Okay guys, so last week, as a part of the Reading Rush challenge, I listened to my first full audiobook: Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, narrated by Stephen Fry. And I loved it! Why have I not listened to audiobooks before? I've been meaning to write a blog post about it for a few days and thought today would be the perfect day, what with Harry Potter and J.K Rowling's birthday.
I tried to listen on two separate occasions to the audiobook format of set texts on my English course (Canterbury Tales and Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens). However, I just couldn't get into them; I'd end up tuning out and having to rewind or just losing interest. I found it especially hard when mixing audiobook with physical book, because I wouldn't know what pages correlated to the audiobook.
This made me quite nervous to try an audiobook again but it was one of my goals this year. So, a few weeks ago I tweeted out asking for recommendations and I received so much response it was amazing.
Several people mentioned Harry Potter, as well as recommending that I choose something I am already familiar with so I could better follow along the first time and get a feel for it. I am actually really glad I did this. Although it is an embarrassingly long time since I read the Harry Potter series, I've watched all the films recently and have a really good familiarity with what happens.
I thought I'd share with you the three main things I loved about my first audiobook:
1. I listened while doing simple tasks, such as walking to work or cooking (which meant I was able to read more often and at times I couldn't normally pick up a physical book), rather than sitting in bed just listening. And it worked. I didn't get distracted or zone out. That can partly be attributed to not putting myself in a position where I would become lethargic or tired, and partly due to...
2. The narration was amazing! I stuck on the standard speed and Stephen Fry had me hooked. I was actually surprised at the things I noticed more of. For example, I found myself laughing at more of the subtle jokes, and picking up on interesting ways J.K Rowling had put together her sentences.
3. It's a series I've been wanting to re-read for a while now and this was a great opportunity to do so because it didn't take away from any of the new books I wanted to read.
Audio format aside, I really enjoyed revisiting Harry Potter. As I said earlier, my main knowledge of Harry Potter arises from the films (with the occasional bits of plot from the book I remember). Revisiting the first book meant that i was automatically picking up on differences with the film. There weren't as many differences between book and film as I remember there being, but I think those increase as the books get bigger. The main differences that surprised me were:
– The first chapter actually follows Vernon around, as he goes to work and sees magical appearances in the muggle world. In the film, we start straight away with McGonagall.
– There's a gap between school shopping with Hagrid and getting on the platform. A gap in which the Dursleys find out about platform 9 3/4 and mock Harry (very funny scene)
– The sorting hat's song! How could I forget?
– Draco wasn't on the Slytherin Quidditch team in the first book.
– I actually recognised a lot of the lines; its seems some were taken directly out of the book word-for-word.
– The book ends on the platform in London, instead of saying goodbye to Hagrid (not going to lie - I think I appreciate the film's ending more – and I don't say that often).
– Okay, so it didn't surprise me but I remembered it but I want to include it because I love this scene so much: Snape's potion challenge that protects the philosopher stone, which Hermione beats. As a child, my parents always used to liken me to Hermione: a bossy, know-it-all redhead. So I appreciate her bad-ass moments.
Favourite quotes:
“What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally the whole school knows.”
Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed — or worse, expelled."
After having such a great response to this audiobook, I have downloaded my local library's audiobook app and requested some other books. I don't know whether I'll pay £7.99 a month for one credit on Audible but I haven't given it a thought yet. I think I'll see how I get on with my library - I didn't even know they had a free audiobook app until this preparing for this blog post. I'll definitely be looking for the other 6 Harry Potter books in the future.
What's your favourite audiobook?
Happy Reading :)