ginny, as she sat on the common-room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. 'Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest.'

Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them.

'What did you tell her?'

'I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail,' said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. 'Much more macho.'

'Thanks,' said Harry, grinning. 'And what did you tell her Ron's got?'

'A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where.'

Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing.

Sweetest thing

Also from the 6th book, chapter 5:

With a sudden exclamation she pointed at the clock's face. Mr Weasley's hand had switched to travelling.

'He's coming!'

And sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the back door. Mrs Weasley jumped up and hurried to it; with one hand on the doorknob and her face pressed against the wood she called softly, 'Arthur, is that you?'

'Yes,' came Mr Weasley's weary voice. 'But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!'

'Oh, honestly …'

'Molly!'

'All right, all right … what is your dearest ambition?'

'To find out how aeroplanes stay up.'

Mrs Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut.

'Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!'

'Arthur, really, this is just silly …'

'What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?'

Even by the dim light of the lantern Harry could tell that Mrs Weasley had turned bright red; he himself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering his spoon as loudly as he could against the bowl.

'Mollywobbles,' whispered a mortified Mrs Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door.

'Correct,' said Mr Weasley. 'Now you can let me in.'

What's next?

Now that I have read the books, I'm going to watch the Harry Potter movies. I have never watched them, except maybe the first one in elementary school.

I'm also going to continue this new hobby of reading non-fiction books. No idea about the next books yet though.