My Thoughts After Reading the Harry Potter Books

Hello guys! How's your day been? I've spent mine getting some photography done, writing notes and ideas for a story I'm currently working on, and I also watched my favourite Studio Ghibli movie, Mononoke Hime aka Princess Mononoke. Did you know that today is National Book Lovers Day? I thought this would be the perfect day to share a post that I've been thinking of writing for ages now. Last month, I finished reading the last of the seven Harry Potter novels. I only ever read the first two back when I was in primary school, and I'd been wanting to read the rest for years. So when I spotted the entire book set for only £30 on Amazon, I bought them right away!! Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the books, and at the moment, they are one of my favourite series, there were still some things that I disliked, or things that I loved about the movie adaptations. I wanted to share my thoughts with you guys! Obviously, this post is going to contain spoilers, so if you would rather avoid them, why not check out my recent Comic Con haul post? For those of you sticking around, I hope you enjoy reading! 

♥ Severus Snape has always been my No.1 Harry Potter character, ever since I saw the first movie at the cinema when I was around 10 years old. This is probably because I have forever loved anti-heroes and have always rooted for the villains. I also put it down to the fact that Snape was played by the incredible Alan Rickman and he did an amazing job of the character, even though he was much older than the Snape in the books. I'm not gonna lie, I totally have a bit of a voice fetish when it comes to Alan Rickman XD I always have done so that certainly helped Snape win my love too, haha! How can you not love that voice though seriously!? But yeah, reading the books just made me love Snape even more! He's such an interesting character, and I find myself just wanting to know more and more about him. I still have so many questions! 

♥ Something that I loved about the books was the pets! In the movies, it seems like the owls, cats, rats and toads are just in there to stay true to the books and to keep fans happy, and basically to look pretty. We don't really get to know much about their personalities or see them very much either, other than Scabbers because of Peter Pettigrew's storyline. However, in the novels, the animals have so much character and they mentioned quite a lot. They even play integral roles in the plot. For example, Crookshanks plays a big part in Prisoner of Azkaban when he befriends Sirius and helps him try to catch Pettigrew. We also get to see more of Hedwig's cheeky personality in the books. The movies let the pets down in my opinion. What do you think? 

♥ I love how much more we learn about the Marauder's gang in the books! Lupin was another of my favourite characters, and Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of the movies and also the books, so it was nice to discover about it in more detail than the movies give us. He is so sweet :) However, when it comes to the James and Sirius, I never really liked them much anyway, and after reading the books, I haven't changed my mind. They were bullies and as someone who has experienced bullying myself throughout my childhood, this made me unsure about whether I liked them or not. I know that people can grow up and regret that they were once mean to people, but I don't know, I just also find both characters to be pretty arrogant. I'm just not a fan of their personalities in general, even though Sirius' interactions with and love for Harry are endearing, I'm still not big on the characters. Also, how did James Potter end up with someone as lovely as Lily!? 

♥ I really like Emma Watson's Hermione in the movies and think that Warner Brothers did a great job with her character, but something that I liked about book Hermione was how relatable I found her. As the years go by and her personality develops more, we start to see the strong and confident Hermione that we knew and love from the films, who isn't afraid to let people know what's what. However, in the book Hermione comes across as quite an anxious girl, someone who likes to know all the answers to help her feel more prepared to face the world around her. Her 'bossiness' was much more from a place of not wanting to break the rules or be caught in dangerous situations, rather than because she was a know-it-all sort of person. I like book Hermione more than movie Hermione :)

♥ On the subject of actors, I think that Fred & George were perfectly cast in the movies. James & Oliver Phelps did such an amazing job of portraying the Weasley twins spot-on! I couldn't picture anyone else as I was reading the books. They are such cheerful and hilarious characters, you can't not love them!? 

♥ For a long time, I have heard people in the Harry Potter fandom talk about how much of a crappy job the movies did with Ginny Weasley, and after reading the books, I can definitely say that I agree! They really didn't do Ginny's character justice; she's so strong-willed and brave and a lot like her mother (who is also a fantastic character!), and they just didn't really put much emphasis on building her character or her relationship with Harry. They just sort of fell together and ended up married at the end, when it seem from the movie that Harry should have gotten with Cho. In the books, we see their relationship develop and get to read Harry's internal thoughts about being jealous when he sees her with other boyfriends and when he starts realising his feelings for her, etc. I love how book Ginny doesn't let anyone walk over her, she's sassy and she's determined, and it's clear to see why her and Harry make a good match. 

