Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings: Why I Read Both

  My father is a Lord of the Rings nerd (and proud of it). So is my older brother, Tristan. Naturally, I had to read the series once I could pick up chapter books. It's a powerful story, and has beautiful characters and places.

  But in the realm of fantasy literature, there also exists the Harry Potter series. The books are a big deal; both as controversial pieces of writing and a wonderfully put together tale. For twelve years I wasn't allowed to read them. If it wasn't for two friends that I have, my whole life would be Harry Potter free (blame Jackson). I would happily stay the LOTR geek that my family knows, and life goes on. But no, that is not what happened.

  The moment I read the first page of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's  Stone, I was ensnared. And obsessed. The innocence of the child characters, and the happy realm of Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic, and Hogsmeade was (and for me, still continues to be) captivating.
 The Lord of the Rings is written in a different style, definitely. It is a fantasy epic, the tale of one Hobbit's quest to save the wondrous land of Middle Earth with his loyal friends and brave warriors, by attempting to destroy the One Ring in the fiery depths of Mount Doom.

  Harry Potter has... a different flavor. And also (mainly) a different audience. The author, J.K. Rowling (My siblings and I have yet to discover her first name) was writing to people on Harry's level. As Harry gets older, so do you. You grow with him, and follow with him through the journey he takes to manhood.
 Poor Harry. Orphaned at a year old because his parents, the famous Lily and James Potter, were killed by the Dark Lord. You-Know-Who is known as Voldemort to those who dare say his name. But Harry doesn't know any of this. He is forced to live on Privet Drive with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and dreadfully spoiled and fat cousin Dudley. His parents died "in a car crash" and Harry is an inconvenience and worthless piece of trash in his relatives' eyes (and a punching bag in Dudley's). Not until a half giant named Hagrid makes a visit from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry does Harry even begin to realize that he is different.

  You don't learn until later that Harry was also a target for You-Know-Who that fateful night. And yet Voldemort, the most powerful wizard yet known to wizardkind, couldn't even touch him. His curse rebounded and he fled, but a specter, though some say he is dead.

  One of the reasons I love the series so much is this: throughout the books, you see Harry, his 'sidekick' Ron Weasley, their fiercely loyal friend Hermione Granger, and all of their classmates grow from the childish teens of their youth to the mature people they were meant to be. All the books contain stories of sacrifice, love, and kindness. Harry is constantly looking for someone he can truly look up to; the father that was taken from him. As friend after friend, mentor after mentor, and even people he doesn't know are slaughtered for his sake, he is stretched to be that person for others. Those who don't think he is a raving lunatic (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) finally see him as the person he really is, rather than the poster boy craving attention as most come to see him later on.

  Harry, through his friend Hermione, learns true bravery and hard work. He is constantly (constantly) being put in the hot spot, and must defend those dear to him. Through Ron, Harry learns true friendship really is about sacrifice; he also learns to look out for others.

 Ron comes from a large (and rather poor) family and feels always pushed to the wayside. It doesn't help that his best friend is The Boy Who Lived. Ron is one of the most changed characters by the end of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He becomes a man, ready to step and take charge, or move aside and allow others to rise up.
  Hermione (her name is pronounced her-my-oh-knee) is a bookworm, workaholic, and know-it-all in the first book. You see her become a passionate friend, a courageous figure, and a compassionate woman.

  But they don't start out this way. You have to watch them struggle to become these people. They make mistakes. They fight. They hurt one another. And in the end they grow stronger. The teen years are especially difficult for them, especially after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. To put in bluntly, Harry and his friends have a lot of experience with being an inch from death. Just another year at Hogwarts!!!

I finished the series in September, and went through serious (oops, I mean Sirius) post-Harry Potter syndrome. To my joy, I found that J.K. Rowling had published a mini series called Pottermore Presents. What luck! It's mostly backstories, which I really like.
  But the best surprise was when I finally found Pottermore: www.pottermore.com  Long story short, you can be sorted into a house, discover your patronus, and let your wand choose you (and if you have no idea what this means, do not feel bad! Harry Potter has its own language, and it drives my mother crazy...)

  Someone asked me which I liked better: Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. The answer is that I would never dare ask myself this question. They are both very different. I would go so far as to say completely different.  They are both to be loved for different reasons, and apart from each other.

   I would never judge anyone who has never read Harry Potter. It is an issue of Christian liberty and I completely understand that. My father decided to read the books with us while we raced through the series in less than a month. We gave him permission to blame it on us, but he likes the books. After several slips about which characters die and who really was The Half Blood Prince, we were banned from talking about it in his presence until he finished reading.

 Then came the worldview analysis. Our family decided that the author is operating from a postmodern worldview. This basically means, as my mom put it, "consistently inconsistent." Life after death is repeatedly mentioned in the books, characters demonstrate Christian values all the time, and yet no one is a Christian and certain sins are considered a cultural norm. Does this mean I would denounce the book and never touch it again? No. But it does mean that I must be careful with what I read. We don't agree with everything they say, but we can truly enjoy the entertaining twists, profound characters, and heartbreaking reveals.

Both series have these. But both series are different. Reading them was a journey through two different places, with two different feelings. You just have to read both to understand.