Harry Potter and Philosophy

Bassham, Gregory. Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2010.

This book is a collection of articles which discuss the philisophical ideas presented in the seven Harry Potter books.  Those of you interested in philosophy and familiar with the Potter novels will enjoy and appreciate this approach to the books.  If, however, you are interested only in Harry Potter or only in philosophy, you may be a bit put-off by the complexity of the discussions in this book, and a basic knowledge of both subjects is necessary in order to follow some of the articles.

Overall, I found this book interesting and thought-provoking, digestible only in small bits.  I could finish reading one article per day during my lunch breaks at work and enjoy the deep thoughts before returning to whatever task awaited me, but this was not a book to read into the wee hours of the morning.  I'm glad that I read it, but perhaps this is a better "check out from the library" book rather than a "put in one's own personal library" book, unless, of course, one happens to be a philosopher.