Posts Tagged ‘harry potter’

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a book by J. K. Rowling. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated Eddie Redmayne.

I had seen the film, which also stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt, but I wasn’t really sure how the original book would translate into an audiobook as it seemed like a picture book about monsters, something that wouldn’t lend itself well to being without said pictures.

But that wasn’t the case. In large part, because of the production values used. Each entry was accompanied by music and sound effects that added atmosphere. That, combined with my existing knowledge, provided a rich description.

It did make the entire thing quite short: around 2 hours. Which was fine; I like short books.

Following on from the video I posted yesterday regarding Amazon’s air shipments, Gareth pointed out Waterstones have announced plans to start delivering books by trained owls.

Recently, I finished reading the complete Harry Potter series. Well, listening in any case.

I had read the first three and a half books as a child, and they were quite entertaining, so when I found out that I could have over one hundred hours of Steven Fry’s voice in my ears, I decided it was definitely worth a listen. That isn’t to say I didn’t agree with Stewart Lee’s take on the whole series.

But having got through them all, I’m now a sold up Potter fan! Rowling’s exploration of the magical world is entertaining, enthralling and all-round good escapism. It seems unlikely that at 26 I’ll be getting my letter from Hogwarts – but I can dream!

While some of the value is certainly lost on the adult audience – Harry’s dealings with the fairer sex for example, most of it was retained sufficiently to keep my entertained through all seven books.