[Re-read] Philosopher’s Stone or Sorcerer’s Stone?

So I had 5 days out of office last week. Due to a single sick day last November. What? I know. Anyways, so I had 5 days away from the hustle and grind but only decided to re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone around the 3rd day at 10 PM. I also challenged myself to read the whole thing before the sun is up. Even though I have to read The Hobbit but picked to re-read this. I will get to that in a minute.

Okay, before that though, let’s talk about the title of the book though. I have always asked this before, why the American edition for the first book got changed from the Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone. Don’t you think, Philosopher sounds a bit sophisticated. To me. I know you’re rolling your eyes right now. But, I did check why this was changed. Scholastic’s Arthur Levine thought that “philosopher” sounded too archaic for readers and after some discussion (including the proposed title “Harry Potter and the School of Magic”), the American edition was published in September 1998 under the title Rowling suggested, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. – That’s from Wikipedia. This does make sense, but I still like the Philosopher’s Stone title though.

So, late February 3rd at 10:14 PM, instead of picking up my copy of The Hobbit, which was seriously beside me, I stood up and took the dust jacket off my copy for the Sorcerer’s Stone. I tried to re-read it for a couple of years but only end up finishing half. That, I am not sure why. However, being able re-read it full, 16 years since the first time I have read the said book, I actually noticed a lot of things now, than I what I have not before.

So, I started to take note of the things I have noticed. If you have not read the said books, I know for a fact that a lot has not. Not judging though. But if you did see the movie, or you have skipped on some parts of the movie, there are a lot of factors that are not included on the movie. If you remember Mrs. Figg from the 5th movie, yeah, she was mentioned on the first book. We actually got to know a little about her on the first book.

Also, the fact that Harry met Draco Malfoy at Diagon Alley in Madam Malkin’s store when they had their robes fitted. Not in the hall way at Hogwarts where they waited to be sorted. Also the wands that Harry was trying, Mr. Ollivander specified each and every wand he took. Which I though really interesting because we would know the would being used and which magical creature it is composed of.

Also, the whole movie series got me really disappointed when the did not even gave a glimpse of Peeves. If you do not know Peeves he’s a poltergeist at Hogwarts who always tease Luna Lovegood. Who always takes her stuff and put place it in every part of the castle for Luna to find. I have always thought that Peeves is actually vital to the whole story. He share so much information that the trio used, most of the time.

I have so much details to add, from which I annotated my book. Which I do not usually do. Well, I do it for the poetry books I have but not on story books though. Don’t worry, I use those little sticky notes to write on. I don’t like writing or defacing my books. Never going to do that.

Anyways, as you can see I have so much more to say, but this post will be too long and too boring for other people. But I will talk about annotating books in a future post. Oh, wait, I have to share on thing though.

Remember the in the movie where the trio went to Hagrid’s and Malfoy caught them out of bed and went to McGonagall to tattle? It was not Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco who got detention. But it was Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Neville. Yep, our dear, Neville Longbottom. He tried to tell Harry and Hermione about Draco, but got caught with them instead. I would have loved to see more of Neville like what we have in the books. People usually sees him a very timid person. But he isn’t though. It takes courage to stand up to your friends. As what Dumbledore said.

Overall, as an adult and reading the book that got me into reading, I still find myself fascinated over little things. I remember how it was reading it when I was in 5th grade not listening to the teachers because it was getting good. And forcing my dad to go watch an see the movie. Which by the way, I usually re-watch if I feel down and lost and usually during Christmas time.

This is my childhood. This is what brought me into fascinating places and stories of people. What books did you read when you were kids that you still find amazing? Hit me up! Speak soon.