Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Amusing sidenote: When I was Googling editions of this book, instead of “fantastic beasts” it somehow entered “magical breasts” and turned me on to something entitled “The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears,” a book of poetry that intrigues me. The concept, not Britney’s actual ta-tas. But since the library copy closest to me is several states away in Denver, I’ll be missing out.
On to Fantastic Beasts:
I’m a bit miffed.
I’ve tried to read this book twice now. The first time I thought it was a mistake, that the library had given me the wrong book, a battered-looking volume authored by some flake named Newt Scamander (that should have been a clue, I admit that) and that didn’t even have Rowling’s name on it, and I didn’t catch on until it was time to return it. When I checked it out again, I got a newer volume that turns out to be missing the “notes” scribbled by Harry and Ron and Hermione.
So, I must have gotten a later edition second time around, evidently for those who want a pristine copy like it’s an actual textbook, shiny and new and freshly delivered by owl from Flourish and Blotts, rather than what I assume is Rowling’s original creative process. Many reviewers found the scribblings to be their favorite part of the book. My low rating reflects my disappointment at missing out, once due to my own fault, the second time due to whatever, and is not an aspersion on either Rowling’s writing or of the whole world of Harry Potter itself, which I would love to have grown up in and let’s face it, if I’d attended Hogwarts I might have actually attended and not been the chronic class-cutter I was.
So, missing the first edition scribbles, it was meh enough that I didn’t finish it, and I probably won’t bother to check it out a third time.
I find it fun that although this book was #17 on my 2017 Reading Challenge as a book involving a mythical creature, it also could have served as a book written by someone who uses a pseudonym and that position was also held by Rowling using her pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. I like that all profits are going to Comic Relief and to Lumos, Rowling’s own foundation.
And it’s not a loss. I still haven’t seen the movie, which I fully expect to enjoy.
Be my friend on Goodreads: View all my reviews
99 Monkeys 