♥ Another aspect of the books that we got to see a lot more intricacy for was Voldemort's backstory. There's just so much more detail, and we get to really learn how his character developed to turn him into the cruel and ruthless person he is by the time we get to the Battle of Hogwarts. It's a shame that they left out The Gaunts, Tom Riddle's mothers family, because I really enjoyed their parts in the character's history. Being able to follow Voldemort's early life and experiences helps you to understand how he became what he did, and it just adds more dimensions to him. Again, he is another villain that I can't help but like. Who doesn't love a good bad guy though!? 

♥ After watching the movies, it is easy to have a love-hate opinion of Draco Malfoy. It just seems that he is actually more of a product of his family situation and that behind the hard and judgemental exterior, he's just a lost little boy who doesn't know how to escape his fate (I totally just thought about the band Escape the Fate after typing that, the emo days are never truly over! :D haha). I thought that by reading the books, I would see this side to him even more, but the books just clarified for me why I dislike Draco. I think he's a great character because again, fantasy stories need a good bad guy, but after reading all of the novels, I just found Draco to be more nasty and I found it tough as his character grew older and experienced life more to blame his cruel comments and actions solely on his background. He's a meanie! It's just impossible not to love Tom Felton, who plays Draco in the movies.  

♥ Going back to the Marauder's gang, something that I really enjoyed about them was that they all learnt how to become Animagus to help Remus whenever it was a full moon and thus he turned into a werewolf. I loved learning all about this in the books, about why they did it and about the origins of their nicknames: Padfoot, Prongs, Wormtail and Moony. I am really fascinated by Animagus and I wish that we would have got to discover more about Professor McGonagall's abilities, and to be honest I would have liked to learn more about her character in general because she's so mysterious. Who is she!? What was her life journey like before she came to Hogwarts? I guess we'll never know :') 

♥ I was expecting my opinion of Dumbledore to change after reading the books, because of what I'd heard people saying about why they disliked him. The book goes into a lot more detail about how Dumbledore used Harry as a weapon to destroy Voldemort when he knew that he was putting him in severe danger, basically 'raising him for the slaughter'. On the other hand, I found that I liked Dumbledore more after reading the books. I love how much of his backstory we got to discover and in the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry believes he's dead and is talking to Dumbledore in that strange  heaven-esque version of King's Cross Station, he was so much more remorseful about how he had used Harry than he was in the movie. He is a very intelligent and skilled wizard, and even though he had a bad past, so did Severus and he's my favourite, so I can't seem to dislike him! I do think the way he went about things sucked. It really  gets you thinking about the ethics of potentially sacrificing one to save many. Do you like or dislike Dumbledore? I'd love to hear you opinion on the whole thing! I can't wait for us to get a glimpse of young Dumbledore in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts movie :) 

♥ I could include so many more points on this post, but it's already gotten super long so I'll just share one more! Books will always be better than movies, or they will for me. You can never include everything in a movie adaptation, and there will always be a fan who is annoyed about a specific detail being left out because it was meaningful or important to them. Almost all of my thoughts on the Harry Potter novels are about how much more intricate something was in the books, and how I wish the producers had included specific things or put more emphasis on characters. However there are some parts of the books, and thus the movies too, that I wish happened differently. The first 'complain' that pops in my head is the death of Remus Lupin & Nymphadora Tonks. I know that they died fighting for a great cause and that they will be remembered as heroes and for their roles in the Order of the Phoenix, but I just hate that we didn't get to follow their last moments, that we didn't get to read about their bravery and how they fought until the end. We just got to see/read about Harry entering Hogwarts and seeing that they had been killed, and I just feel like this was such a sad way to hear about the loss of two beloved characters. How do you feel about this scene? 

Okay, so I'm going to stop writing now! I have so much more to say, does anyone want a part 2? haha! I have only just finished the books and after writing this post, I just really want to pick them up again! It doesn't help that I am also writing a fanfic novella branching off the Harry Potter story at the moment. I'm having a lot of fun though :) I'm really happy that I've managed get back into reading again, because it's something that my depression had caused me to loose my passion for. I am now excited to read whatever I choose next, I'm considering The Lord of the Rings novels by JRR Tolkien. Would you guys recommend them? 

Thankyou for reading!

♥ 

Have you ever read the Harry Potter books? 

If so, which did you most enjoy? If you've just seen the movies, which is your favourite?

I'd also love to hear what you enjoyed more about the books? 

And if there was anything that you wished was done differently?