Of course like everyone else on the planet, I knew who Harry Potter was. How could I not? Do I live on another planet. And if life exists on other planets, it very possible that even the residents there know who Harry Potter is.
So, I’d never read a J.K. Rowling book in completion until this year.
I picked up A Casual Vacancy a few years ago and started reading it in 2019. It’s a big book with a lot of characters. It’s the type of book that is best read without too many breaks. Unfortunately, my life over the last few years, has not always allowed for uninterrupted reading. And then perhaps I did not also prioritise reading like I used to.
Over the last two years, I’ve been more focused on reducing my aimless use of social media and being intentional about creating my reading time.
Aside from carrying a book about with me, I’ve replaced my bedtime routine of 1 episode of a show on Netflix to reading a few pages of a (physical always) book.
So, this year, I picked up A Casual Vacancy for the fifth or sixth time, since I started the book, and was determined that this time, I MUST complete it.
And I’m proud to say, that is just what I did. I carried the book everywhere with me. Read when I had some loose minutes. I refused to be distracted by other pretty, shiny books all calling my name (this always happens, no matter how much I’m enjoying a book). Like all the other times, I could barely remember who was who. And how was this character related to the other one again?
Slowly, I started to untangle the mess of names and places and who done what. I was determined that I would not lose this again and kept on going.
It was a big book filled with memorable characters and some very difficult and sad situations. I don’t like to read books with characters addicted to drugs, because it always seems to end in the same heartbreaking way. I don’t like books where young children suffer, as I think the real world is tough enough without subjecting myself to this same darkness in my choice of books.
Well, as far as a book, which explored the rosier and seedier sides of life went, it pulled together a mostly happy ending. I was glad that some of the characters who had such a tough time all through the book came out with more hope and prospects by the end of it. But for the rest of the characters, I was pained. They almost made it, but at the last, did not and their ends were so tragic.
One thing that sustained me through was J.K. Rowling’s beautiful writing. Her sentences painted vivid pictures and drew me in. I highlighted sentences and uses of words that I found just so well executed. I was totally immersed in the worlds of Pagford and The Fields for the time I was reading the book. And like many powerful books, the communities and the people who lived within stayed with me for a long time afterwards.
It’s not a book I would read again, but I was pleased to have read my first J.K. Rowling book and been introduced to her resplendent writing.
With the wind in my sails, I turned to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone with gusto. I’ll write about that next time.
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