★★★★☆ Yellow galore

From the Wizarding Archive: Curated Writing from the World of Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling, Evanna Lynch (Narrator), Hugh Quarshie (Narrator), Finlay Robertson (Narrator), Lara Sawalha (Narrator)

Elizabeth Bennett's favorite color was yellow. This fact appears nowhere in Pride and Prejudice. We know it because Jane Austen mentioned it to her friends and family. That Lizzie's favorite color is yellow is not in itself important -- but it *is* important that she had a favorite color. I suspect that most great fiction writers do this: they imagine their characters more deeply than is strictly necessary for the story. And you can feel it when you read; you feel these characters as more real because there is more of them than appears on the page. J.K. Rowling did this. She wrote pages and pages and pages of notes of background on the wizarding world and the characters of the Harry Potter books. From the Wizarding Archive (Volume 1): Curated Writing from the World of Harry Potter collects some of that material.

Cards on the table: I'm a Potter fan. I am not the most rabid of Potter fans -- the most rabid Potter fans are almost unimaginably enthusiastic. However, I have read all the books at least three times and I have seen the entire movie series twice. And I think they're great literature. If you react to that claim with scorn -- if you don't know Hermione Granger from Mamie Eisenhower, this book is not for you.

If, however, you're a fan, then you will find it fun. You learn all kinds of things, such as the story of the Dursleys, what Garrick Ollivander (I didn't know his first name was Garrick) had to say about wands, and so on. The audiobook is read by Hugh Quarshie, Finlay Robertson, Lara Sawalha and Evanna Lynch. Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the films, is about as rabid a fan as you'll find anywhere, and her enthusiasm is a pleasure to listen to.

There is a second volume, and I definitely plan to listen to it.

From the Wizarding Archive on Amazon

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