It's over Beast!

Last week I proudly finished Harry Potter book four, Goblet of Fire, which I have been reading with Henry every night for months.

We started reading HP right before Henry turned seven. We happened to be in Border's one day, so as usual I grabbed a book close by to read with Henry. It just happened to be the first book with the infamous scarred wizard on the cover. Henry was hooked. For Henry's seventh birthday, we bought him the first two of the HP books which he polished off in couple of weeks. We got him the next two, he got through book three at the same pace and only slowed down when he hit book four and later five and six, the much thicker ones in the series.

At some point last year I started reading HP with Henry again, this time as our night time reading. Again books one through three were fun and engaging, we got through them quickly. Book four was a bit of a drag. It's almost twice the size the previous ones, very wordy at times, and the plot seems overly complicated. Maybe JK Rowlings was trying to make a big production upon achieving her fame, to make sure the readers got their money's worth.

After diligently plowing through the book night after night, I finally made the decision not to continue with HP after finishing Book four. Life is short and there are so many other good books to read with Henry, I don't have to waste time on some book that I no longer enjoy.

In the mean time Henry has read book one through six at least four times on his own and I think it's high time to help him expand the horizon as well. So, that's the end of reading Potter for me. I keep asking Henry about the plots and characters in the next two books, and he tells me I'd have to read the books myself. Bugger.

Onto other reading. Just finished listening to Nora Nora by Anne Rivers Siddons in the car. I listened to her Up Island and Low Country before. She has a way of building the characters set her apart from other less memorable modern day writers.

Also listened of and off, Geronimo Stilton with Henry, and Me Talk Pretty One day. Henry has been reading Geronimo Stilton books since first grade, at one point even made the school librarian borrow them from the city library for him. This is his first time to listen to the audio version and I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. Me Talk Pretty One day is our book club selection for the month, an autobiography of sort by humor writer David Sedaris.

In the car now is The Apprentice by French chef, Julia Child's friend, Jacques Pepin. I need to take French lesson and definitely need to spend more time in the kitchen. Not that I'll mind either.

On deck, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, a magazine writer's travel log in Italy, India and Indonesia. I guess she only travels to I countries.

The other night I helped Henry type up his crab story that he was working on at school and posted it on his blog. Stop by and take a look!