A few (ok, several) years ago, I read that a movie was being made of something called Harry Potter. I knew nothing of it. I really didn’t get on board until the fourth book was released. I anxiously awaited the release of each successive novel and my love of the books remained high while my hatred of the movies grew exponentially following the release of POA. Moving back to the now: Reading that Sean Bean had been cast to play Zeus in an upcoming movie version of Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief piqued my interest. (In all fairness, reading that Sean Bean ate a peanut butter sandwich would pique my interest, though.) It took a conversation between my Brazilian pals to convince me to get to know the content. Well, I guess you could say I “tweetdropped” on their twitter exchange. Heh.

This week, I read the entire Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. I absolutely adore it for many reasons. First and foremost on my list: the mythology. I have always had great interest in Greek mythology and these books had me researching all the characters as I went along to see just how many liberties had been taken with the gods as they were updated for this millennium. I have to admit that I was impressed with the modern take on each of them; even the slightly corny bits worked! Another reason I enjoyed the series was the ease of reading. Since they are technically childrens’ books, they were really quick reads. I also like the writing style of Rick Riordan. Each prophecy or mystery had me wanting, no needing, to know what would happen, and the story avoided so many of the “boy finds his destiny” cliches that I was satisfied with the twists and turns. I only wish there were even more books in the series.

Overall, I truly enjoyed the books and I can only hope the movies will be more Harry Potter and less Eragon in nature. Done properly, kids could one day be asking, “Harry who?”