It was a Harry Potter year.

During the Christmas break last year I watched all the Harry Potter movies one after another. It took just under two weeks. It was very fascinating to watch the characters/actors grow up as the series progressed. My kids were old enough to be not interested in Harry Potter when the first book appeared so we never had any of the books in our house. We never experienced the waiting for the next book to be published or the subsequent hoopla over the movies.

So last Christmas I decided to watch the movies and I enjoyed them very much. Then in the spring I stared reading the books one by one. After each book I would get the movie from the library and watch it a second time.  The first couple of movies followed the books very closely but as the books got more complicated the movies started leaving out significant details. I finished the last book in June. Now I feel like I can pick up on all the popular culture references to the Harry Potter World that I've missed over the years. So, yes, 2012 was a Harry Potter year for me.

I don't usually read much Young Adult Fiction anymore since the kids have grown up but I did also read another series in 2012 and that was the three books in the Hunger Games series. They were very popular on campus and I had the opportunity to pick up the first one for a very quick read over a weekend. The second one followed a week later in May but the third one was still in high demand. I finally got to read it in June. I thought they were all good but not great. I think I gave them all a 3 star review on Goodreads. They were a quick entertaining read especially for someone like me who enjoys science fiction and post-apocalyptic page turners.

I thought the movie of the first Hunger Games novel was very good and probably liked it better than the book. The soundtrack album was excellent and made it on to my end of the year list of favorite albums for 2012.