Remembering where I put my coffee mug may sometimes be a challenge, but not the first audio book Simon and I read on a road trip. It was the beginning of J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, and we were on the road from our home in Atlanta, GA to visit friends in New Bern, NC in May, 2001.
He was skeptical and I was curious. My curiosity won out, and we were instantly hooked by the characters, imagery and innovative take on the classic battle between good and evil conjured up by the vivid imagination of this brilliant story-teller.
For several years, we would save the subsequent books in the series for subsequent road trips. It wasn’t unusual for us to sit in the car in a restaurant or hotel parking lot, so we could get to the end of a chapter. And when we would get back into the car, one or both of us would start chanting, “Ha-ree! Ha-ree! Ha-ree!”
Even if you are a skeptic like Simon was, I would urge you to give the first book in the Series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” a try. And definitely get your hands on the audio version, read by Jim Dale. He doesn’t just read the books. He performs them. Somehow, he manages to insert over 200 voices into his narration, and he does each of them with style! The best part is that if you are alone when you read these books, no one has to know that you, too, are hooked. It will be our (wink) magical little secret!
