Nineteen Years Later

You know how much I love Harry Potter. Did you know that today, September 1, is the day of the epilogue? It's the day that Harry takes his youngest son to Platform 9 3/4 for his first year at Hogwarts. To celebrate, I want to share some of my favorite read-along podcasts. Tales From Godric's Hollow is Matt, a long time fan, and Josh, a total newbie, reading through the series. Josh seriously hadn't read the books or seen the movies and had no idea what he was getting into. They have great discussions about the chapters (usually two per week) and have built quite a community of fans. They give away a prize every week, thanks to their patreon sponsors. I won a little dragon during Goblet of Fire! It's really cute. They just celebrated their anniversary with a fun, live you tube episode. The episodes are long (the latest was over three hours) but probably half of that is reading emails from listeners. Check them out for fun discussion and fresh eyes. Dear Mr. Potter is hosted by Alastair, who is (if I remember correctly) a college literature professor - or he was, he recently moved. He brings so much knowledge about novel writing and references to each chapter. His show is recorded during live you tube chats, so there's interaction with viewers about topics that come up. Listening to him makes me feel so much smarter. He also hosts There and Back Again, a Tolkien reread, which is also amazing. His episodes are usually about an hour and a half long, sometimes longer, but are worth it. Harry Potter and the Sacred Text is about finding spirituality in the books, chapter by chapter. Vanessa and Casper met at theology school and have such a great relationship. They are like brother and sister but get really deep in topics like forgiveness and love. The way Vanessa says "Hermione" makes me smile. Their episodes are short - about half an hour - but really make you think. I hope you check these out. Listening to them brings new dimension and perspective to the books for me and gives me a place to just geek out and be a fan. Let me know if you've found any that I should listen to! Alohomora!