Pottermore and Me

I love Harry Potter. The books are fantastic, and I can (and do) re-read them often. The plot is engaging and intricate, the characters unique and complex, the writing conversational and engrossing, and the themes important and universal. The movies...well, you know, they are....there and...okay. I honestly think I loved the books too much to garner much appreciation for the film. I felt every detail the movie was missing even though I know it is impossible to include everything from the books in the movies. I have not yet been to the theme park, but you can bet your buttons that I'll be there as soon as money, work, and baby allow. I figure Sandy, Heather, or Jenny will accompany me (and maybe suggest a nice place to stay...like their couch...j/k!). I'm pretty sure they all live at least within driving distance....

When I heard about Pottermore - from you lovely bloggers I might add - I was excited. My mother said it best: "Finishing the seventh book was like losing a friend." I was happy that there would be some new way I could experience the story. After qualifying for early entry, I waited quite impatiently to be let in.

Now, I am finally playing around, and I must say I am really pleased with how things are shaping up. It's been so much fun going through book one. A taste of what you can do:

• Explore various scenes from the story: You see a slightly animated illustration of a place from the story, and you can zoom in twice to get more detail (see one short of Diagon Alley below). Certain objects you can click on and collect. Others you can click on for a closer look, like letters, newspapers, signs, etc.
• Read more about stuff: Characters, creatures, places, etc. have pages with more information on them. Some just have a quick summation; others are more fully fleshed out than they were in the book (new material peeps!); and some even have a section revealing Rowling's thoughts or her notes from creating the story. Awesome.
• Win House Points: Once you are sorted, you can win house points by collecting objects from inside the scenes or from creating potions. That's right, I'm making potions. We will also be able to duel, but that's not up and running quite yet.

I'm sure I'm not hitting everything here, but those are the basic cool things to do. And of course, it was awesome getting my wand and being sorted into a house. I am in Ravenclaw, which really isn't a surprise; although based on the questions, I'm thinking it was a toss up between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. My wand is 10 inches long, unyielding, made from larch, and stuffed with a phoenix feather...if you were curious.

Screen capture from Rhii Sparks

Despite how much I'm loving it, I will say that I am getting a bit bored. Right now, we only have Book One to play with, and I made it through in just a few days (I may have gone a bit crazy for those days). Now, the only thing for me to do is make potions and refresh my ingredients supply, but since you can only make one potion at a time, and those suckers take at minimum 80 minutes, I'm getting bored. And if they don't give me a way to earn more galleons, I won't be making too many more potions anyway because I'll run out of money.

Perhaps if the Wizard's Duel fun was up and running I'd be good to go, but what I really want is the rest of the books! Last I saw, Book 2 isn't coming out until 2012. I honestly am unsure of what I am supposed to do until then.

For those on there, am I missing something?

For those not yet there, I can't wait to see what you all think!

And everyone be sure to let me know your name, so I can add you to my friend list!