Another audiobook listen and again little goofy scenes sort of made me a bit weepy. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age or something, but whatever. Lockhart is amusing and annoying all at the same time, but I especially enjoy Lucius' appearances. :-D

This book was listened to a bit sped up thanks to my Sansa Zip with Rockbox installed.

As with several of the other audio books, this reading really brought home Neville's part in the story. It so easily could have been Neville, and not Harry, marked by Voldemort. It easily could have been Neville Longbottom and the Order of the Phoenix and I still would love to see an official encyclopedia from J.K. Rowling just so that I can enjoy Neville's entry. Neville is, without a doubt, my favorite male Gryffindor (and yes that includes Harry!) because he's "practically a squib" and still tries his hardest and puts himself out there knowing he's likely not be capable of winning. I love Neville. :-)

Knowing Snape's true self, this was heart-wrenching for me to listen to. I do need to note, however, that Dumbledore's death (and Harry's break-up with Ginny) didn't seem to have the same impact as it did when I read the scene. Harry's anguish got to me, of course, but it didn't crush me the way it does when I read the scene.

One thing that the audiobook sort of slammed home for me was, unusually enough, that the fake Professor Moody was one of the people who tortured Neville's parents. I mean, I already knew that, of course, but it just seemed to resonate through certain scenes while it was being read to me. When Moody/Barty takes Neville aside to give him a book of plants, when Barty is screaming in Dumbledore's memory of the trial, and when Barty is confessing under veritaserum.

Soooo much love! I burst into tears when Harry thought he was going to live with Sirius... I'm a bit overly emotional when it comes to these characters, it seems.

I have noticed that when I reread these books, I get twinges of anger when Harry is angry in addition to the sadness that I feel since I already know how the story is going to turn out. When I listen to the story, though, the sadness overwhelms the anger. I'm not sure if it's because I'm less involved with the action of the story because I'm simply listening and not actively reading or what, but it's a bit frustrating when I have to rewind because I missed something while I was crying.

For those of you looking for a good MP3 player for audio books, I'm still 100% loving my Sansa Clip Zip 8GB (refurbished). amzn.to/1ubHcyQ I installed the Rockbox firmware on it (rockbox.org/) and played around with settings. I set the speed to 155% and the pitch to 89.5% to pick up the pace of the books without it sounding like a chipmunk. I highly recommend it and getting one that's been refurbished drops the price immensely!!

Neville is my favorite.... I love him and the audio books just seem to put more emphasis on why I love him!! =^_^=

I'm a bad aunt for reading a Christmas present, but I had to make sure my nephew would enjoy the book, right?

All in all, a solid crayon book and super cute.

Bad aunt again. This is part of my niece's Christmas present and I already knew she would love it, but couldn't pass up a chance to reread it! :-D

Granted, this is a book people of all ages (and especially folks just starting out on their own) should read. While yes it tells you that you can do anything, this book also tells you that things won't always go your way, and I've too often seen someone completely give up when they reach the first hardship. A book like this can inspire them to keep at it, I think.

Delightful as always! Ooh, when Ron gets the tiny owl and has Crookshanks check it for him! LOVE! Ron is crazy, of course, but surprisingly awesome at times! It's a nice little insight into the man he'll later become! =^_^=

This book was super cute. A little more advanced than I expected considering it's a book about a bed-bug detecting dog, but it matches the listed age-range quite well.

There's also a bit of a sub-plot regarding Molly's mother that is definitely geared for children slightly older than I expect to be interested in a dog book, but then again I'm 32 and I both read and loved the book. Haha! Definitely a worth-while read and I will be getting the others in the series to read as well.