DLP Series Reread?

Although I feel like I know the HP canon very well, in truth it has been something like 8 years since I did a series reread. My thoughts on HP have changed a lot in those years so a series reread may in fact bring all sorts of new insights and observations to light.

I've also only read Deathly Hallows twice (though I've gone through the earlier chapters of the story many times for TOHF), so I find it extremely likely that I would come across something new there.

It's not just about finding new information, it's about appreciating the tone, the characterisations, the general spirit of the world and how everything fits together.

So would DLP be interested in doing a reread of the series together? The idea is that we would have a reread thread and comment in that thread on anything we come across that is of interest to us.

If so, I think the most substantial issue to be discussed is what kind of pace we set for the reread. The problem is that, given our general familiarity with the series, there may be entire chapters or even sequences of chapters in which we have nothing new to say. That would imply that we should do relatively large chunks at a time. But at the same time, we don't want to overwhelm people with too much "work".

Thought?

 

I've actually done this in the summer, stuck without internet. I made a couple of notes, on setting info I forgot, little details I overlooked, foreshadowing I missed, and of course more ideas for fics I'll never really get around to writing. For example, there's quite a bit in PS that could point towards some influence by Voldemort or his horcrux:

The turban talking to him, eh?

 

Doing some messy arithmetic here,

According to http://www.betterstorytelling.net/thebasics/storylength.html, the novels have the following word lengths:

The Philosopher's Stone - 76,944. With 17 chapters, that's about 4526 words per chapter.

The Chamber of Secrets - 85,141. With 18 chapters, that's about 4730 words per chapter.

The Prisoner of Azkaban - 107,253. With 22 chapters, that's about 4875 words per chapter.

The Goblet of Fire - 190,637. With 37 chapters, that's about 5152 words per chapter.

The Order of the Phoenix - 257,045. With 38 chapters, that's about 6764 words per chapter.

The Half-Blood Prince - 168,923. With 30 chapters, that's about 5631 words per chapter.

The Deathly Hallows - 198,227. With 37 chapters, that's about 5357 words per chapter.

That comes out to 827,155 words spread out across the entire Harry Potter series. Assuming an average reading speed of 200 words per minute with nearly 100% comprehension—and I expect the typical DLP reader to be much faster than this—the low-end for the average participant in this would be 12,000 words per hour. Consequently, the low-end estimate of how long it would take to read the entire Harry Potter series comes out to about 69 hours, which could be spread out over the course of whatever time length we chose.

My thoughts are that it would be best to read in chunks of 30,000 to 40,000 words per week.

First, that length is not too significant overall, either word count wise or time wise: it comes out to about 2.5 - 3.5 hours per week devoted to reading. That's about the size and length of a nice novella, which I imagine pretty much everyone here can make time for out of an entire week.

Secondly, that size is long enough to ideally get around the issue @Taure raised as a point of concern, namely that "given our general familiarity with the series, there may be entire chapters or even sequences of chapters in which we have nothing new to say." There should be more than enough discussion worthy topics within the span of 30,000 to 40,000 words and it should allow enough time for readers to digest the information extracted and extrapolated upon in that session in preparation for the next.

Finally, this ensures that there's a nice, not terribly long period in which the re-read could be completed, which would be a little over a half year.

To this end, in spoiler tags below, I've compiled a tentative schedule, if one followed the above suggestion:

Spoiler

Week 1: Philosopher's Stone, Ch. 1 - 9
Week 2: Philosopher's Stone, Ch. 10 - 17

Week 3: Chamber of Secrets, Ch. 1- 9
Week 4: Chamber of Secrets, Ch. 10 - 18

Week 5: Prisoner of Azkaban, Ch. 1 - 7
Week 6: Prisoner of Azkaban, Ch. 8 - 15
Week 7: Prisoner of Azkaban, Ch. 16 - 22

Week 8: Goblet of Fire, Ch. 1 - 8
Week 9: Goblet of Fire, Ch. 9 - 15
Week 10: Goblet of Fire, Ch. 16 - 22
Week 11: Goblet of Fire, Ch. 23 - 30
Week 12: Goblet of Fire, Ch. 31 - 37

Week 13: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 1 - 6
Week 14: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 7 - 11
Week 15: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 12 - 16
Week 16: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 17 - 21
Week 17: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 22 - 27
Week 18: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 28 - 32
Week 19: Order of the Phoenix, Ch. 33 - 38

Week 20: Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 1 - 8
Week 21: Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 9 - 15
Week 22: Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 16 - 22
Week 23: Half-Blood Prince, Ch. 23 - 30

Week 24: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 1 - 8
Week 25: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 9 - 15
Week 26: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 16 - 22
Week 27: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 23 - 29
Week 28: Deathly Hallows, Ch. 30 - 36 & Epilogue

 

Whenever I do a reread, I tend to get stuck at some spots. Like, book 5, which used to be my favorite, I loathe. I just really hate Umbridge in it, and the fact that no one seems to do jackshit about anything. Last time I tried was about 4 months ago.

 

I'd be cool with doing this. I was actually getting ready to start a reread of them anyways.

 

This gives me an excuse to buy the new HP books with the pictures in them.

Well, for the first two novels as they are the only ones out thus far.

 

Yeah I would definitely do it! I was going to do it soon anyway.

 

Sounds fun. It's been years since I've read them. A few chapters a week should not be difficult at all.

 

I'd be down for a reread it's been a good while for me since I've reread some of the earlier books.

It's been so long since I've reread some of the series I didn't even remember that the Killing Curse is foreshadowed as early as the first book. Whenever some fanfiction mentions Harry remembering green light I always assumed they were retroactively adding to his dreams/memories. Rowling's foreshadowing is still impressing me to this day.

 

I had actually been thinking of rereading Azkaban recently but I might as well join this!

 

I've been doing this, I'm halfway through book 4, but I can still participate.

 

I'm in, of course. I've only read DH once, so that's a good excuse to do it again.

 

Cool idea, Taure. My canon knowledge could probably use a de-rusting.

 

Seems fun. It should be a nostalgia trip, at the very least. I've reread three, four, and five multiple times, but I can't remember the last time I actually reread the entire series.

 

Yeah I'll buy the new versions for a re-read.

 

I'm assuming he means the editions with dope cover art. There was a thread, but fuck me if I remember where. I do recall that PoA had a kickass Patronus.

 

Or the illustrated editions, perhaps. Those are beautiful, if a little pricey. I picked up Chamber of Secrets today - the Diagon Alley page is particularly good. Currently on a ferry - will post pics when I get back to my apartment.