Exploring the new #Pottermore

Pottermore - Home - Mozilla Firefox 9232015 50229 PM-001My cousin Dianne and I have been on a Harry Potter high since our Harry Birthday party in July. If you don’t know us (yet), our shared love of Harry Potter is one of the cornerstones of our relationship (actual blood relation aside), and now that she’s moved out of town, tickling the sleeping dragon (e.g. our Harry Potter fandom) has been a great way of dealing with separation anxiety.

So after the party, we started a leisurely read-along of the books (e.g. one book a month; so far we’ve finished Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets) and we’ve been running up our phone bills with a flurry of messages throughout the books because we can talk Potterverse until your ears fall off. For cousins who’ve never been far apart for very long their whole lives, who can communicate to each other with nary a bat of an eyelash — Harry Potter has offered a lot of comfort even though we’re miles apart.

Our latest obsession (while waiting for the October 6 release of the illustrated edition Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and vainly attempting to ignore the presence of a £135 deluxe illustrated slipcase edition) is the new Pottermore website.

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Harry Birthday 2014: A throwback to HP7

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I’m totally swamped with work, but it’s the eve of Harry Potter’s birthday, and (aha, and it’s nearly Thursday) so I’m celebrating with a trip down memory lane: how we rang in the final installment of Harry Potter, unearthed from an old cd of photos that luckily outlived Multiply.

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Who’s Excited?

Who’s excited for “The Casual Vacancy,” J.K. Rowling‘s new novel? I definitely am! I’ve been waiting for this since it was announced in February!

In fact, I’ll be trooping with the Flippers tomorrow to National Book Store.

<Cue happydancingsqueesquee!>

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New JKR novel announced (…squeee!)


So… After I thoroughly exhausted myself packing for a weekend up in the mountains, I sat down to check my email and voila, J.K. Rowling announces a new novel!

Squeeee — suddenly I’m not sleepy at all! This is like, a whole new era for me (hello, Dianne, are you reading this?!?), for all of us, who grew up reading Harry Potter! And I was just blogging about the new additions to my HP collection a few posts back!

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Rereading HP, part 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

It’s nearing July 31 again, and my cousin Dianne and I are celebrating Harry Potter’s this year by rereading the entire series.

Dianne and I have done many crazy things in the name of Harry Potter (okay, and Severus Snape): joined — and won — a Harry Potter diorama making contest (me);  dressed up as Luna Lovegood and Nymphadora Tonks in a public party (costumes assembled from scratch); had custom made “In Snape We Trust” t-shirts made before Deathly Hallows was released; lined up for the Deathly Hallows release AND the Beedle the Bard midnight release (only a handful of people, us included); stopped watching the Harry Potter movies (Dianne before me); put together a Harry Potter Christmas tree (me); collected Harry Potter books in various editions and languages; threw a birthday party for Harry Potter; and celebrated Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday and Snapeday!

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