Blog post one- the magic of reading

There are many reasons people choose to read- for information, for education, for communication. Many things we read simply on impulse, or because we are expected to regurgitate the information out into a test. However, it is obvious that when we read for these reasons, we are not really accepting the tale or seeking to understand it through personal investment. When we read for enjoyment, we are honestly taking the story into ourselves and treating it with our own perceptions. It is only then that the author's goal is truly realized. Within those moments, they have complete power over the reader's thoughts, opinions, and biases. They hold our emotions in the palm of their hands, force us to care about the characters as if they were real people. Indeed, by the end of the series, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and every other one of J.K. Rowling's brainchildren have become living, breathing human beings, wholly apart from mere words on the paper. Even by the end of the first book, this reader/character connection has become apparent because we have been on a trip within the characters' minds. Harry is not just a silly boy who gets lucky and escapes death once or twice- instead, he is forced to face terrors much greater than his own childlike goodness can at first comprehend, again and again and again. Because of this, he has morphed into a symbol we can all understand and relate to. The series of Harry Potter has become an effective force of its own because it perfectly embodies the ability of an author to momentarily overtake the reader's sense of reality. This is the true magic of J.K. Rowling- reading one can get lost in.