Finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling. I had read the first Harry Potter book to my daughter years ago, when it first came out. We tried reading the second one, but I was so bored with it I put it aside. I don't know what it is about certain types of fantasy books, but I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to get into the book. Well, this time I listened to it as an audiobook, read by Jim Dale. His reading was delightful. He had specific voices for all the characters and his flair for the comedic is excellent.
So this is Harry's second year at Hogwarts. There is a new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, wizarding celebrity Gildiroy Lockhart, and what an ass he is too. He's the biggest poser and Ron is on to him from the start.
Someone has opened the Chamber of Secrets and unleashed something dreadful that has been attacking students with muggle blood in them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are hard at work trying to figure out who. Much of the school suspects that Harry himself has done this terrible thing. All the more reason for he and his friends to hurry to solve the mystery.
The fact that the dangerous creature in this book is a giant basilisk was a bit much for me. After having just read Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in the The Jungle Book, with all it's evil cobras, I felt as if I'd reached my quota of snakes for the year, but no..... While the book is very funny at times, it's also really disgusting in parts as well. Something kids seem to enjoy these days.
That being said, I honestly enjoyed listening to this book. Since Dale recorded all the books in the series, I look forward to listening to them all, over time. Maybe one a year? We'll see.
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