See those signs on the left? They tell you about people, places and objects – all only up to where you are in the book.

If there’s one thing I hate it’s spoilers.  My favorite books are ones that surprise me. If I know too much before I read a book, then there’s nothing to surprise me and I don’t like it. Then I wonder if I would have liked the book if I didn’t know what was going to happen. For this reason, I do not read the summaries for books that are on the back of the cover.  I get book recommendations by how often I see a book.  Harry Potter was one.  I didn’t know a bloomin’ thing about it before I started.  I only knew that everyone was talking about this “kid’s book.”  I was a teenager at the time and didn’t want to be caught reading a little kid’s’ book, but people reassured me that lots of adults read these books, too.  It surprised the heck out of me and I was blown away.

So, when I was navigating through Pottermore, I noticed that if you click on, say Professor Dumbledore in Chapter 1, it only reveals information up to that point in the story.  Cue angels singing.  This is pure genius.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been reading wiki’s or cliff-notes because I’ve forgotten who a character was (I forget characters a lot.  It’s a particular weakness of mine.  Unfortunately, it also spills over into real life and I often forget who people are even though I’ve met then numerous times).  Wiki and cliff-notes tell you everything that happens to that character in the whole story even though I’m only half way through.  If I’m really lucky, I’ll find out that they die 100 pages before I get there.  Grrrrr.  Eventually, I had to stop using cliff-notes and wiki character bios and I made my own. (This was especially hard for War and Peace.  Why did he name so many people Anna??)

I was pondering the other day if J.K. Rowling was still going to publish the Encyclopedia she’s been talking about.  But that’s when I realized that I don’t care if she ever does.  Pottermore is 10 times better than any Encyclopedia (and part of me thinks that Pottermore IS the Encyclopedia she’s been talking about.  Plus, I’m starting to think that a Harry Potter Encyclopedia would be thousands of pages long.).  I’m still trying to finish The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide.  It’s the Encyclopedia for the Twilight Series and I started it in April. It’s boring as all get-out to read.  And it’s chock full of spoilers.  If I had never read Twilight before, I couldn’t use the Guide to help me because then I’d know everything that happened in the entire series.

I hope authors/fans/publishers will follow somewhat in J.K. Rowling’s lead and make an interactive, spoiler-free Encyclopedia for their books.  It would make my life much more spoiler free.

On Labor Day my email finally came letting me into Pottermore.  I was so excited I couldn’t say much more than “Huh HUh HUUUHHH!” to my bewildered husband.  I posted the good news all over facebook and twitter and the response I got the most was, “What does this mean??”

So, here’s where I intend to chronicle my journey in Pottermore without spoiling too much for those not on the site yet.  We’ll see how it goes.

I think this picture sums up all the things you can do on Pottermore.  You can read new stuff written about Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, experience moments in the game, like getting sorted into a house and buying a wand, and you can play mini-games, like dueling wizards and brewing potions.

Screen when you login for the first time.

The “moments” in the chapter were what I found the most interesting.  There is beautiful artwork depicting certain scenes in the book.  In fact, they recommend that you read the book as you go along in the game to make it more fun.  I see the moments as a silent back drop (they have no sound) on your computer while you read the corresponding chapter.

First moment in Chapter 1

Some “moments” are no more than animated pictures, but some are more interactive.  The most interactive “moments” are when you buy your wand and get sorted into a house at Hogwarts.  You get to take quizzes to figure out which wand you get and which house you will be sorted into.

Speaking of wands, isn't she lovely?

So, are you ready to see which house I got into? (The four options are Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff)

I'm in Gryffindor!

I’m so shocked!  My first thought was, “Great.  Now I’m totally cliche.”  My second thought was, “I wanted to be in Ravenclaw.  I love books.”  Maybe I was holding out for Ravenclaw so I wouldn’t be disappointed if I didn’t get into Gryffindor.  But I’m really excited now to be in Gryffindor!  Proud Lion!  Am I braver than I thought?  Because I answered the quiz questions like a total coward.

Then Husband gets on with his account and gets sorted into Ravenclaw.  Go figure.  He says I can use his account, but it’s not the same…

I’m Gryffindor all the way!

The social aspects of the site are seriously lacking because they are trying to protect the very young kids that use this website.  There is no emailing or chat on there and I seriously doubt if that will ever change.  Instead, you get a long list of random comments with heavy moderation.  I’ve left many comments and I have no way of knowing if they ever got approved.  Oh well.  Even with the heavy comment moderation, someone managed to post a website in the common room by saying something like “Gryff no space in no space roar dot COMmon room.” When I read that, I laughed out loud that someone was that creative. Well done.  So that’s how I found some password protected, Gryffindor-only “off-campus” housing, if you will, that have chat and forums and the like.  So much fun!! And I have to say, I’ve been very impressed with the creativity that have gone into these sites.

I can’t give out the link to my “off-campus” housing, but if you do get sorted into Gryffindor and want to join me, go to the Fat Lady and see if you can figure out the password

So there you have it.  It’s kind-of a video game, kind-of a social website and kind-of like nothing else I’ve ever seen.  And it’s all about Harry Potter.